Arts Professionals Enter the Fray as Pro-Palestinian Protests Spread

As calls across the country grow for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, and college campuses and arts institutions increasingly become sites of public demonstrations related to the conflict, arts professionals and cultural workers are making their voices heard on the subject.Hyperallergicreports that more than a hundred current and former staffers at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art published anopen lettercalling for the institution to publicly call for a ceasefire, asSan Francisco officials did back in January, and to commit to the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. Affirming that they “stand against antisemitism just as [they] stand firmly against the conflation of calls for an end to violence with antisemitism,” the letter’s signatories expressed “solidarity with the Palestinian people as they confront decades of violent oppression and apartheid and to condemn Israel’s devastating and ongoing siege of Gaza.” The staffers additionally offered their unwavering support for “artists and other cultural workers speaking against this genocide in the face ofunprecedented cancellationandcensorshipthroughout the art world.” The missive was signed by about 13 percent of the museum’s roughly 350 employees.

On the other side of the country, where pro-Palestine protests have sprung up across college campuses, eleven members of the arts faculty at Columbia University sent a letter to students in support of their right to demonstrate. The missive came after more than a hundred students were arrested and suspended for demonstrating on campus, sparking awalkoutby hundreds of faculty members. “We, the undersigned Visual Arts and Music faculty, stand for your constitutional rights of assembly and free speech,” wrote the faculty in a letter partially reprinted inHyperallergic. The letter’s signatories said they had called on the university to “revoke all suspensions, expunge the disciplinary records of sanctioned students, and immediately allow all students back into their dormitories.”

As of April 25, according to the health ministry in Gaza, more than 34,300 residents have been killed in Israel’s assault on the region, launched in retaliation for the October 7 Hamas attack on Israeli soil in which 1,200 were killed and 250 taken hostage. A spokesperson for Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has said Israel is poised to launch an imminent attack on Rafah.