The Eskenazi Museum of Art at Indiana University (IU) has cancelled a retrospective of Palestinian artist Samia Halaby’s work that was scheduled to open on 10 February, due to stated “safety concerns”.
The exhibition, which would have been Halaby’s first retrospective in the USA, was slated to include major early paintings and prints from the museum’s collection and over 20 works loaned from public and private collections as well as the artist herself. It was set to be accompanied by a catalogue entitled Samia Halaby: Centres of Energy, which is, however, still available for pre-sale via the University of Chicago Press.
A sister exhibition at the Michigan State University (MSU) Broad Art Museum, planned for late 2024, is still due to take place. Halaby is an alumna of both MSU and IU, and served as a tenured faculty member at IU from 1969–72.
Halaby was informed of the cancellation by the museum’s leadership on 20 December 2023, despite the fast approaching opening date and the fact that the exhibition had been planned for more than three years. The leadership did not elaborate upon the “safety concerns” cited as the reason for the cancellation.
Halaby privately appealed the decision to IU president Pamela Whitten but received no reply. In response, the artist and her supporters have filed a public petition to reinstate the exhibition.
In a text accompanying the petition, Madison Gordon, a board member of the Samia Halaby Foundation, wrote that “it is apparent that the university cancelling the show to distance itself from the cause of Palestinian freedom”.
Halaby is highly vocal on social media regarding her pro-Palestinian stance, particularly during the latest phase in Israel’s war on Gaza, ongoing since October last year. On her Instagram page, the artist shared a post by Gordon promoting the petition, appealing to her followers to sign it. She also posted a portrait taken for the catalogue, writing in the caption, “We hope they reverse their decision.”
“The campus and community deserve this show, the museum staff who have worked tirelessly for the last three years deserve this show,” Gordon wrote in the caption of her post. “And Palestinians deserve to be heard and seen.”
Visit Samia Halaby’s Instagram page (@samiahalaby) to view the petition.
