Israel-Hamas war sparks strife at San Francisco museums

San Francisco boasts a proud history of political protest and radical art, so it’s no surprise that local artists have been outspoken in their calls for a cease-fire in Gaza — and for the museums where they exhibit to join them.

But those calls have largely gone unacknowledged by The City’s major art institutions.

These local tensions mirror the strained discourse throughout the art world around the ongoing Israeli offensive in Gaza, with artist-led protests occurring at art institutions nationally and globally .

On Feb. 15, eight artists exhibiting in the ninth iteration of “Bay Area Now” — a triennial exhibition at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts — altered their own works with messages in support of Palestine.

They also called on YBCA to join the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel , and demanded that the museum “stop censoring artists’ language, work and programming that involves and centers Palestinian liberation,” referencing the museum’s refusal to allow artist Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo to display the words “Free Palestine” on the museum’s marquee as part of a 2023 commission.

“Many artists were feeling tension and confusion and wondering how to show up in the arts,” said Leila Weefur, one of the protesting artists.

YBCA closed the exhibition to the public and issued a statement referring to the protestors’ actions as “disruptive,” and their demands to “remove Zionist board members” as “unreasonable.” The museum promised to “carefully remove and store the altered installations.”

But that response, and further allegations of YBCA censoring artists , led YBCA’s interim CEO, Sara Fenske Bahat, to resign in March . “Bay Area Now” reopened later that month, with the altered artworks still on view. YBCA released a statement clarifying that “the opinions expressed by each artist are their own and are not those of YBCA.”

“We do not have plans to divest from any specific funders,” YBCA interim CEO Jim Rettew said.

In April, seven of the 54 artists accepted into “California Jewish Open,” an open-call exhibition at the Contemporary Jewish Museum opening June 6, withdrew from the show in response to the museum’s request that artists sign a contract relinquishing any say in how their work would be displayed.

The contract was put in place for artists “to consent to their work being in proximity to other artworks they may or may not agree with,” said Heidi Rabben, the museum’s senior curator.

That included art that expressed grief over the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, as well as others voicing support for Palestinian rights and calling for a cease-fire. But some artists took issue with this approach.

“So, I don’t know how this show is going to be curated or framed, but I’m just supposed to hand over my work and get no say?” artist Sophia Sobko said.

Further, “being told what Jewish people find offensive conflates Jewishness to Zionism, which is antisemitic,” artist Kate Laster said. “It is antisemitic to equate and co-sign our names on a complicit genocide.”

That led the California Jewish Artists for Palestine coalition to propose its own conditions for participation, including that the museum divest from funding sources with pro-Zionist or pro-Israeli ties.

According to the museum’s interim executive director, Kerry King, CJM has received funding from the Israeli government, though not since 2021. However, another funder, the Helen Diller Family Foundation, has been accused of funding Canary Mission, an organization that doxxes pro-Palestinian activists. CJM’s primary individual donor remains anonymous.

Regarding the request for divestment and transparency around funding, King said that was “not something we would entirely know from all of the individuals who donate to us, from membership-level donation up. I don’t know how to be a museum, an organization that has funding and is able to open our doors, with that kind of divestment request.”

Following the museum’s refusal to accept its conditions, CJAFP withdrew its artists’ work from the exhibition. CJM will leave the wall space empty where their work would have been, in order “to not try to erase what transpired, but to be transparent about it and to also say that connection sometimes is impossible,” Rabben said.

“It feels like there’s an attempt to make it look like we’re the ones refusing to engage in dialogue,” artist Steph Kudisch said. “But this is not the time for dialogue. We want a complete and permanent cease-fire and an end to the genocide.”

Tensions have also reached the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. In April, employees penned an open letter signed by nearly 100 current and former staff members expressing “ solidarity with the Palestinian people” and demanding the museum take a public position and join the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel.

To date, the letter has received more than 340 signatures, including from members of the public, but advocates say it was largely met with a nonresponse.

“The strategy that the museum is using is that we don’t know what’s okay to talk about and what’s not,” said Amy Lange, an SFMOMA employee.

While staff members are feeling emboldened to wear watermelon pins and decorate their cubicles with pro-Palestinian artwork and imagery, Lange said, at least one SFMOMA employee was told they could not wear a keffiyeh — a traditional Middle Eastern head covering — to work.

“As we move forward, we will continue to foster dialogue amongst our staff and explore programmatic opportunities to bring our broader community together in ways that recognize and respect both the differences and commonalities between us,” SFMOMA Director Christopher Bedford told The Examiner in a statement.

In 2020, SFMOMA, CJM and YBCA all made public statements in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. But some feel that the culture of silence promoted at San Francisco’s arts institutions is emblematic of a national silence on what has been called a genocide in Gaza — and efforts to stifle those who are speaking out in opposition.

“When you take a neutral stance, you take agency away from artists,” Weefur said. “It’s clear that very strong political ideologies have no place in these institutions. But it’s confusing because we are invited into these places on the strength of our political beliefs.”