Seattle’s Wing Luke Museum (WLM) is closed till additional discover after 24 employees members walked out final Wednesday, Could 22, in protest of a pop-up exhibition that they are saying conflates anti-Zionism with antisemitism and fails to heart Palestinian voices.
For the previous six days, 22 staffers of the pan-Asian Pacific American artwork and historical past museum have been withholding their labor in response to the opening of Confronting Hate Collectively, a touring exhibition on show till June 30 that the WLM describes as “a up to date portrayal of racism, hate and bigotry and group collective motion.”
A collaboration with the Black Heritage Society of Washington State and the Washington State Jewish Historic Society, the pop-up was impressed by Confronting Hate 1937-1952, a 2022 present that centered on the American Jewish Committee’s mid-Twentieth century media marketing campaign to fight antisemitism in the USA. It was developed between the three organizations to mirror Seattle’s historical past of racial segregation and “redlining,” which barred Asian, Black, and Jewish group members from shopping for or renting property in sure neighborhoods.
Citing “restricted and anti-Palestinian views” within the present exhibition, putting WLM employees say they won’t resume work till the museum meets their calls for, which embody eradicating any language equating anti-Zionism with antisemitism from all WLM publications and addressing the alleged lack of Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim views, which they argue goes towards the museum’s “Group-Primarily based Exhibition Mannequin.”
On Instagram, the putting employees pointed to a textual content panel featured in Confronting Hate Collectively that characterizes antisemitism as “typically disguised as anti-Zionism.” As examples, the panel cites a November 22 report of an area synagogue being spray-painted with the phrases “cease the killing.” The textual content additionally refers to unspecified accounts of native highschool college students being verbally assaulted by classmates and pupil protesters expressing assist for Hamas and calling for “a Palestinian state stretching ‘from the river to the ocean,’” a phrase that the panel describes as “outlined by the erasure of Israel.”
After employees grew to become conscious of the textual content on Could 14, they despatched their checklist of calls for in a Could 19 letter that resulted in two conferences between employees and management however didn’t result in any modifications within the exhibition. On Could 21, the museum held a gap reception for Confronting Hate Collectively, with a public opening slated for the next day.
In response, 24 members of the museum’s 52-person employees walked out on Could 22, and all however two of them proceed to refuse to work till management meets their said calls for. They’re calling on the museum to conduct a evaluate of all non permanent exhibitions by way of the Group Advisory Committee (CAC), a course of developed by the museum that enables native artists, group leaders, and employees to develop exhibition narratives and curate historic objects. Strikers are additionally demanding that the museum reevaluate “any partnerships that try to border Palestinian liberation and anti-Zionism as antisemitism.”
Placing employees say the walkout was additionally a response to management inaction since employees first expressed issues over a press release that known as Israel’s assaults on Gaza “a battle within the Center East.” The assertion was reportedly signed by WLM executives and different Asian-American organizations belonging to the Asian Jewish Initiative, a coalition of Seattle Asian and Jewish teams co-chaired by 15 organizations together with the pro-Israel Anti-Defamation League.
In response to a request for remark, WLM Communications Director Steve McLean advised Hyperallergic that “the exhibit is a place to begin for a bigger dialogue and that dialogue is ongoing,” including that the present is “designed to encourage different voices so as to add their story” because it proceeds to journey to different venues, which have but to be decided. McLean additionally clarified that whereas the museum contributed three panels, the textual content panel that mentioned antisemitism was contributed by one other organizer of the present.
“We approached them and requested them to contemplate what our employees had been saying they usually accommodated. They responded graciously and pretty rapidly with making some revisions,” McLean mentioned, though couldn’t make clear to Hyperallergic what modifications have been made.
Situated in Seattle’s Chinatown Worldwide District, the WLM was within the information final September, when authorities arrested a person who used a sledgehammer to smash by the museum’s glass home windows whereas making racially biased feedback.
Whereas it’s unclear when the museum will reopen, WLM employees have launched a fundraiser to crowdfund monetary aid for strikers and assist employees efforts in the course of the walkout.
“We love the Wing Luke Museum and are persistently honored to steward the tales of our group members, a lot of whom have skilled the damaging hurt of white supremacy, genocide, and violence that parallels the expertise of Palestinians in the present day,” employees wrote within the marketing campaign’s description. “Our solidarity with Palestine needs to be mirrored in our AA/NHPI establishments.”
Editor’s notice 5/29/24 3pm EST: This text has been up to date with quotes from WLM Communications Director Steve McLean.
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