Three topless female protesters tested the limits of artistic freedom Thursday at a protest outside the B.C. legislature against government cuts to the arts.

The chanting women painted green, with messages such as The Naked Truth and Bare Minimum scribbled on their bodies, wore black tape and loin cloths.

In Pictures: Topless protest outside B.C. legislature

But their protest on a chilly afternoon sparked a debate over artistic licence when organizers told them their costumes weren't approved protest attire for the legislature.

Organizer Dianne Searle said she was forced to tell the women to cease and desist after guards threatened to shut down the entire event.

Searle said she applied for a protest permit at the legislature and one of the guidelines for her being granted the permit was that the event would be trouble free.

"They surprised us completely," Searle said. "We made it very clear it was an arts rally. It was supposed to be peaceful, positive, a pretty low-key slant. That was the basis on which I signed my name on the paper."

Searle said she understands that art is in the eye of the beholder, but that was put to the test when the guards told her the topless protesters were "not cool."

She said the guards told her the behaviour of the topless protesters, who were chanting loudly at the front of a large crowd, was testing the bounds of the permit.

"That's when I had to tell them, 'You can't do that here,"' she said. "They obviously weren't happy about that."

The protest continued after the topless women joined a group of about 300 people calling on the Liberal government to restore recent cuts to arts funding.