Following the recent case of an exhibition being pre-emptively shut down due to legal threat, arts writer Derek McArthur ponders the implications as timid management replaces the curator.

Last year, the managers of Edinburgh’s Summerhall venue managed to put their foot in it following a handful of complaints about an anti-fascist mural. The building subsequently altered the mural by artist Jane Frere to remove Nazi insignia from public view.

The 2017 work was obviously a heavy-handed critique of the far-right’s resurgence. Frere updated the mural following the 2024 election of Donald Trump. Yet despite slogans like "Stoppt Nazis" making the intent unmistakable, management folded under the tiniest bit of pressure. They chose rather ignorantly to erase its parts than attempt to explain, helping set a precedent that has now reached its further conclusion down in London.

Symbols like the swastika were removed from an anti-fascist mural at Summerhall in Edinburgh (Image: Jane Frere)

Summerhall defacing an anti-fascist mural is cowardice dressed as compassion

The Matthew Collings’ exhibition, Drawings Against Genocide, was pre-emptively cancelled before the exhibition was scheduled to open in London’s Delta House Studios next month, following legal correspondence from the UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI).

The legal group alleged that the work, which responded to the siege on Gaza,........

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