Artistic freedom

Artistic freedom is the extent of freedom of an artist to produce art to his/her own insight. The extent can deviate to customs in a certain school of art, directives of the assigner, etc..

Artistic freedom should not be confused to the freedom of art (e.g. Kunstfreiheit in Germanic countries), where it is a constitutional provision to prevent political censorship. Software patents are often seen as an example of one of these restrictions.

A related colloquial term is artistic license, the distortion of fact, alteration of the conventions of grammar or language, or rewording of pre-existing text made by an artist for artistic effect.

United Nations study

In 2012-2013, the United Nations carried out a comprehensive study on artistic freedom. Based on a background report produced in June-July 2012, as well as an experts meeting and an open consultation in Geneva in December 2012, the UN Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights Ms. Farida Shaheed submitted her final report to the UN Human Rights Council in June 2013. The United Nations special rapporteur has sent a questionnaire to all member states asking them to report on legislations and practices related to artistic freedom and censorship.

References

• Website includes feature articles and reports on violations of artistic freedom
• A new global network of organisations defending artistic freedom which was created in October 2012