Three free speech groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado, have accused the History Colorado Center, a nonprofit museum linked to the state’s Department of Higher Education, of censoring an artwork that contained pro-Palestine symbols and criticism of ICE and two United States senators.
The allegedly censored painting, Denver-based illustrator Madalyn Drewno’s “None of Us Are Free Until All of Us Are Free” (2025), was commissioned by a local organization for the museum’s exhibition Big Dreams in Little Saigon, which examines aspects of the city’s Vietnamese enclave. Drewno’s painting portrayed Ivy Ha, a community member who fled the Vietnam War, and her daughter Joie, against a background of collaged figures, including Mahmoud Khalil and Rümeysa Öztürk, two foreign students in the US who had been detained for their views on Gaza. The work also features Palestinian flags, anti-ICE slogans, Colorado Governor Jared Polis with a red hand over his mouth, and accuses the state’s Democratic Senator Michael Bennett of “fund[ing] genocide.”
Drewno said she was notified that the museum could not show her work in compliance with Colorado’s Fair Campaign Practices Act, which prohibits state agencies from financially contributing to candidates running for public office.
However, in a letter sent to the History Colorado’s president on Monday, November 3, the ACLU’s Colorado chapter, National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), and the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) wrote that the work’s removal “seems more likely related to the pointed political sentiments present in the background of the painting.” The groups are urging the museum to reinstate the artwork and apologize to Drewno.
“Letting Go and Holding On” (2025), part of the three-painting series, was not removed from the show.
Four days ahead of the show’s October 21 opening, Drewno told Hyperallergic in a phone interview, she was notified that one of her three paintings would not be included in the show.
In an October 16 email reviewed by Hyperallergic, the Colorado Asian Pacific United (CAPU), a local cultural nonprofit that co-organized the show with the museum, told Drewno that History Colorado decided not to show “None of Us Are Free Until All of Us Are Free” because doing so could subject the institution to “legal risk” related to campaign finance laws.
The museum’s Chief Creative Officer, Jason Hanson, told Hyperallergic in a statement that the museum had not expected the artwork it received.
“The artwork delivered through our community partner shortly before the exhibition’s opening was significantly different than the artwork proposed, and we do not use public funds or resources to platform opinions that could be perceived as campaigning for or against current candidates or ballot issues,” Hanson said. According to a contract commissioning the artworks reviewed by Hyperallergic, CAPU, not the museum, paid Drewno $2,500 for the three paintings.
In their November 3 letter, the free speech organizations called the museum’s citation of campaign finance laws “not credible.”
“The mere display of an artwork that is critical of public officials — regardless of
whether or not they seek future election — cannot be understood as a campaign ‘contribution’ favoring a specific political candidate,” the groups wrote.
Drewno explained that the paintings were inspired by Ha’s story of fleeing Vietnam, but over the course of the series, more broadly incorporated themes of resilience in Asian American and Pacific Islander communities and future generations.
”It was my intention to start a discussion around our interconnected struggles with what’s going on in the world currently, and that includes ICE and their violence against the immigrant community and how that is also connected to Palestine,” Drewno told Hyperallergic.
Joie Ha, depicted in the work alongside her mother Ivy, told Hyperallergic in an email that she and her mother have asked the speech groups not to be involved in the dispute over the artwork. “My mother is upset by this misuse of her refugee story, and has expressed that she does not want any association with their campaign,” Ha wrote.
A spokesperson for CAPU said that while the organization commissioned Drewno’s work for the show, it ” did not have a role in the decision to remove the artwork.” The spokesperson said the organization attempted to reach a compromise with the museum, but was unable to.
Drewno said she decided to reach out to freedom of speech organizations about her work after she spoke to Húŋkpapȟa Lakȟóta artist Danielle SeeWalker, whose pro-Palestine painting led to a First Amendment lawsuit against the town of Vail last year.
“ In the same way that Danielle SeeWalker inspired me,” Drewno said, “I also want to encourage other artists to speak up and show that it can be done and that there is support.”
