Strange Culture Update: Nightmare May Finally Be Over for Bio-Artist Steve Kurtz

I opened my email this morning, and had an update on the Steve Kurtz case that made my entire day. Kurtz, as you may recall, is the subject of the film Strange Culture, which has been on the fest circuit since Sundance 2007. Kurtz and his wife, Hope, had been involved in a group called the Critical Art Ensemble, which had won numerous awards for its bio-art exhibits, and has been commissioned to perform in prestigious cultural institutions around the world.

The nightmare started for Kurtz when Hope, his wife of 27 years, died suddenly of heart failure while they were in the midst of preparing for an exhibit on GMOs in the food supply. As a part of the exhibit preparations, they had some harmless bacteria in petri dishes, microscopes, and other scientific materials (all of which are commonly found in college and even high school labs) in their home.

When Kurtz called 911 to get help for his wife, the medics who responded became concerned about the materials in the home and called the FBI. Next thing he knew, while in the midst of struggling with grief over his wife's death, Kurtz found himself being called a bioterrorist. Of particular interest to the FBI, apparently, was an invitation for the CAE to exhibit that had some Arabic writing on it.

In the four years since, Kurtz's life was largely put on hold as he dealt with legal battles. While he was able to keep his job as a professor at SUNY at Buffalo, New York, he was on the terrorist watch list, and for a time, he had to get the State Department's consent to obtain and use his passport. Even after it was proven that Kurtz had nothing harmful in his home, the prosecutor on the case continued to go after him, finally charging him with mail fraud, a charge that was based on an exchange of $256 worth of harmless bacteria with Dr. Robert Ferrell, Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.

Yesterday, Federal Judge Richard J. Arcara ruled to dismiss the indictment. The prosecutor has the right to appeal, but hopefully this dismissal will finally result in him letting go of this vendetta against Kurtz and letting the man get on with his life. Kurtz's lawyer, Paul Cambria (who also represents Hustler publisher Larry Flynt), said that Kurtz is "pleased and relieved that this ordeal may be coming to an end." I certainly hope, for Kurtz's sake, that it is. He's a kind and gentle man whose life has been upended by this whole ordeal, and I hope he'll be able to get on with his life and back to his art.