In the weeks leading up to this summer's Three Rivers Arts Festival, the fate of the visual arts was the elephant in the room as locations of the main exhibitions were shifted and numbers of shows reduced.

	Lake Fong, Post-Gazette In PPG's Wintergarden, at least three works, including Rise Nagin's "gizmos," have been tampered with and have had to be mended. Click photo for larger image.

Now the elephant has trumpeted, in the form of a pulled artwork, pushing the discussion into the public realm.

"The need to wash the self with milk and honey," a video installation by Carolina Loyola-Garcia that shows the nude artist bathing with milk and honey in a forest, was removed over the weekend from the "Best of Pittsburgh 2007" exhibition in PPG Place because the corporation felt it inappropriate for its building.

Festival executive director Elizabeth Reiss took the action -- the video display technically hasn't been moved; it's just been covered after being unplugged by the company -- because PPG is within its "rights as a corporate partner to ask us to abide by guidelines they have." She said she can't comment upon the content of the work because she hadn't seen it before it was unplugged by PPG but said she was told that it included full frontal female nudity.

Citing the festival's commitment to its audiences, Reiss said, "Nudity doesn't belong in street-front windows. For several years now, Three Rivers has worked hard to put important good work in galleries and responsible pieces on streets." While Reiss said that she doesn't censor performance or gallery content, works on the street are "reflective of a more family-friendly value."

The artwork was one of three demurely sized video projections seen by looking through small holes cut into the black paper that covers street-level display windows facing Fourth Avenue. Loyola-Garcia's was the most difficult to access, its viewing space a half-dozen marble-sized circles placed well above a child's height. Given the brief amount of time individuals statistically spend with a work of art, and the fact that the video loop is five minutes long, it's likely that most would not see anything that PPG considered offensive.

Loyola-Garcia thinks the removal of her art, which she says is about the feminine body and not indecent, is "sort of ridiculous." The woman in the video carries two white buckets, one containing milk and the other honey, which in studies of the subconscious symbolize life and health respectively. "It's about cleansing of the soul and the spirit," Loyola-Garcia says. "It has spiritual intentions. It's in a spiritual setting ... the woods."

A still from Carolina Loyola-Garcia's video installation, "The need to wash the self with milk and honey," which was pulled from the Three Rivers Arts Festival "Best of Pittsburgh 2007" exhibition because it includes nudity. Click photo for larger image.

The artist considered moving the work to another site but was flying to Mexico yesterday to participate in another exhibition and didn't have time to find a suitable space and make the adjustments that would have been required.

Katherine Talcott, who served as curator for the public art and "Best of" exhibitions, "thought the piece was appropriate for the show. It's a beautiful scene of a woman bathing in the woods." She also stressed that Loyola-Garcia is a nationally and internationally exhibited artist with mature interests and formal expression, not someone given to sensationalism.

This is not the first time a festival artwork has caused a brouhaha. In 1986, PPG objected to another peephole artwork that was then moved to a South Side gallery. In 1990, nationally noted artist Luis Jimenez intended the title of his 15-foot-high fiberglass sculpture "Hunky Steel Worker" to honor mill workers, but it instead caused a furor, and the offending word was ground off before the figure was taken to Station Square.

But the latest removal of an artwork, which many would consider censorship, reflects what would seem to be a shifting of attitudes toward visual arts by the festival.

It started in February, when Reiss cut two full-time staff positions, including Talcott's -- although Talcott agreed to stay on in a consulting capacity to ensure the quality and consistency of the two primary shows: the public artwork and the annual curated visual arts exhibition.

Adding to the sense that the visual arts may play a smaller role was the decision to shift the "Best of" venue from the 937 Liberty Avenue gallery to the PPG facilities. The move in part was necessitated by space issues created by the festival's smaller footprint. And Reiss maintains the PPG site is a better showcase. She said the 937 Liberty location is too far from the festival matrix -- its stages, craft and food booths -- to draw the crowds the "Best of" exhibit deserves.

But it just so happens that the move also freed the use of the 937 Liberty site for three of the 4th River Project programs, described as performance-based multimedia projects. While she said it was never her intention to move out the "Best of" to make room for the 4th River, Reiss said she does think that the 4th River audience is more likely to go the extra mile to an event.

Still, the issue of corporate sensitivity didn't exist at 937 Liberty, where in past years works that would not have fit PPG's tastes were discreetly shown on the top floor of the exhibition's three levels. Ironically, Loyola-Garcia's environmentally inspired "FRAGILE," exhibited in last year's "Best of" show, would have easily passed PPG muster.

It's also curious that last year's Society of Sculptors Wintergarden exhibition, "Projects 2006," raised no eyebrows although it included a video installation, "ALAMAR" by Patricia Villalobos Echeverria, that showed a nude woman immersed in ocean waves. And, presumably, male nudity is OK, since Paul Bowden's sculpture "Red Alert" remains in this year's show.

Of course, it's not unusual for a long-running festival to change its persona, and the Three Rivers Arts Festival has likewise evolved over its near half-century.

Early in its history the festival featured performances by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Carnegie Mellon University Drama Department, Pittsburgh Playhouse and the Pittsburgh Savoyards, along with books by local artists and an exhibit by the American Institute of Architects, wrote former PG art and architecture critic Donald Miller.

Its apex for public art was reached in 1988 when, among others, Nancy Rubins stacked discarded large appliances and other consumer goods into Point State Park trees and Ping Chong placed stuffed deer on the Fort Duquesne Bridge pier. When Jeanne Pearlman became executive director in 1989, the public art focused on artists engaged with social issues. With the hiring of a full-time curator, Reiss put the festival on track for upgrading the visual art component. Talcott achieved that goal and turned the "Best of" into a significant venue for regional artists.

While Reiss says that the festival remains committed to the visual arts, it will be difficult to maintain the level the "Best of" evolved to on Talcott's watch without dedicated staff and dedicated funding.

Were it not for exhibitions sponsored by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and by Pittsburgh Celebrates Glass!, the dearth of visual arts exhibitions this year, in comparison to the recent past, would stand out.

Perhaps, then, this is the beginning of another festival directional change, whether driven by economic conditions, perceived demand or staff interests/expertise.

During a weekday performance of "splash!" in the PPG Place fountain, it was evident that the impact the dancers had upon the audience -- and upon the monumental space -- was greater than any visual artwork had been able to achieve there in recent memory. Similarly, performance artists who have made their way through the crowds of the past few festivals effortlessly attracted followers.

Over the years Reiss has said that the festival is driven by audience. If it's indeed morphing toward an event that is more heavily performative -- which is in line with the majority of offerings in the Cultural District -- then she should welcome the opportunity to put that on the table and to receive public input.