My name is Steven C. White, and I am an Artist who has painted my way all over America for the past 40-plus years. In 1998, I was in Littleton Colorado doing an art show, and I challenged the Foothill Park and Recreation on their restrictive policies that allowed Artist use of the parks only during their permitted special event festivals. They were charging Artists $275 to participate in their festival and denying us equal access at other times. This pissed me off!

So I called them up and told them that I was going down to their “Clement Park” and putting up a modest display of my paintings, and I was going to paint, display and even sell my Art in their public park. I let them know that if they hassled me, I would take them into federal court and sue them for violating my First and Fourteenth Amendment rights. They quickly backed down and told me that I could show and sell in their parks.

So I took that opportunity to invite other Artists to come join me, and I started a small Free Community Art Show along the walking path at Clement Park. Artists could paint, display, perform, and even sell or receive compensation for their art, at our free shows in the park.

We had a great summer with senior citizens and children joining us in our evening art shows. I built a small, carpeted 4 foot by 4 foot stage, with a sign on the front saying “The Poet Writers Stage.” Every evening, I would bring the stage down to the park and plop it on the grass, and the high school students and others would take turns reading their poetry from that stage. We had a hat up front where the public could make contributions to these aspiring poets.

One evening a high school English teacher happened to come to the park and enjoyed the Poetry. He came over to me, introduced himself and while shaking my hand profusely, he exclaimed that I must be a “miracle worker”! How did I get high school students to read poetry in the parks?

I explained that since the founding of our country, the citizens of America have had a constitutional right to use the quintessential public forum of our public parks to peacefully assemble for the purpose of engaging in Artistic Self Expression. The Arts are the oldest and most powerful form of human communication and are a form of self expression that rises to the FULL level of protection under the First Amendment. I also told him that I had to threaten the Park and Recreation with a federal law suit to make them stop their illegal policies of the past, which had run every Artist out of every park in that community for decades. We held our little free Art Show in Clement Park every evening all summer long and the public loved it.