THE peak group representing Australian artists has welcomed the Magistrates’ Court’s dismissal of child porn charges against artist Paul Yore, who walked free this morning.

National Association for the Visual Arts executive director Tamara Winikoff said Magistrate Amanda Chambers had made “the right judgment”.

Ms Winikoff said Yore been the “unwitting victim in a whole lot of political machinations” culminating in the police raid on the council-funded Linden Centre for Contemporary Art in St Kilda on June 1 last year.

“Police are being put in a very difficult position, having to respond to complaints like this — they are not art experts,” she said.

“The purpose of art is to sometimes be critical of community mores, and instigate discussion around important issues in the community.”

Yore’s installation, titled Everything Is F****d, included a collage with children’s faces superimposed on images of male bodies performing sex acts, and a cardboard cut-out of a child with Justin Bieber’s head stuck on urinating from a dildo into a sink.

The work was part of the Like Mike tribute exhibition, referencing Mike Brown, the only Australian artist to be successfully prosecuted for obscenity (in 1966).

type_quote_start Police are being put in a very difficult position, having to respond to complaints like this — they are not art experts.” — National Association for the Visual Arts executive director Tamara Winikoff type_quote_end

Ms Winikoff said Yore’s work was “politically serious” and was not intended as a discussion of child pornography, but rather the “excesses of consumerism and populist culture”.

She said while the “heightened sensitivity in the community about child abuse” was warranted, child sex offenders should be the focus of police attention, “not artists”.

The Minister for the Arts Heidi Victoria said Victoria was known for its vibrant and diverse arts scene and strong artistic community.

‘’While sometimes art can be challenging, controversial, even shocking, freedom of artistic expression within the boundaries of the law is a foundation stone of a robust democratic society,’’ Ms Victoria said.

Opposition arts spokesman and Albert Park MP Martin Foley, said the court’s decision should be taken as “a message of support for creativity and the challenging role of contemporary art”.

The co-curator of the Yore exhibition, Jan Duffy, who lost her position at the gallery during the fallout over the police raid, said she was “really happy for Paul”.

Ms Duffy said she could not comment on the unfair dismal claim she later brought against the gallery, which has been settled.

Linden chairman Sarah Brennan said in a written statement that the gallery “values the role of art and artists in society to challenge and raise thought provoking questions”.

Mayor Amanda Stevens said the Yore case delved into “a highly sensitive and challenging subject and goes to the heart of the role of art in tackling some of society’s difficult issues”.

St Kilda resident Chris Spillane, a Liberal party member whose complaint to council sparked the initial controversy over Yore’s work in May last year, said he was “disappointed” by the court’s decision.

Paul Yore declined to comment.