The “Free Speech Artists’ Movement” accuses the City of Chicago of enforcing an illegal municipal code, the Peddler's License, that denies artists their complete speech rights in the public way.

One artist who says the City is shorting artists on their speech rights is protesting by giving his art away in the Loop. City law claiming traffic control as its reason, allows artists to give their art away but not to sell it without severe restrictions. Federal First Amendment case law says there is no difference between selling and giving away speech and that it does not matter whether the speaker is paid. To protest the Peddler's License law that unfairly restricts artists, artist C. Drew will be screen-printing patches in public in the Loop on a random schedule all summer long. He intends to blog about his experiences to build support for artists' rights.

Mr. Drew has promoted a basic understanding of artists’ First Amendment rights on the cable access TV show, “Printing T-shirt Art.” He has contrasted the First Amendment rights of newspapers to sell their speech on the public sidewalks and parks, with the more restricted rights of artists in Chicago. One need only look for the artists in Chicago to realize they are unseen in most of the city on a daily basis. He compares the absence of street art scenes in Chicago with New York City where artist street scenes exist in city parks and on its streets. He explains that in New York, artists fought for and won their speech rights in court. In Chicago, artists have not yet fought for their full speech rights.

Looking at the facts from the ground up, if an artist found himself homeless, it would be legal for him to panhandle in the Loop because other panhandlers have fought for that as a speech right in Federal Court based on the First Amendment. But it would be illegal for that homeless artist to sell portraits on white paper plates – giving a piece of art for a humble request of money to maintain his dignity. So once the artists saves $165 dollars from panhandling, after much additional paper work, including a check for old parking tickets, the artist receives his Peddlers License.. He searches for a good place to sell his speech/art in the loop. The Loop is listed in the three pages of “Prohibited Districts” banned to speech sales by the Peddler's License Municipal Code.
After losing Ayres vs Chicago (see art-teez.org/free-speech.htm for links to cases), the City Council created the “Speech Permit” for four corners in Grant Park and six corners in the Loop. The rest of the Loop and all the other prohibited districts remain closed to speech peddlers.

To get a Speech Permit, artists must have a Peddler's License and then submit the art they intend to sell a month in advance to have its political content confirmed as worthy of a “Speech Permit.” The successful artist is provided a letter-label sticker to put on the back of their Peddler's License card. This label restricts the artist for the entire month applied for to a single corner of the Loop. The artist is still restricted from selling speech anywhere else in the many “Prohibited Districts” of Chicago. When people gather in other places for events in many of the banned zones the artist is rooted to a corner unable to reach those audiences. The homeless artist, even though he now has a peddlers license, can only panhandle in the prohibited zones, outlawed from his speech rights, reduced again to a beggar. This is not “free speech.”

The actual “Speech Permit” regime the municipal code sets up is a bureaucratic nightmare. At most only 50 speech peddlers of any type could participate in the cities speech permit each month. Almost no one uses it so the City brags that this is an adequate alternative for artists wishing their full speech rights. It is not even followed by those who administer it. Artists and political activists on the street have accommodated themselves to several locations around Grant Park where they have found police don't challenge most people claiming “political speech” - First Amendment rights. Others take their chances selling where they will, bending with the mood of police and the moment. Only the most ardent artists/citizens are ever seen.

Emerging artists are banned from most commercial areas, the Loop and any open activity in the City's parks. These City policies have acted to prevent artists from finding the public and each other. They eliminate the logical locations for artists to create free open-air art scenes around Chicago. This leaves only the art fairs and neighborhood festivals in which artists can sell their art. These fairs & festivals are too expensive for emerging artists who do not yet have a large enough following to afford the $150-$500 festival fees to which the City adds an additional $25 tax as a final insult. Art scenes need free sales spaces for emerging artists to flourish. It is the emerging artists who have the energy and mission to create art scenes. Emerging artists lose. The City and its citizens lose the art-scene possibilities this policy suppresses. Yet, it is our freedom that suffers the most and Chicago's market place for ideas that is diminished.

The first goal of his protest, Mr. Drew stresses, is to generate serious discussion about artists' (visual artists, musicians, performing artists, etc.) free speech rights. Anyone who wants more details may visit art-teez.org/free-speech.htm. Artists are encouraged to add their statements in support of their First Amendment rights by e-mail at umcac (at) art-teez.org or blog at c-drew.com/blog. To get involved leave a message at 773/561-7676.

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