By The TimesLedger
The debate pitting artistic freedom against public sentiment has shifted from Rockefeller Center to the Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning. The controversy began when the manager of Rockefeller Center displayed a statue that depicts a woman striking the sidewalk after leaping from the inferno at the World Trade.
The statue was tastefully done, but many people found it disturbing. The statue will be removed.
A similar controversy emerged in Jamaica where cutouts of victims falling through the air were pasted on the windows of the arts center. Unlike the statue, which had intrinsic artistic merit, the cutouts were childish and appeared to trivialize the tragedy of Sept. 11. Now this exhibit has apparently closed.
