Show cancellation of contempt for academic freedom (opinion)

In February I published an article criticizing the sudden cancellation of a major art exhibit scheduled to open at Indiana University Bloomington’s Eskenazi Museum of Art.

The long-running exhibition, “Centers of Power,” represented a retrospective of the work of renowned Palestinian American artist (and IU alumna) Samia Halaby; the exhibition would showcase 60 years and more of his work, much of it abstract paintings that explore color, shape, perspective and geometric lines.

Seven weeks before the opening, IU administrators secretly canceled the show; when confronted by angry teachers who caught wind of the withdrawal (no official announcement was ever made), an IU attorney insisted that the demonstration, three years in the making, was a threat to “security” on campus. The university administration has never provided evidence of such a threat; many observers thought that this apparent censorship was not just a response to Halaby’s passionate advocacy on behalf of the Palestinian cause after the Oct. 7 what Hamas did and the brutal Israeli retaliation in Gaza that followed.

In the first week of September, I had the opportunity to see “Eyewitness,” a friend of Halaby’s who is currently exhibiting at Michigan State University’s Broad Art Museum, a five-hour drive from Indiana University. After visiting that exhibition, I am annoyed to search my campus again.

While IU considers “Centers of Power” to be a major threat to campus security, for mysterious reasons, there seems to be no similar security concern at MSU’s art museum. Indeed, on the day my colleague and I visited “Eye Witness” with a group of 45 IU students, there was no security at the museum. There are no security guards or campus security at the entrance or anywhere near. No metal detectors. There is no sign-in sheet or identification request. Even the museum staff in the galleries themselves. The museum was filled with a diverse group of Saturday visitors—students, families with young children, local residents of East Lansing. No one looked worried. For whatever reason, the alleged safety hazards discovered by IU in late 2023, which necessitated the cancellation of Halaby’s exhibition on our campus, did not occur in Michigan. When my partner and I asked why this might be, our gracious MSU hosts seemed confused that this could be a problem.

For the most part, after seeing (and enjoying) “Eyewitness,” our readers expressed shock—not at any provocative or controversial aspects of Halaby’s mysterious work, but at the idea that such a politically innocent show could pose any kind of threat. in the silence of the campus. I was excited to finally get a chance to see Halaby’s art in person, but I’m also confused by IU’s fear of showing his work on our campus.

It is certainly true that one of the works in the MSU exhibit speaks directly to the deep wound Halaby suffered from the expulsion of his Palestinian family from Jerusalem in 1948, as part of the convention. Nakba which was associated with the creation of Israel. (It is not clear, however, that these exact works would appear in the IU retrospective, overseen by a different curator.) Although not obvious, the titles of some of Halaby’s works reflect the experience of migration, exile and longing that are central in nature. in the context of Palestine. A series of small paintings explores what Halaby calls “Captured Jerusalem,” but he often uses the word “busy” in its double meaning. As an artist, he is always “engaged” by the desire of his people to return to his homeland, and he captures that feeling just by speaking. His artistic vision is powerful and universal, touching on themes of the desire to have roots and return to normality for many people in exile.

Perhaps the only evocative work in the exhibit is “I Found Myself Growing in an Old Olive Tree,” a self-portrait with olive roots that has these words wrapped around its base in tiny handwriting: “I found myself growing inside. an olive tree in Palestine. We are an old tree now. We lost many friends who were cut by Israeli butchers.” No doubt some members of the IU community—at least those who were watching, rolling their eyes and making these comments—may have found this troubling; others, however, may find it encouraging. Either way, it’s hard to imagine this being such a serious security threat that the entire show had to be canceled. The IU leadership apparently hoped that keeping the “Centers of Power” secret would allow them to avoid any controversy over the sensitive issue. Instead, they invite that debate.

The result was that IU missed a great opportunity to showcase the work of this important artist and to champion the university museum’s alleged commitment to “sparking dialogue … about artistic issues including self-awareness, cultural change, and social justice,” as the museum’s now-former director, David A. Brenneman, suggests in a co-authored foreword to the show’s catalog (surprisingly, it doesn’t say anything about the cancellation). Instead, the university has made a name for itself with its campus-wide hostility to free speech and academic freedom, including a ridiculous new policy banning all “expressive activities” on campus between the hours of 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. (True; as someone who violated the policy and received an official letter of reprimand, I can attest to that.)

Of course, Halaby’s dismissal was just a prelude to other attacks on IU’s campus, which led at the end of last year to a massive vote of no confidence in the president and provost and the demand of the majority of the faculty that both should step down. Instead of showing our students that the university should be a place where discussion, debate and controversy can and should flourish, IU leaders are missing the opportunity to encourage these things, denying students the opportunity to learn.

MSU’s record on this question seems incomplete, it’s true. “Diasporic Collage,” an exhibit of Puerto Rican art currently on display at the Broad Museum, includes a reproduction of a 1973 photo of Arab refugees in San Juan protesting US military aid to Israel. A week after my students and I visited the Halaby retrospective, the museum canceled its autumn opening reception, moved the artwork in question to a less prominent place and added visitors with warnings of the “Diasporic Collage” (but not, so far, the Halaby exhibition) that they will encounter the content ” which provokes Israeli-Palestinian relations” by displaying “protest signs that include controversial content.” I understand why the organizers of the show are upset, but this is still mild compared to the closing of the Halaby show by IU. Our Big Ten rival MSU’s ability to put on its own Halaby show without fear is my university’s embarrassment.