Statement about the closure of "Baby Oil & Ice" and "Tory Story" exhibitions by Herefordshire Council

Herefordshire Council notified us on Tuesday morning about concerns about two exhibitions at the Hereford City Art Gallery. The general nature of the work to be displayed was discussed with Gallery staff many weeks ago, although they had not seen all the images in detail. The exhibitions were not set up in the Gallery by the Festival organisation, but were set up by Gallery staff during the week 16th to 19th October. The exhibitions were then opened by Sir Roy Strong at the Reception Private View on Friday 19th October. All members of the Council and the relevant Officers were sent invitations to the Opening Reception Private View, two weeks beforehand, but did none attended as far as I know. There were no comments made to us during the four days of setting up the exhibition, nor at the Opening Reception, that the work should not be on show.

The Council closed the exhibitions to the public from Tuesday morning, after it had been open all day on Saturday and the Council had had complaints from members of the gallery staff and the public. The Festival Director, Robert Ashby, met with Alan Blundell and Jane Jones, of the Herefordshire Council Policy and Communications Directorate, at the Gallery on Tuesday. Following that meeting the Festival made proposals about revising the control of the access or removing some of the content of the exhibitions.

The "Baby Oil and Ice" exhibition was created by two established professional women photographers, Sarah Ainslie and Julie Cook, in co-operation with Lara Clifton, one of the dancers. The photographs were taken in the pubs where anyone over 18 has access to the location. The images are clearly not illegal. The images are no more sexually explicit than the previous year's exhibition. There were clear warnings about content and access by children at the entrance to the exhibition. Our suggestions for further restricting access or removing particular images were rejected by the Council. This exhibition is therefore now permanently closed. At this point it is not possible to find an alternative location for the exhibition, although we may be able to show the work in some way on the festival website.

A request from the Council to remove one image from the "Tory Story" exhibition that was deemed to be too much of a political statement was accepted by the Festival, and the exhibition has, on this basis, received all party support from the Council for the general issues about British politics that it raises.

Robert Ashby, Festival Director comments:

"I am glad that in discussions with the Council officers we have found a solution for "Tory Story" and we will be able to reopen the gallery. Although David Modell is deeply uncomfortable with the removal of one of his best pictures of William Hague, he has accepted that in the interest of the exhibitions being open the particular image can be removed.

The successful showing last year of the challenging piece of work on Aids by Richard Sawdon Smith, and the Council's support for that exhibition, implied that we would be able to deal with contentious issues again. However, we have unfortunately misread the capacity of local politicians and audiences to cope with contentious issues and strong images. In the same way as in the 2000 exhibition, there were warning notices about the content and children being accompanied.

When the Council voiced concerns, we immediately offered full time invigilation to restrict access to people over 18 years. In retrospect, we should have initiated this arrangement when setting up the exhibition. Supported by the photographers, we also offered the Council the opportunity to remove particular images. I am disappointed that neither of these opportunities has been followed up by the Council, in order that the issues of the role of women in the sex industry can be examined by a wider audience.

It is essential that we are now able to work with the Art Gallery and the Council to ensure that there are clear written policy guidelines on artistic content and where selection control should lie for the future."