The Artist’s Guide to Defending Artistic Freedom

The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) launched on June 16, 2026, "The Artist’s Guide to Defending Artistic Freedom: Strategies and talking points for resisting art censorship", a new resource for artists and cultural workers.

Focusing on censorship prevention and response strategies, the Guide empowers artists to defend their free expression rights. It offers negotiation tactics and talking points that can help artists make a case for the retention of a contested creative work. 

When art controversies arise, curators and leaders of cultural institutions are usually the ones accountable for defending their programmatic selections. But as government pressures on the cultural sector foment fear and stigma around the presentation of unsanctioned perspectives and identities, employees of cultural institutions often feel unable to publicly voice their resistance, whether for lack of experience or for fear of losing their jobs. Under these challenging circumstances, artists need to be able to advocate for their own work. 

Developed in response to artists’ rising interest in defending their own creative expression, The Artist’s Guide to Defending Artistic Freedom offers censorship resistance strategies that have been honed by NCAC’s work in Arts and Culture Advocacy over the past twenty-six years. While artists are still encouraged to contact NCAC for censorship tracking and support, this document provides core tools for when artists and creative workers need or prefer to negotiate directly. The document addresses censorship pressures through the lens of visual art, but it can be applied to a broad range of creative expression–from visual arts, performing arts, literature, media arts, and more.

“In times of rampant censorship pressures and fear, resistance will be most effective when everyone involved in a censorship dispute feels empowered to articulate why censorship is wrong and propose available alternatives,” said Elizabeth Larison, Director of Arts and Culture Advocacy at NCAC. “This resource is designed to support artists and cultural workers navigating those moments, and can also be used in tandem with NCAC’s other anti-censorship materials serving cultural institutions, curators, and theater directors.” 

The Artist’s Guide to Defending Artistic Freedom joins a compendium of NCAC resources aimed at equipping those working across art and culture to resist art censorship and promote artistic freedom. Other popular resources include: Museum Best Practices for Managing Controversy, Curator’s Manual for Managing Controversy, and Guidelines for State Arts Agencies, Museums, University Galleries and Performance Spaces.

For more information, visit: https://ncac.org/resource/artists-guide-defending-artistic-freedom