Critical Dialogue

Join The Conversation

The Critical Dialogue Program at Anderson Ranch seeks to engage the community in lively discussion about contemporary art and art making. Artists, curators and other creatives lead these conversations, inviting a broad audience to join in on taking a closer look at art’s power to change the world. This program is intended to be informative, motivating, and inspiring for those interested in the ways that artists are confronting and unpacking current challenges in our culture such as climate change, mass incarceration, gender inequality, and much more. This program is open to artists, Ranch supporters, collectors, art enthusiasts and those seeking a rigorous and dynamic look at what it means to be an artist in today’s world.

2025 Programming

Censorship: The Cultural Impact of Silencing Artists

August 4 | 10am – 12pm | Free and open to the public | Registration is appreciated

Join us for a thought-provoking conversation on the shifting meanings of art in the face of protest, violence, and censorship.

This dialogue examines how art objects can become flashpoints for public response—whether through acts of protest, vandalism, or institutional suppression—and how those responses reshape the work’s meaning and impact.

We will consider key questions: How does violence enacted on an artwork alter its message? What shifts when a work becomes the target of protest? And how do institutions—educational, legal, and cultural—navigate these tensions historically and today?

Together, we’ll explore the complex interplay between freedom of expression, public response, and institutional control in the contemporary art world.

2025 Speakers

Amy Adler

Amy Adler, the Emily Kempin Professor of Law at NYU School of Law, is one of the leading scholars of Art Law in the US.

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Betsy Schneider

Betsy Schneider’s photography and video work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is part of many notable collections.

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Shahzia Sikander

Shahzia Sikander is widely celebrated for subverting pre-modern and classical Central and South-Asian miniature painting traditions into…

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Past Critical Dialogues

Jul 29, 2024