March 7, 2024
On February 15, 2024, participating artists from Yerba Buena Center for the Arts’ (YBCA) Bay Area Now 9 triennial—along with allies and comrades from the local artist community, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) Bay Area, Writers Against the War on Gaza (WAWOG), and Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM)—interrupted YBCA’s “Love Letter to SoMA” program with a “Love Letter to Gaza.”
Their “Love Letter to Gaza” consisted of artists Paz G., Tracy Ren, Jeffrey Cheung, Leila Weefur, Sholeh Asgary, champoy, Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo, and Courtney Desiree Morris revising their works on view to express an unambiguous alliance to Palestine and Palestinians—spray painting sculptures with “Free Palestine,” draping the white wall gallery with banners calling for immediate and permanent ceasefire, and disseminating leaflets with their demands of YBCA.
At its core, this action was organized to refuse institutional censorship of artist solidarity with the Palestinian liberation struggle, to demand YBCA cut ties with Zionist donors, board members, and funding organizations, and to require the space to commit to the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI). As early as December 2023, multiple artists made requests with the institution to alter or amend their works on view to make clear their alignment with Palestine. All artists were met with typical, administrative jargon that declined their propositions, citing “deadlines” and “contractual agreements” pertaining to the approval of artwork.
With these responses, not only did YBCA refuse to acknowledge the Palestinian genocide or YBCA’s financial and social connections to individuals and organizations funding said genocide—namely, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Koret Foundation—the gallery employed the age-old white supremacist tactic of blaming their bureaucratic inflexibility on calendaring and paperwork instead of naming their political alignment with Israel and Zionist ideology.
It’s funny how it always comes back to paperwork.
The triennial opened October 6, 2023, coinciding directly with amplified genocidal occupation of Palestine by Israeli forces that has resulted in the murder of over 30,000 Palestinians since October 7, 2023. Many of the organizing artists have noted that there is nothing radical about refusing to co-sign genocide and that supporting Palestinian liberation is actually foundational to their artistic practices.
In an era marked by language and imagery stolen from liberation movements used to obscure institutional ties to the larger imperialist project—think about how many catalog essays you’ve read where the word “revolutionary” has been utilized to describe an exhibition funded by Citibank—these artists insisted that the gallery live up to their word. If the central question for the triennial was to consider “what artists are making, thinking, dreaming about right now,” the curators got their answer. At this moment, the cognitive dissonance is too glaring to ignore and there isn’t much to lose. As we dive deeper into late stage capitalism, and the rent soars and the militarization increases in the Bay, artists in the United States are recognizing the interconnectedness between their struggles to survive with those of oppressed people globally.
YBCA informed the eight artists that their work would be de-installed and placed in storage due to their “disruptive” and “polarizing” participation in this protest, as well as their “unreasonable demands.” The institution has since published two insubstantial statements on their website condemning the artists and their supporters, calling the protesters “hateful” and noting that YBCA does not see this resistance as “art.” Since the action, the institution has continually refused to answer for their allegiance to Israel or address their endorsement of genocide by way of their silence and aggressive censorship of pro-Palestinian artists. YBCA—a space that claims “to curate exhibitions that celebrate creative expression and foster meaningful connection”—remains closed post action and, as of March 6, 2024, the Chief Executive Officer, Sara Fenske Bahat, has vacated her role citing that it is the “right time to leave.”
The initial statement from YBCA notes that the freedom of expression that they pride themselves in encouraging “does not mean freedom to unilaterally disregard the norms and behaviors that enable us to create safe and welcoming spaces for diverse viewpoints.” I’ve been stuck on this sentence since it was published. This organization, along with many, many others, has told us who they truly are and I think it’s time we listen.
What does it mean for us, as artists, writers, arts workers, and art lovers, that calling for an end to genocide is understood as disruptive or antithetical to the arts spaces we give our work to? To disrupt, reject, and refuse colonization and apartheid will never align with the desired outcomes of the white wall gallery because that’s what these spaces run on.
How radical can an organization be if its constituents (artists, employees, and visitors) are silenced when advocating for a just world?
Current and former YBCA employees have published an Open Letter in response to the suppression of artists’ voices, before and after the February 15th “Love Letter to Gaza” demonstration. The letter has garnered hundreds of signatures of support. Variable West unequivocally supports the organized artists, former and current employees of YBCA, and all people fighting for Palestinian liberation.