Piarowski v. Illinois Community College

Prairie State College (defendant) hosted an annual art exhibition for the art-department faculty members. Albert Piarowski (plaintiff) served as a gallery coordinator. He decided which artworks by students and faculty to exhibit. Occasionally, the coordinators exhibited works by outside artists. The exhibition was held in a gallery in a highly visible alcove of the campus mall. The mall was the main gathering place on campus. When the annual exhibition opened, it displayed eight of Piarowski’s stained-glass windows. Three of the windows depicted nude women in arguably offensive scenes. The windows had at least some artistic merit. The college made no allegations that the windows were obscene. The college received many complaints about the windows and were concerned that prominent display of the windows would imply official approval of the images and make it harder to recruit students. The college ordered Piarowski to remove the windows from the gallery 10 days after the exhibit opened and suggested that he display them in an exhibit room on the fourth floor of the mall. However, the college was open to counterproposals. Piarowski refused. The next day, a college official (defendant) removed the windows. Several days later, the art faculty voted to close the exhibit one week early. Piarowski sued the college, claiming violation of his right to freedom of expression. The district court issued judgment in favor of the college. Piarowski appealed.