Eskenazi Art School fears "collateral damage" from IU's Halaby cancellation

Editor's Note: This story was updated on Feb. 21 at 2:02 p.m. to clarify that Halaby was in conversations with the Eskenazi Museum of Art about potential permanent installations, not the Eskenazi School.

Visiting artists have withdrawn from the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design’s visiting lecture series, and more “collateral damage” is expected in the wake of Indiana University’s cancellation of Samia Halaby’s exhibition at the Eskenazi Art Museum.

On Feb. 7, 75 faculty and staff members signed the letter, which expressed disappointment in IU’s lack of transparency in deciding to cancel the exhibition. The university cited security concerns, though it has not provided any evidence of a specific threat. The letter also laments damage to the school’s reputation caused by the cancellation.

“The administration’s abrupt cancellation of the exhibition compromises IU’s reputation as a haven of creative expression, academic freedom, and human rights,” faculty said in the letter. “We can only anticipate further challenges recruiting faculty, students, and visitors disinclined to participate in an academic environment with such tight administrative control over creative activity and research.”

Speakers from visiting artist series withdraw

The letter says three artists already have withdrawn from the school’s McKinney Visiting Artist Series this spring, and another former visiting artist “plans never to return to IU.”

New York-based visual artist Theresa Ganz, who was expected to visit the Eskenazi School on March 1, wrote on Instagram that she could not “in good conscience” participate in the lecture series while Halaby’s exhibition remains canceled.

“To speak and share my work as a Jewish woman while a Palestinian woman is being silenced would be to give cover to those who like to imply that anything Palestinian is automatically antisemitic,” Ganz wrote. “If the cancellation of her show is reversed I will happily participate but for now, I cannot in good conscience.”

A duo of artists, Nina Sarnelle and Selwa Sweidan, who were set to visit the school on Feb. 23, said in a letter to IU Provost Rahul Shrivastav they were planning to cancel if IU didn’t reverse the decision and uphold values of academic freedom on campus.

“Now, more than ever, institutions like Indiana University need to support academic freedom and Palestinian voices,” Sarnelle and Sweidan said in their letter. “Instead, we find institutions canceling engagements with Palestinians, shutting down solidarity groups, and abusing the term ‘antisemitism’ to justify sweeping censorship.”

Both artist events are currently displayed as canceled on the Eskenazi School’s website.

Faculty and staff question alleged security concerns

Eskenazi Art Museum’s director, David Brenneman, notified abstract artist Halaby the museum would no longer be hosting her work on Dec. 20. Halaby is a Palestinian-born artist who was displaced from British Mandatory Palestine during the 1948 Nakba before growing up in the Midwest and attending IU for her MFA.

Shrivastav said during a faculty council meeting the exhibition was canceled due to security concerns of the exhibition becoming a “lightning rod” on campus amidst the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict.

Daniel Martinez, assistant professor of architecture at the Eskenazi School, said faculty and staff members met with Shrivastav on Feb. 9 to ask questions and discuss concerns about the exhibit’s cancellation.

“I don’t think many people received the answers they were hoping to get,” Martinez said. “We felt that a lot of the answers were still fairly vague.”

Martinez said during the meeting, Shrivastav didn’t reference any specific security concerns or threats, and instead referenced broader tensions and protests on campus. Martinez, who said he was able to preview some of the planned exhibition, questioned why Halaby’s exhibition would be provocative.

“Her artwork is not overtly political,” Martinez said. “There are many artists in the world who actively strive to put forth political messages in their work to address activism through their art. We found none of this really in Samia’s abstract paintings.”

Faculty and staff worry about a ‘tarnished’ relationship with Halaby

The Eskenazi School is a separate entity from the Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art that was set to host Halaby’s first American retrospective, but faculty members at the Eskenazi School worry canceling Halaby’s exhibit could have negative impacts on both the museum and school’s national reputation.

The letter references the negative media attention the art museum and IU have received in recent months, citing the cancellation’s coverage in the New York Times and Chronicle of Higher Education as well as condemnations from PEN America, the National Coalition Against Censorship and the American Association of University Professors.

Martinez said in addition to three visiting artists canceling their events, faculty members involved in search committees for new faculty candidates are worried about how the incident will affect prospective employees.

“They have heard from candidates who are aware of this, because it has been covered nationally, that expressed concerns about IU as a potential employer, as a potential home,” Martinez said.

The faculty and staff letter urged IU to consider shortening or postponing Halaby’s exhibition to address the alleged security concerns, and encouraged collaboration with Michigan State University, which is also set to exhibit Halaby’s work this summer. Martinez worries even if IU agreed to host the exhibition, Halaby would no longer be willing.

“She had considered the Midwest as the place where she landed in a very vulnerable period in her life and her family’s life, and a place that she had considered home and formative to her career as an artist,” Martinez said. “So this was definitely a blow to something that was a rooted part of her identity and her life story.”

Martinez said prior to the cancellation, Halaby had been in conversations about adding some of her work to archives and permanent collections at Indiana University following the retrospective – a university, the letter notes, that she helped build the national stature of as a student at the Eskenazi School.

“She was willing — and quite happy — to be in conversations with our institution about this being the kind of resting place for these significant artifacts. And as far as I know, all of that is out the window now,” Martinez said. “Our relationship with a really accomplished alumna and part of the IU family is completely tarnished.”

Reach Brian Rosenzweig at brian@heraldt.com.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: IU decision to cancel Samia Halaby exhibit prompts artist withdrawals