River Arts executive director Jonah Rabinowitz takes in an exhibit that was relocated from the Morrisville Post Office gallery, where some of the photographs were deemed to contain “political content.” Photo by Gordon Miller/NewsCitizen This story by Patrick Bilow was first published in the News Citizen on Aug. 13, 2026.Morrisville arts organization River Arts removed an exhibit from the town post office’s walls after complaints that the artwork was too political. River Arts has for years supported local artists by helping curate art installations in heavily trafficked public buildings throughout Morristown. The latest exhibit, displayed in the post office lobby, featured photographs of protesters at the four-way village intersection, some of whom have been gathering there nearly every Friday since the death of George Floyd in 2020. Earlier this summer, the post office requested that the exhibit be removed just weeks after it was hung due to several customer complaints about its political content, said River Arts Executive Director Jonah Rabinowitz. Olea Smith-Caland, a Morristown resident, took the photographs earlier this year. At the time, she was enrolled in an iPhone photography class taught by Lamoille Neighbors, a group that seeks to enhance the well-being of older adults in the area. Photographs produced by the class have been displayed throughout town for years, Rabinowitz said. “We don’t take any curatorial process with that,” he said. “We just assume it’s seniors. They’re learning how to use their iPhones to take great photos, but also how to manipulate them in the apps. What a great program, right?” While the photographs often stick to landscapes, flowers or shots of loved ones, Smith-Caland chose to focus on the frustration that the Friday protesters express. “To me there was absolutely nothing about the artwork that was offensive or controversial. Quite frankly, it depicts things that all you have to do to witness on any given Friday is stick your head out the door and look up the street,” Rabinowitz said. “But while one person may not think it’s political, as long as another person thinks it is, that’s all that’s required.” Morristown’s postmaster did not respond to a request for comment before press deadline. Rabinowitz said River Arts, like the post office, considers itself an objective institution, but that the post office achieves that metric through exclusion of artwork, while his arts organization does so through inclusion of many different political beliefs. However, he said he’s sympathetic to the post office because it has its own policies to navigate. “When I say we don’t have a political bent, I mean that everybody who’s an individual here has their own viewpoint,” Rabinowitz said. “But as an organization, we choose to show things or to invite people based upon a variety of criteria, and quite frankly, most of the times it has nothing to do with politics.” Not this time, however. According to Rabinowitz, the post office specifically requested that River Arts remove parts of the exhibit that featured political messaging, but Rabinowitz said all the components in Smith-Caland’s exhibit deserve to stay together. It’s “all or nothing,” he said. The exhibit was transferred to the nonprofit’s headquarters on Portland Street and a new, less-political exhibit by local artist Peggy Smith was installed at the post office. “We are still providing a space for it to be viewed by the public,” Rabinowitz said of Smith-Caland’s exhibit. “If they want to come see it they can. I mean it’s literally a 30-second walk from the post office.” Some individuals were not so happy with the settlement, according to Rabinowitz. Members of Lamoille Neighbors, for example, expressed concern that removing the artwork may have violated the artist’s First Amendment right to free speech. Rabinowitz takes that claim seriously, but he’s not convinced of the First Amendment violation. “I am personally not getting the pitchfork and going up and down the street protesting this,” Rabinowitz said. “I don’t think it has risen to that level, but there are a lot of people in the community who did, and who do, and they have to deal with that.” While the post office exhibit was the rare political test for River Arts, Rabinowitz said his role in the process was to judge neither the viewer’s sensibilities nor the content of the artwork. “It’s not my job to judge,” Rabinowitz said. “It’s to facilitate. My position was to get the art displayed and make sure everyone was feeling OK.” Read the story on VTDigger here: Post office photography exhibit removed for ‘political content’. ...read more read less