Last week, the North Adams city council voted to dismiss a proposal submitted by councilor Robert R. Moulton Jr. seeeking to prohibit any display of "nude or partially nude female or male" where it might seen in public. The "nude" debacle stemmed from a nude sketch of a female created by local artist and developer Eric Rudd. which hangs in Gallery Row and Berkshire Gifts. The image in question could be seen though the window by those who passed those on the street. Moulton decided last month to make the proposal on "moral grounds"
City solicitor John B. DeRosa recommeded that any ordinace would be unlawful as it would restrict free speech and would duplicate already existing state and federal obsenity laws. DeRosa defined obsenity as anything that " . . .depicts or describes sexual conduct in a patently offensive way and lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value"
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- an oblique shot of the sketch by Eric Rudd that hangs in Gallery Row and Berkshire Gifts in North Adams. Photo: Caroline Bonnivier / Berkshire Eagle Staff
---Story courtesy of Nicole Sequino of the The Berkshire Eagle and Ben Rubin of North Adams Transcript. Image by Caroline Bonnivier of The Bershire Eagle.
Thanks to Modern Kicks for relaying the story to us at Big RED though the blogosphere.
