ISSUE project room campaign
An overview of community efforts asking that ISSUE Project Room make a public statement on the genocide in Palestine & protect workers from censorship.
This campaign, which included an open letter to IPR, achieved partial success on 11/15/24 when the chair of IPR's board of directors wrote a public letter saying
"the actions of the State of Israel against the Palestinian people are consistent with genocide ... ISSUE Project Room supports the goals of a ceasefire and arms embargo, and we have no institutional cooperation with Israel or funding from their government or government-funded institutions."
The response meets three of the open letter's four demands: publicly support a ceasefire and arms embargo; make IPR's funding public; commit to amplifying Palestinian voices. Unfortunately, the chair's response also misrepresents the open letter and its authors, denies that censorship occurred, and "condemn[s]" criticisms of IPR's director as antisemitic.
Those who co-wrote the letter and spoke publicly in its support are largely low-income workers (including artists and curators) in IPR's community, among them IPR's own curators and artists-in-residence; for the board president to publicly accuse workers of lying about their experiences and "condemn" criticisms as antisemitic is bound to have a chilling effect. In conversations with NYC Noise and others, the board president also claimed one of IPR's curatorial fellows lied about their experience of censorship––despite evidence to the contrary.
Given its mischaracterizations and attacks, we do not feel this response meets the letter's fourth demand that IPR "protect artists and workers from censorship and harassment due to pro-Palestine expression."
We hope to avoid further escalations given IPR's recent steps. The board president told NYC Noise that IPR will soon publish a version of the board letter remarks that does not include the aspersions cast on community members; we look forward to seeing this statement.
IPR'S LETTER
Many elements of the board chair’s November 15 response are easily debunked by simply reading the open letter it references.
Of note:
• The chair claims the open letter attacks staff ("I am dismayed by the mischaracterization of our staff as complicit in censorship"; "I denounce any aspersions cast on our staff"), even though the open letter does not accuse staff of anything––and the chair knows firsthand that IPR's staff are among those who asked for a statement.
• The chair misrepresents the number of complainants, both explicitly––"These accusations stem from a handful of individuals" describes a letter co-written by a large group and signed by 150+––and implicitly, as when he refers to "Evil Dentist’s earlier [attempt] to condemn our organization" in describing an internal letter that was signed by seven of IPR's curatorial fellows.
This posturing is an attempt to frame community concerns as the acts of a few discreditable individuals, as if they're outside parties making baseless attacks. The reality is that the open letter's criticisms of ISSUE's director and board all come directly from IPR's artists, curators, members, and staff––and many of those involved made private entreaties for thirteen months before co-writing something public.
TIMELINE
2023-10-11 –– Censorship of land acknowledgment performance script at IPR gala (date-&-time stamp).
2023-12-06 –– Internal letter (signed by seven IPR curatorial fellows; as with most of what's here, names are redacted given the chair's attacks) asking for a statement on the genocide, PACBI endorsement, and commitment to highlight and program Palestinian workers.
2024-01-17 –– Internal response from IPR board president, refusing to make any statement on the genocide (link provided in RLD's 11/15/24 letter).
2024-11-04 –– Open Letter to IPR, published online and emailed to IPR's board. Prior to the chair's response calling the letter antisemitic, it received 175 signatures; of those, over 50 signatories work(ed) for ISSUE (including 43 performers, 15 artists-in-residence, and 10 technical workers and staff). The letter's co-writers have opted not to publish the signatories given the increased scrutiny on participants following the chair's remarks––and in hopes that IPR will quickly finish meeting the letter's demands.
2024-11-07 –– IPR artist-in-residence Kwami Winfield used her performance to stage a protest.
2024-11-15 –– Board president's public response.
2024-11-16 –– IPR IG post linking to board president's response.