Organizing & Actions
American Museum of Natural History
The museum has been silent on the issue of renaming Columbus Day as Indigenous Peoples Day, and it has yet to move forward on the acknowledgement that its building sits on occupied Lenape land—a decision wholly under its own control. We have condemned this position of non-advocacy and this reluctance to adopt an Acknowledgement as aggressive actions against Indigenous peoples. We have demanded that the museum take immediate steps to remedy the harms. Decolonize, Reclaim, Reimagine.
Brooklyn Museum
We demand accountability from the BK Museum that claims to serve our borough while being complicit with the forces that are displacing and dispossessing our communities. To paraphrase the poet Jayne Cortez. “The Museum wants our art, our culture, our visitor demographic…but not our people”.
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Whitney Museum
We respect and appreciate the artists and curators of the biennial, along with the staff who have spoken out against Kanders. We also appreciate Michael Rakowitz’s decision to boycott the Biennial. We are organizing and in conversation with biennial artists on how we can pressure the museum to do the right thing, which begins with the removal of Warren Kanders. It is important to note that Warren Kanders is just the start of the crisis at the Whitney. There is no safe space for profiteers of state violence.
Palestine
The promotion of art and culture is a crucial part of Israel’s attempts to legitimize and normalize the status quo of Apartheid. As artists, we can and should resist becoming tools for art washing the Israeli occupation of Palestine. We can and should act in solidarity with our fellow artists and cultural workers in Palestine who have called for the cultural boycott of Israel. The time for hand-wringing and “moral ambivalence” is over. Boycott is the floor not the ceiling. A first step is to take this pledge of resistance.
Movement Space
