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Bakery owner Sean Young was thrilled when high school art students covered the big blank wall over his doorway last spring with a painting of the sun shining over a mountain range made of sprinkle-covered chocolate and strawberry donuts, a blueberry muffin, a cinnamon roll and other pastries.
The display got rave reviews, and Young looked forward to collaborating with the school on more mural projects at his roadside bakery in Conway, New Hampshire.
Then the town zoning board got involved, deciding that the pastry painting was not so much art as advertising, and so could not remain as is because of its size. Faced with modifying or removing the mural, or possibly dealing with fines and criminal charges, Young sued, saying the town is violating his freedom of speech rights.
“They said it would be art elsewhere,” Young told The Associated Press in an interview. “It’s just not art here.”
“The town should not have the right to police art,” he said.
“Those kids put their heart in it,” retiree Steve Downing said. He thinks the painting should stay.
“Everyone has to comply with the ordinance,” said Charlie Birch, a former U.S. Forest Service worker. “And even though it was done by the students, which was well done, and I give them a lot of credit for it … if you have the ordinance, ‘One for all,’ that’s where we are. You can’t really make any exceptions, otherwise everybody else will want the exception.”
Board member Luigi Bartolomeo said he thinks the pastry painting is art, not advertising. He read the definition out loud at the board’s meeting in August, and said he agrees with a local attorney who called it “unconstitutionally vague.”
“I think it’s a very badly written piece of code here,” said Bartolomeo, who recently retired. But Board Chairperson John Colbath said the board has to work with the ordinance, which was approved by voters, and that there is a process to change that.
This article was provided by The Associated Press.