Outcry as Palestinian Artist’s Retrospective Canceled by US Museum
More than 10,000 people have signed a petition to reinstate the show.
The exhibition, “Centers of Energy,” was scheduled to open in June and run for six months. It would have been the first major U.S. retrospective of Ms. Halaby, who was born in al-Quds in 1936 and has lived in New York since 1970. The show was developed over more than three years and included early works from the museum’s collection and loans from private owners, The Art News Paper reported on Friday.
In a statement to Hyperallergic, a website that covers art and culture, the university said it canceled the exhibition “due to concerns about guaranteeing the integrity of the exhibit for its duration.” It did not elaborate on the nature of the concerns or the safety measures it considered.
The museum’s decision, announced in late December, has provoked criticism from the artist’s supporters, who accuse the university of censorship and discrimination. They say the cancellation was abrupt and unjustified, and that the museum offered no evidence of any threats to the exhibition or the campus.
Madison Gordon, the artist’s grandniece and a trustee of her foundation, started the petition on Change.org, calling on the university’s president, Pamela Whitten, to reverse the cancellation. The petition says the Indiana University community would be “deprived of an important exhibition of contemporary art and first-rate cultural experience.”
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Halaby, who earned her master’s degree from Indiana University and taught there in the 1970s, has also written two letters to Ms. Whitten, asking for the reinstatement of the show. She said the university’s action was intended to “suppress Palestinian voices at this very time.”
“Why did they not speak up during the three long years of preparation?” she said in a statement. “Why did they not accept my offer to meet with them and clear matters?”
The cancellation comes at a time of heightened tensions and violence in the Middle East and around the world, as well as a surge in antisemitic, anti-Arab and Islamophobic incidents. It also raises questions about the role of art and academic institutions in addressing complex and controversial issues.
Other universities have affirmed their commitment to present Halaby’s work. The University of Chicago Press will publish the exhibition’s catalogue, a 200-page volume, in March. The Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University, which collaborated with the Eskenazi Museum to produce the retrospective as a two-part project, plans to open its portion of the show, “Eye Witness,” in June, The New York Times reported.
Source: Agencies
