Palestinian artist exhibition at IU canceled
Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now
Organizers of a planned exhibit showcasing the work of Palestinian artist—and Indiana University alumna—Samia Halaby at the IU Eskenazi Museum of Art are hoping the university will reverse last month’s decision to cancel the event.
“Samia Halaby: Centers of Energy” was set to run Feb. 10 through June 9, but Halaby received a two-sentence letter from museum Director David Brenneman on Dec. 20 saying the exhibit would not take place as scheduled.
Brenneman later cited concerns that the museum couldn’t guarantee the safety of Halaby’s paintings as well as her social media posts related to the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.
Madison Gordon, Halaby’s grand-niece who helped organize the exhibit, said they’ve tried to contact the university to work toward a solution to no avail.
“We asked for them to say more. We offered to talk more on by phone, you know, please consider reversing your decision,” Gordon said. “Sammy has such fond memories of IU. She loved her time at IU…and at first it was really disheartening and, frankly, disrespectful to not have any response at all from Indiana after three years of collaboration.”
Halaby graduated from Indiana University with a Master of Fine Arts degree in the 1960s and later returned to the Bloomington campus where she would become a tenured professor. Prior to attending IU, she also earned a Master of Art in Painting at Michigan State University.
Halaby left her teaching job at IU to become the first woman professor at the Yale School of Art.
Gordon said whatever concerns the museum had about the exhibit were raised all the way to IU President Pamela Whitten. Halaby sent letters to Whitten on Dec. 17 and Jan. 8 seeking a more detailed explanation on why the exhibit was canceled and urging her to reconsider the move.
“I appeal to your wisdom and foresight again in my persuasion that the future will not judge this rejection of an excellent collaboration kindly,” Halaby said in the January letter.
Those letters never received a response, Gordon said.
Both Halaby and Gordon praised the work of Elliot Reichert, curator of contemporary art at the museum, and the museum staff in their efforts to create the exhibit.
“My reaction as the whole affair has proceeded that it was a cruel attack on Elliot Reichert, the young curator who did such excellent work preparing the show,” Halaby told the Cairo News earlier this week. “The cruelty stems for it being her first important effort as a curator.”
But Gordon said all of the disappointment caused by the exhibit’s cancellation has been outweighed by the support they have received by students and faculty on campus, as well as the wider Bloomington community and others around the world as news of the cancellation spread.
An online petition was created to gather support for reinstating the exhibit. The petition had just over 13,500 signatures as of Tuesday night.
“Once I launched the petition online, and we circulated it to our network, I’m not in Bloomington, but it seemed to me like it spread like wildfire that in a day. Everybody knew about it,” Gordon said. “And yet, Indiana has still failed to provide any elaboration about security concerns and has not reached out to us.”
Inside INdiana Business reached out to IU for comment, and an spokesperson only said, “Academic leaders and campus officials canceled the exhibit due to concerns about guaranteeing the integrity of the exhibit for its duration.”
Gordon said at this point, they are going to assume that IU will stand by its decision to cancel the exhibit.
“I know that relevant parties are having conversations behind the scenes, and we’ve been given lots of opportunities to work with other organizations. But we need to be thoughtful about that,” she said. “If the students and staff at Indiana are able to reinstate the show through their activism, we would love to see that.”
The exhibit was scheduled to travel to Michigan State University after its run at IU was completed. Gordon said, as of now, Michigan State still plans on running the exhibit. However, they are keeping an eye on an upcoming change in leadership at the university, which could have an impact.
Overall, Gordon said they understand the situation is “much bigger than Samia.”
“We know a lot of people are very upset about suppression of academic freedom on campus. We know that many people are livid at the U.S. is response to what’s happening in Gaza. And we just want to thank everyone for their support and to turn their attention the things that are bigger than Samia.”