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" and that "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 artists-in-residence and former curators; for a professor and board president to publicly accuse workers of lying about their experiences and "condemn" their 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 former 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 significant steps in cooperation. IPR's board president told NYC Noise that the organization 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, and in the coming days will provide a fact-check of IPR's public response here.

TIMELINE

2023-10-11 –– Censorship of land acknowledgment performance script at IPR gala.

2023-12-06 –– Internal letter (signed by seven IPR curatorial fellows, redacted here) 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 PACBI or to make any statement on the genocide (link provided in RLD's 11/15/24 letter).

2024-06-05 –– Arab.AMP cancelation post.

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 have previously worked for ISSUE (including 43 past and present performers, 15 current and former artists-in-residence, and 10 current and former technical workers and staff). The letter's co-writers are currently opting 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.

2024-11-15 –– Board president's public response.

2024-11-16 –– IPR IG post linking to board president's response.