Jacir resolution

Dec. 17, 2004

Type: discussion

It's very good news that Wichita University and the Mid-Kansas Jewish
Federation came to their senses and are allowing Ms. Jacir's exhibition
to continue with no strings attached.

According to the MKJF's statement, their excuse is – basically – that
they're clueless:

Judith Press, Executive Director:

"We made a request to the University, and we are under the impression
at this point that this was not an appropriate request," Press said.
"We did not realize that this was considered inappropriate or
infringing on the artist's rights. We need to not ask for that if it is
not appropriate."

The University *should have* known it was inappropriate, and if not,
they *should have* consulted with the professionals running the museum
in order to determine the appropriateness of the "request" from the
MKJF. But according to a commenter on NEWSgrist posting under the name
Debbie Gordon (with a wichita.edu email address), "the lead donor in a
major building project on campus. Someone the news got to her about the
exhibit, and she threatened to pull her donation." So we see what sort
of "request" this was – one that is very hard to refuse.

What is somewhat bizarre to me regarding this whole affair is that
there are plenty of ways to encourage dialogue around the exhibition
which would have been sensitive to everyone's needs and expectations.
Public panels, symposia, gallery talks and etc probably would have been
acceptable to the artist, but the University simply took some
ham-handed approach to the situation and compounded the stupidity with
lack of communication between all involved.

It's important to remember that the outcry against the MKJF's "request"
to place brochures and signage outside the gallery wasn't an outcry
against dialogue in the white box of the contemporary museum gallery.
It was an outcry against springing a forced dialogue on a particular
artist that would have pitted Jacir's aesthetics against the MKJF's
polemics and propaganda without consulting with the artist.

++++++

In response to these posts on NEWSgrist:

http://newsgrist.typepad.com/underbelly/2004/12/art_intolerance.html
http://newsgrist.typepad.com/underbelly/2004/12/_forwarded_mess.html
http://newsgrist.typepad.com/underbelly/2004/12/arts_intoleranc.html

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