Political cartoon show ‘Cancelled’ for fear of offending!
WhiteLight’s Political Cartoon show ‘Licence to Offend’ due to open on 30th April 2025, was cancelled at the last minute by the venue, a co- working space, TownSq Kingston, due to fear of potentially offending their members. Despite Whitelight Projects having had a very good working relationship with the company, in which they generously offered their space for artists to exhibit their work for free, they felt that this show might be too controversial and regrettably asked us to remove it before opening to the public.
It was with sadness that we had to pull the show after so much work and good will had been put into it, but remain thankful to TownSq for the use of their space for previous exhibitions (see projects page).
As the cartoonists involved in the event worked for nearly all the major newspapers, there was a great deal of coverage throughout the press over the concern of creeping censorship of the arts and political commentary (see a selection of cuttings below). It was always Whitelight Projects intention that the exhibition be a celebration of the cartoonists considerable artistic talents, humour and courage in highlighting political absurdities and hypocrisies. Culturally they hold a unique and vital position, a licence to offend, poke fun and burst the bubbles of those in power.
The artists had been chosen for their diverse range of political opinion and had worked for the full spectrum of media output, from the Guardian to the Daily Mail, The Telegraph, BBC, Spectator, The Times, Metro, Private Eye etc. Many have had long illustrious careers working for a range of publications and it has been a great privilege to bring together so many exceptional talents in one place.
THE SHOW MUST GO ON! More determined than ever to put on this unique exhibition, Whitelight has been working hard to secure two new venues in London. Please see our Projects page for the latest info on dates and locations. We hope you will join us soon to celebrate the work of these important artists.
