BOISE, Idaho — Art night at Erotic City apparently wasn’t artistic enough. Police raided the Boise bar Monday night for violating the city’s nudity ordinance, which requires that dancers wear at least pasties and a thong unless they are engaging in a performance with “serious artistic merit.”

The club had tried to beat the ordinance by distributing pencils and sketch pads to patrons during special twice-weekly “art nights,” when the dancers performed nude.

“It’s actually pretty clear in the city ordinance that there are exemptions for dance and theater and artistic merits, but the law also clearly states that the exemption does not apply to adult businesses,” said police spokeswoman Lynn Hightower. “If it were an art studio and models were actually posing, that would be one thing. But these women weren’t posing, they were dancing.”

Three dancers were given misdemeanor citations Monday but were not arrested.