A range of high-profile artists and writers associated with the Whitney Museum‘s Independent Study Program issued an open letter on Monday in which they denounced the institution’s decision to cancel a pro-Palestine performance in May.
“The Whitney Museum’s stated mission and core values are grounded precisely in its acceptance of dissent, reinvention, and activism,” the open letter said. “If the Whitney Museum denies the ISP the ability to independently persist as a site of critique over an ongoing genocide, then the Whitney Museum loses all claim to uphold the very values it cites as its guiding principles.”
Its signatories were mainly ISP alumni, and included artists as Emily Jacir, Andrea Fraser, Mark Dion, Carlos Motta, Candice Breitz, Omar Mismar, Deborah Kass, and Hannah Black. Also among the signatories were former faculty members, including the art historian Benjamin H. D. Buchloh, as well as former seminar leaders such as artists Walid Raad and Louise Lawler.
The letter addressed the cancelation of the performance No Aesthetics Outside My Freedom: Mourning, Militancy, and Performance, by the artists Fadl Fakhouri, Noel Maghathe, and Fargo Tbakhi. It was canceled two days before it was to appear in a curatorial exhibition by the ISP program, which has cultivated multiple generations of artists, curators, and critics.
In a previous iteration of the work, staged by the Poetry Project in collaboration with Jewish Currents, Tbakhi invited attendees to leave the performance if they “believe in Israel in any incarnation.” After that introduction, performers then interpreted scores by Natalie Diaz, Christina Sharpe, and Brandon Shimoda that referred to grief.
The Whitney’s prior statement mentioned the introduction and accused the artists of having “valorized specific acts of violence and imagery of violence.” Moreover, the museum said that there was “no instance when we would find it acceptable to single out members of our community based on their belief system and ask them to leave an exhibition or performance.”
News of the performance’s cancelation broke in mid-May and coincided with reports that artist Gregg Bordowitz had been demoted from his post as director of the ISP. According to Artnet News, Bordowitz was demoted in February. “The museum’s current intrusion into the educational curriculum and administration of the ISP is unprecedented,” Bordowitz said at the time.
The reports of the performance’s cancelation were followed by a protest held at the museum last month.
In Monday’s open letter, the ISP alumni wrote, “The canceled performance, scrutinized artwork and scholarship, and atmosphere of censorship have their roots in a broader political climate of fear and intimidation in the United States, and follow other recent crackdowns on free expression, protest, and speech by artists and scholars supporting Palestine.”
The letter appeared the same day that Scott Rothkopf, the Whitney’s director, sent the ISP an email in which he said he would “pause” the program’s 2025–26 academic year.
“Today, the program is without a Director,” Rothkopf wrote in that email, which was obtained by ARTnews. “This leadership gap has strained both the strategic vision and the day-to-day operations of the program. We respect the enormous commitment participants make when joining the ISP.”
Rothkopf further wrote that “this period of institutional reflection is in keeping with the spirit and values of learning, inquiry, and critical practice that are foundational to the ISP and the Whitney as a whole.”
