RINewsToday has been following the issue of the URI mural and the school’s intent to remove it. (Full article appears at the end of this article)

FOIA Requests

RINewsToday has submitted requests for information – twice – to the University of Rhode Island – requests for acknowledgement have not been responded to and no information has been forthcoming. These requests were sent over a week ago.

Public Comments:

Yesterday, May 16th, was the day URI had asked for comments to be completed. Everyone was encouraged to send their comments and suggestions to [email protected] by May 16.

Veteran Art Institute:

A letter of support was sent to URI in support of the mural. This group’s mission is to provide encouragement, inspiration and support to all Veteran Artists seeking to promote their art while calling public attention to their stories. Their powerful stories demonstrate the transformative and healing power of art. Plus, their art connects them with us, the public, who have not served as well as the entire veteran community. Veteran Artists can exhibit or sell their art in local community buildings or in partnership with local businesses, at no cost to veterans, enabling them with the financial means to promote their art publicly.

A veteran who writes the veterans column for RINewsToday – John Cianci, and was involved with the artwork issue in 2020, wrote this letter, noting the violation of the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990, were the mural to be removed:

SAVE THE URI MURAL, created by purple heart and bronze star recipient a Veteran, Art Sherman, World War II veteran. ITAM has the solution, and if URI rejects (projectile mapping, and a team of veterans will take on the project—to include cost). In the alternative, URI rejects plan to preserve, ITAM prepared to hire legal counsel to STOP the destruction of the mural. WE NEED YOUR HELP, either for the solution to preserve, OR TAKE ON THE BATTLE to STOP and PRESERVE, which will be done by a team of Veterans. The law ITAM will argue that protects the mural: The Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 (VARA), (Pub.L. 101–650 title VI, 17 U.S.C. § 106A), is a United States law granting certain rights to artists. VARA was the first federal copyright legislation to grant protection to moral rights. Under VARA, works of art that meet certain requirements afford their authors additional rights in the works, regardless of any subsequent physical ownership of the work itself, or regardless of who holds the copyright to the work.

For instance, a painter may insist on proper attribution of their painting, and in some instances may sue the owner of the physical painting for destroying the painting even if the owner of the painting lawfully owned it.[1]Although federal law had not acknowledged moral rights before this act, some state legislatures and judicial decisions created limited moral-rights protection. The Berne Convention required the protection of these rights by signatory states, and it was in response that the U.S. Congress passed the VARA.

From a URI alum and daughter of a veteran:

I am of the class of 1996 MLIS. THE MURALS SHOULD NOT BE REMOVED. My dad was a veteran of WW2. Simply stated the old  saying… we don’t t know where we’re going if we don’t t know where we came from. The mural is very much representational of RI history. My career was in urban education. Very much involved in the diversity of RI population. I cherish the diversity. Just like removing a Christian prayer from the wall of a Cranston school was unnecessary to my way of thinking when a simple solution would have been to ADD prayers or thoughts of other religions to the nearby walls. That makes a statement of tolerance. ADDING not SUBTRACTING to the image. Do changes need to be made to Michaelangelo’s LAST SUPPER to represent diversity? – Carol Felino

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This is the committee that will be reviewing the fate of the mural:

Kevin Lopes (co-chair), ‘05, alumni member

Rachael Garcia (co-chair), assistant director for Veterans Affairs and Military Programs

Carl Stiles, director of the Memorial Union

James Hopkins,’62, alumni member

Angie Tyson, Student Senate representative

Ronald Onorato, professor and chair of the Department of Art and Art History

Zack Nardone, student veteran representative

Anita Burke, senior word processing staff member, Gender & Sexuality Center.

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Last Story:

Top Story of the Week: URI covers up veterans mural after “complaints”.

April 25, 2021/RINewsToday

RINewsToday followed up on this story printed April 22nd and Sept. 12th of 2020 – we found the murals and photographed them as they appear, today. Here is what we found.

The educable moment about URI’s history to the students attending may be just as important as the fate of the art underneath the banners covering it up, as a few people we spoke to had no idea what the mural was about.

URI was an original land grant school. The GI Bill funded many students coming back from the war to attend URI and complete their education. URI had a strong military curriculum, and still maintains an active ROTC program and military science classes.

The Memorial Union earned its name because returning World War II veterans who enrolled in the school, along with other URI community members, had raised the funds for the building and dedicated it to those who were left behind on battlefields in Europe and the Pacific. Implications for philanthropic funding intents that can be changed over time are also in question, especially when the funding groups have presence at the school today.

The original debate about the mural seems to have been sparked by this comment – “I have received complaints about the murals that portray a very homogeneous population,” Kathy Collins, the school’s vice president of student affairs, told WJAR. “The persons painted and depicted on the wall are predominantly white and that does not represent who our institution is today.” RINewsToday submitted a request for details on the complaints received, without identification of the individuals.

Our story as it ran last week”

URI asking “everyone” about fate of RI’s historic veteran-themed mural

April 22, 2021/RINewsToday

URI is asking for input and suggestions “from everyone” about the future of a set of historic murals painted by Doctor/Corporal, retired professor, and URI Hall of Famer Arthur Sherman, Class of 1950.

Sherman, who is now 96 years old, was commissioned to paint the mural depicting soldiers returning from war to URI, as part of the federal GI Bill to help veterans return to school. The Memorial Union was built, itself, as a War Memorial, in memory and honor to the university’s veterans. The mural came up for discussion in 2019 and 2020. The cartoon style work was a collective as students would come by and make suggestions to the artist of figures or items to be included and he would incorporate them into the design.

Here is the email sent out by URI’s Office of Communications:

The University of Rhode Island has established a diverse committee consisting of students, alumni, staff and faculty to consider suggestions and input regarding the future of murals in the lower level of Memorial Union painted by Dr. Arthur Sherman, URI class of 1950. Based on feedback from students and others in the URI community, the University decided to cover the murals last summer. Since that time, the University has heard from numerous alumni and other community members about what should be done with the artwork.

Last fall, the University set up the committee to receive suggestions and eventually make recommendations to the University leadership. 

Everyone is encouraged to send their comments and suggestions to [email protected] by May 16.

The committee will consider carefully the comments and suggestions of the community as part of its report to University leadership at the end of May. 

The committee, which meets weekly will:

• Consider opinions from current students, alumni, and community members

• Consider multi-disciplinary perspectives of committee members

• Research the history of the murals and Dr. Sherman

• Produce a report outlining recommendations for the current and future status of the murals. 

The committee members are:

Kevin Lopes (co-chair), ‘05, alumni member

Rachael Garcia (co-chair), assistant director for Veterans Affairs and Military Programs

Carl Stiles, director of the Memorial Union

James Hopkins,’62, alumni member

Angie Tyson, Student Senate representative

Ronald Onorato, professor and chair of the Department of Art and Art History

Zack Nardone, student veteran representative

Anita Burke, senior word processing staff member, Gender & Sexuality Center.

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In 2014, URI noted, in a celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Memorial Union: “An intricate piece of the Memorial Union that still remains intact is the Class of 1950s mural spanning two walls on the first floor of the Union. Art Sherman, a member of the class of 1950 who painted the mural, depicted his fellow classmates in a variety of settings. Renovations required minor repairs, and Sherman, now in his 90s, has come back several times to make repairs.”

Reprint selections of RINewsToday September 13th article, Veteran’s mural sparks educable moments at URI. Or not…, in RINewsToday:

Racial equity issues have us looking at everything with fresh eyes. We look at the words we use, the colloquial phrases that are part of some of our languages, perhaps ingrained over generations. We look at symbols and photos. Logos and graphics. We look at statues. We look at art. And public art, in particular.

At URI there are a set of unique murals done in the 50s by a veteran returning on the GI Bill to college – he would later teach at the university, as well. Today he is 95 years old, and very aware of what might be in store for his murals; those that he has dutifully touched up over the years. The murals are in Memorial Union, itself built to honor veterans.

Thousands – hundreds of thousands – have walked by the art since 1954, where the colorful, whimsical look at university life at that time surely gave a smile or a chuckle to many. Many who might not be having the best of days. Some probably stopped for a few long minutes looking at each caricature, pondering what the artist had in mind.

Now, college officials have said the mural is insensitive to a changing demographic in higher education – to the student body at URI – it didn’t represent the diversity and racial equity the university would like to have reflected of the university body today.

URI announced it would be taking down the mural and it may be replaced with public art more acceptable 66 years since the 29-year old young veteran painted, with students and passersby suggesting to him that he add this figure and that detail as it went along, becoming somewhat designed by the collective group around it (a very 2020 thing to do).

The push back has grown. From some in the general URI community, on social media, and from veterans who see it very much in the style of Norman Rockwell’s whimsy at a time of war, and a time after war.

As we write this the mural has been covered over. URI has said it will not be part of the student union once renovations are finished.

“The media got ahead of us”

Following a front page story done by the Providence Journal, a story by NBC10, lots of social media, and now veterans, URI has sent out an email to alums, explaining itself, saying it will keep the group informed as the issue is discussed – while doubling down that whatever it done, it will not remain in the Memorial Union, itself a “war memorial”, according to URI.

It is important to remember that URI is a state school. The public art is its property. The school and the art are the property of the people of the state of Rhode Island. Removing it may not be as quick and easy as it might be for a private college or university, who could simply vote to do it. Who decides?

The artist – Corporal Arthur Sherman – URI Hall of Famer

The artist is Arthur “Art” Sherman, a 1950 graduate of URI. Sherman had been an associate professor, and was also a four time All American in track and field, a coach, and a URI Hall of Famer. Sherman was an Army corporal in World War II, serving in Alsace-Lorraine at the French-German border. The GI bill provided opportunities for soldiers returning from war to continue their education, as Sherman did.

According to an interview with NBC10, Sherman’s murals “depict servicemen returning to Kingston, a class reunion, URI commencement, a South County beach scene, and students piled into a jalopy wearing letter sweaters. The mural has been left untouched for nearly 70 years, with Sherman dutifully touching them up from time to time to keep the art in a good state.

Sherman, who is now 95 years old, was asked to paint the murals. He told NBC10: “Oh, I loved painting that, yeah…I never had any formal education in painting, by the way, I just used to cartoon.”

Sherman said it became a collective work as “A lot of students, friends of mine, would come by and say, why don’t you do this, why don’t you do that? So, that’s what I did – so everybody chipped in.

What URI is saying now

A few days ago [Sept. 2020] URI sent an email out to the community. It is reprinted here:

Dear University of Rhode Island alumni:

We understand the affinity that many of our alumni and community members have to the murals displayed in the URI Memorial Union. We appreciate the emotional connection many have to the past as depicted in the murals showing campus life in the 1950s.

The murals commemorate student life at URI in the 1950s. They are not World War II murals and in no way do they “depict the events of World War II” as some media outlets have stated. There is not one single image or section of the murals that depict the events of World War II.

Misleading and inaccurate reporting by some media outlets of this situation has caused a great deal of concern among members of our URI community, including the University officials who have worked hard to honor our veterans and have an unwavering appreciation for their service.

In no way was the decision to alter the space in the Memorial Union connected to any disregard or insensitivity toward our veterans. We are committed to our veterans. Our Office of Veterans Affairs and Military Programs and our very active Student Veteran Organization both view this artwork as a depiction of a specific period of time and not reflective of campus and military culture today.

The Memorial Union itself, the center of student life at URI, is a war memorial, but the murals are whimsical cartoons that also show a class reunion, URI commencement, a South County beach scene, students piled into a jalopy wearing letter sweaters and a marching band.

The necessary renovation of the Memorial Union brought to light the issue of the condition of the murals. During this process, we explored options for preservation of the murals, including removal of the plaster walls on which the murals are directly painted. The construction method of the wall – plaster and lathe – does not permit removal without damage to the murals and to the walls.

The University has enlisted the assistance of Professor and Chair of the Department of Art and Art History Ronald Onorato to share his expertise with regard to mural preservation, with the goal of incorporating the work of the artist, Dr. Arthur Sherman. As Professor Onorato notes: Most importantly, we should strive, as an educational institution not toward removing history but moving toward contextualizing the mural to use the original mural as a way to open discussions about our University culture in the 1950s and how it differs from who we are now.

When we complete the renovations, we will invite the Sherman family to the ceremonies to thank them for their contributions to the University. The University will announce plans on how it will proceed by the end of September.

We are a community that values equity and diversity,  and we will work to ensure that our students, alumni and community members of all backgrounds feel welcome and included.

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American War Veterans of RI responds – Does URI Have The Legal Rights To Paint Over Mural

Submitted by: John Cianci, Italian American War Veterans of Rhode Island

I question URI attempting another action that disrespects Veterans for the second year in a row; let’s recall, last year Student Veterans of America and ACLU had to petition faculty not to schedule classes on Veterans Day. https://rhodycigar.com/2019/02/21/student-veteran-organization-american-civil-liberties-union-create-joint-petition/

First, does URI have the legal authority to paint over the wall? One could argue any action by URI could subject the State of Rhode Island to millions of dollars of liability if URI does not comply with the Visual Artist Rights Act (VARA), passed by Congress in 1990. 

VARA is the embodiment of artists’ moral rights, but like most rights, those moral rights can be waived by the artists in question. VARA deals both with works of art that can and cannot be removed. VARA’s protections do not extend to works of visual art incorporated into a building in such a way that removing the work will cause destruction, distortion, mutilation or modification of the work if the artist consented to such installation prior to VARA’s effective date or where a written instrument is signed by the owner of the building and the artist specifying that the work in question may be subject to destruction, distortion, mutilation or modification by reason of its removal.

Whereas, the artist, Mr. Sherman is living, has the artist been properly notified in accordance with VARA. This notification should have been given with the option to preserve his artwork.

Has URI looked at other options to preserve the mural?

For example, the mural could be sealed with urethane and placing vinyl wall covering, which years later could be removed and preserve the artwork. Another option, have the artist modify the painting with the words “1954 URI Students”.

Whereas, one could argue the current student body is made up of Afghan/ Iraqi War Veterans serving since 2004 (50 years after the mural was created, WWII veterans made up a portion of the student population), why not seek one or two students to do a mural on the opposite wall {of this war memorial building} with the diversity of current student bodies. I can visually see the laughter of viewers of the art when they compare the two.

Veterans throughout the State of Rhode Island are united to ensure the mural at URI is not painted over and destroyed forever.

The Italian American War Veterans of  The United States, Department of  Rhode Island (ITAM-RI) and many of the Veteran organizations will be reaching out to URI staff to discuss other options to preserve the mural, a piece of history which includes World War II Veterans attending URI in the 50’s. 

Artwork paying tribute to our Veterans should never be destroyed. As a nation, we owe it to all who have served, to leave no stone unturned to save history honoring those willing to sacrifice their lives. 

Preserving history honors our Veterans. Destroying artwork honoring our Veterans is disrespectful and all Americans, especially alumni veterans of URI should be outraged if URI destroys it. 

Any action by URI to destroy this mural sends a clear message to Veterans and future Veterans how they will be treated by the University of Rhode Island, our state university.

“It’s about how we treat our veterans every single day of the year…in the United States of America.”
— Barack Obama

(Note: We offered an opportunity to the RI Veterans Director to provide a comment, but it was not received by publication time.)

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The GI Bill came out of protest as 20,000 returning soldiers marched on Washington

The assimilation of World War I veterans back to civilian life didn’t go well. With so many men flooding the labor market, many couldn’t make ends meet, even with help from government programs. Congress stepped in and passed the Bonus Act of 1924, which promised veterans a bonus based on number of days served. But it wouldn’t be paid until 1945, almost 20 years later, much too late to help countless struggling veterans.

By 1932, during the Great Depression, around 20,000 frustrated veterans—known as Bonus Marchers – marched on the Capitol in Washington, DC, demanding their bonus money. President Hoover sent the Army to get them out, a move which pitted soldier against veteran. The confrontation would be an integral turning point in the crusade for veteran’s rights.

President Roosevelt would sign the GI Bill into law on June 22, 1944. The Bill has changed over the years – and followed soldiers back from the Gulf War, the Vietnam War, etc. There is history of racial discrimination in African-Americans trying to be educated after fighting for their country. Versions of GI Bills have been changed, altered, but in 2017 the “Forever GI Bill” was signed into law by the president.

What say you?

Imagine the discussions that this mural controversy could inspire? Imagine if URI took an educable eye to the whole thing – and put down its broad paintbrush, so eagerly waiting to make it gone? Could it not serve as a discussion about the GI Bill, the role of veterans in our history, why the Memorial Union was built, and how higher education was part of many veterans path back to civilian life?

If you would like to express your opinions on the murals and their future, send us an email at: [email protected]

From 2020 ProJo interview with Corp. Sherman’s daughter, Pam: “With heightened awareness about the murals and the support of the veteran community, Pam Sherman and the rest of her family are hopeful that one — if not both — of the murals will be preserved to document the evolution of the University of Rhode Island and the transformative role that the school played in the lives of veterans who were able to benefit from the GI Bill.” Posted in Education, Lifestyle, Politics Share on Twitter Share Share on Facebook Share Share on Linkedin Share

5 Comments

1. Italian American War Veterans on April 30, 2021 at 12:09 pm KUDOS to URI Alumni like Paul….send URI a message right where it matters, in their pocket.
   URI student history is intertwined with WWII, Korean and all Veterans using their GI Bill , which nets the state millions of federal dollars every year.
   Memorial Hall is URI Veteran History. Leadership who decided to cover up the banner…..you must forgotten why you have this right and those who sacrificed their life’s for your rights.
   Who decided to cover this mural up with banners…its art work by a legend in URI history, Paul Sherman.
   I will be submitting Access to Public Record request to URI and the committee….let the public know a decision being made with feedback will be reviewed. Public records will document those on the committee who favor supporting disloyal act to remove and DESTROY legacy known as the greatest generation, WWII Veterans and their families. Moreover, im prepared to legally challenge destroying art history, which ITAM believes is protected under federal law and court decisions. (Edit)
   
   
2. paul summers on April 28, 2021 at 10:05 pm I did not donate to the University this year in protest of planning on taking down the murals done by Art Sherman. I spent many a time under those murals, First the newspaper, The Beacon, was changed to the Five Cent Cigar, What’s next changing the name of the Rams to something else.
   When I went to URI Art Sherman was an assistant Track Coach and later when I went for my Masters Degree Art was on my Committee to go over my dissertation. He was an honorable man and still is at 96.
   I hope that this landmark does not go away. I shook the hand of Frank Keaney, Fred Tootell, and Tom Ryan and I love the school and its Legacy. Paul Summers BS ’65 and MS ’84 (Edit)
   
3. • RINewsToday on April 28, 2021 at 10:25 pm Thank you for your comments, Paul…we have heard from many people about this – I encourage you to send an email to the committee at: [email protected] – thank you again. (Edit)
     
     
4. Anonymous on April 25, 2021 at 12:36 pm I have had it with cancel culture’s not so veiled goal to divide us. Unfortunately it is working. This division has done nothing but cause more violence and more deaths to innocent people. Removal of the mural is a part of this ill-fated movement. (Edit)
   
   
5. John Cianci on April 25, 2021 at 11:07 am Lets recall why Memorial Union , from the URI 125th anniversary stories : After World War II and the influx of soldiers returning home to attend the University, the Union outgrew the old Phi Gamma Delta building. So in 1946, five connected Quonset huts served as the Union until a new building was erected in 1954. That building, named the Memorial Union, was dedicated to students, faculty, and alumni who died during World War I, World War II, and the Korean War. “We are now looking at adding the names of those who died in the Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq wars,” says Memorial Union Interim Director Maureen McDermott.
   https://www.uri.edu/anniversary/stories/the-memorial-union-the-universitys-living-room/ Removal of the mural would be a shameful and disrespectful act by URI to all Veterans.