Indiana University canceled a planned exhibit of the artwork of Palestinian-American artist Samia Halaby. Now a one-day exhibit by new organizers is sold out.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
After a month of protests, the life and work of an accomplished Palestinian artist will be featured in a theater in Bloomington, Ind. The show is called “Samia Halaby Uncanceled.” And the one-day event comes after a battle over academic freedom, censorship and politics. Here’s Aubrey Wright of member station WFIU.
AUBREY WRIGHT, BYLINE: The artist, Samia Halaby, is in her late 80s now. Halaby’s family fled Palestine in 1948 and settled in the Midwest. She completed a master’s in fine arts at Indiana University in the ’60s and later served as a faculty member. She’s one of the university’s most successful artists, and she’s recognized as a pioneer of abstract art.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SAMIA HALABY: I am trying my best to reduce what I have been trying to do all throughout my career – remove perspective, remove shading, remove shape and just arrive at a space of light and depth.
WRIGHT: That’s Halaby in a featured artist talk at IU’s Eskenazi Museum of Art in 2021. For three years, museum curators and Halaby’s team worked on a homecoming exhibit that was supposed to open this February. But the white walls of the museum are bare, and the exhibit room is dark and empty. The university abruptly canceled the exhibit late last year. In the two-sentence email, the museum director said there were security concerns. It was a decision that upset the artist and her grand-niece and collaborator, Madison Gordon. Gordon says they tried to learn more for weeks.
MADISON GORDON: We asked to have a conversation. We asked for them to elaborate more in writing what this was about. We heard nothing.
WRIGHT: And there was no further explanation. The university declined multiple requests for interviews. But in another email, a university spokesperson said…
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