A life drawing class owner has compared a London community centre to the Taliban after his nude models were told to cover up. Artists at the Hampstead Community Centre in north London were told their nude muses pose ‘safeguarding concerns’ because they conflict with children’s sessions. This has forced organiser Tony Swann to either move his sessions later in the evenings, cover up the models or find a new location.
But the 63-year-old said making models wear clothes for a life drawing class defeats its entire purpose. The class has branded the community centre’s new rules as ‘puritanical’ and compared their attitude to the Taliban. Mr Swann said: ‘They said they could allow us to have a clothed model in the day, but to be honest, you are just drawing a bunch of clothes at that point. ‘It seems rather like a Taliban attitude to artistic creation and entirely needless.
‘We black all the windows out and put signage up, so no one stumbles in on us – and it has worked for 30 years.’. Mr Swann, of Forest Gate, east London said the majority of his students are pensioners and do not want to take the class later on in the evening. And using a covered model would just leave them ‘drawing a bunch of clothes’. He believes someone at the community centre must have complained about there being a naked person in the building – despite there being ‘nothing sexual’ about the centuries-old art form.
‘In 30 years, we have never had a complaint, to my knowledge,’ Mr Swann continued. ‘We’ve never offended children or parents. It seems like a very weird decision; it’s a community centre. To get the latest news from the capital visit Metro's London news hub. ‘We’ve had to move premises to continue doing our life drawing. It seems they are not pleasing the community they are serving. It’s a very archaic attitude towards what we are doing.’.
Model Hilary Curtis added the centre’s response was ‘puritanical’. She said: ‘I think it’s disappointing. It’s regarded as a challenge that artists use to practice their observational drawing skills.’. A spokesperson for the Hampstead Community Centre said the life drawing class was sandwiched between two children’s sessions. They said: ‘Safeguarding concerns had been raised in respect of the external hire of the centre for a Life Drawing class that was being held between two regulated children’s sessions.
‘This was therefore a simple scheduling decision reflecting our duty as trustees to balance the needs of the centre’s many users and activities. ‘When the hirer told us that he did not want to use the centre in the evenings (for which he was offered a discount), we did posit whether a figure drawing class might be an alternative solution should he prefer to continue with a daytime booking. ‘There was certainly no prudishness involved – the trustees are very comfortable with nudity in the correct context.
‘The Hampstead Community Centre has successfully hosted Life Drawing Classes for several decades in the evenings with wide support from the local artistic community and we look forward to continuing to do so in the future. ‘We are of course sorry that we were unable to accommodate the hirer’s requests on this particular occasion but we were pleased to hear that he was able to secure an alternative venue without there being any disruption to the weekly class that he continues to operate.’.
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