At Hygienic, artist, not the art, gets judged

Twenty years of touting tolerance under the credo "no fees, no judges, no jury, no censorship" just fizzled into so much rhetorical drivel as the Hygienic Art Show organizers let a convicted sex offender be hounded from their midst.

Anything goes at the Hygienic, including the usual binge of juvenilia and sophomoric porn, except, apparently, acceptance of someone who did time for his crime and was trying to come back into the community and volunteer with this preciously indulgent group.

"Hygienic Art had no say," said Vincent Scarano, a photographer in New London and one of the upcoming show’s organizers.

"But it was a good thing he left. There were some radical artists who personally were going to take him down."

The pariah in question is a 30-year-old male who lives in Waterford and, in 1993, was sentenced to seven years in prison for raping a 15-year-old boy. At the time of the assault, the man was 24. He was charged with first-degree sexual assault, impairing the morals of a child, third-degree assault, third-degree burglary and sixth-degree larceny.

The man’s name, date of birth, address and crime are included in the state’s Sex Offender Registry and posted on the Internet. He did not respond to a request delivered to his home in Waterford to talk about the Hygienic.

Last fall, parents of children at Southwest School in Waterford, near the man’s residence, circulated fliers with his name and description. He had moved into his family’s home last summer.

Clearly, his conviction and sentence have not spared him community disdain.

Nevertheless, people such as Jim Stidfole of Quaker Hill, a veteran local theater director and intrepid Hygienic supporter, are trying to help the fellow reclaim a life here.

As planning got about as serious as it gets for the annual late January art show Ñ this is the Hygienic’s 20th anniversary show Ñ the fellow began showing up at meetings, offering to volunteer for whatever was needed. Some of his work had been included in an earlier Hygienic show.

Soon, however, word spread about his record and before long one of the participating artists Ñ Doug Ferguson of Groton Ñ made it a public issue.

"I personally don’t have it in me to give him a second chance," said Ferguson. "He knew what he was doing was wrong. I have children. I don’t feel molesters can re-establish themselves."

The fellow was persuaded, or told, to stop showing up.

Ray Ellis of New London, another of the show’s organizers, has conflicting opinions about what happened.

"Vinnie (Scarano) told me he was a child molester, but Vinnie was very non-committal about it. He sort of sloughed it off. Then, the next week Doug came in with copies of what looked like the police report. I agree this is a form of persecution, but we have to protect the kids."

Among the events during Hygienic XX, to be staged at various downtown sites during the last weekend in January, is a children’s art show at the T>A>Z Atavist Gallery on Bank Street.

If these are the kids Ellis was talking about, is the Hygienic prepared to screen everyone who walks through the gallery door?

How many of the artists, by the way, had to discuss their past with the organizers?

This is not to dismiss anxiety about child molesters in the neighborhood. But knowing what the Hygienic is all about, at least on the surface, if any group might extend itself to someone trying to shape a life after doing time, who wouldn’t rely on the Hygienic?

Stidfole, reluctant to vent his anger because he is protective of the Hygienic, said only that the fellow is a hard worker. Like Scarano and Ellis, Stidfole wants to believe what happened did not impugn the art show.

But of course it did. It cost the Hygienic precisely what it stands for. When it comes to tolerance, the Hygienic is only a show.

Steven Slosberg is a columnist for The Day in New London, CT. He’s worked for the daily for 24 years and has been a full-time columnist for the last 13 years. He also writes features and has been an editorial writer, political reporter and general assignment reporter for the paper. He is a graduate of Oberlin College. He lives in Stonington, CT with his wife, Liesbeth, a horticulturist. They are the parents of two children, Sam, 24, a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras, and Maaike, 21, a senior at the College of Charleston.