[News] Artists Alter Their Own Work at YBCA - Bay Area Tell YBCA: Stop Censoring Art for Palestine!

Sun Feb 18 14:36:42 EST 2024

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kqed.org 
<https://www.kqed.org/arts/13952460/artists-deface-work-ybca-pro-palestine-protest> 

  Artists Alter Their Own Work at YBCA in Pro-Palestinian Protest | KQED

Nastia Voynovskaya
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Feb 16, 2024

a man in jeans hangs a sign reading Ceasefire over two paintings against 
a white wall

Artist Jeffrey Cheung alters his own work with a cloth that says 
'Ceasefire Now!' during a demonstration calling for a ceasefire in Gaza 
and criticizing YBCA leadership for their support of Israel at the show 
Bay Area Now at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco on Feb. 
15, 2024. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)

Eight artists painted and draped pro-Palestinian messages over their own 
work during an event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts 
<https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/ybca> (YBCA) on Thursday evening as part 
of a surprise protest to demand the museum show support, publicly and 
institutionally, for the people of Gaza.

At the event, titled A Love Letter to SOMA 
<https://ybca.org/event/love-letter-to-soma/>, protesters unfurled a 
sign reading “Stop Funding Genocide” as several artists currently 
featured in the museum’s /Bay Area Now 9/ group show began to alter 
their pieces on display.

Ceramic artist Paz G spray painted their sculpture /You Have a Broken 
Heart/ in bright pink letters reading “Viva Palestina — Free Palestine.” 
Jeffrey Cheung, whose colorful, large-scale paintings of abstracted nude 
forms hang in the main gallery, hung a sign reading “Ceasefire Now!” 
over his works.

A black ceramic sculpture in a shallow pool is covered with pink spray 
paint reading "Viva Palestina - Free Palestine"
Artist Paz G altered their work with spray paint that says ‘Viva 
Palestina – Free Palestine,’ calling for a ceasefire in Gaza during a 
protest at the show ‘Bay Area Now’ at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in 
San Francisco on Feb. 15, 2024. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)

The protest at YBCA comes during a week in which pro-Palestinian 
demonstrators disrupted programming at other high-profile arts 
institutions 
<https://www.artforum.com/news/pro-palestine-demonstrators-take-message-to-museums-549239/>. 
A reported 800 people flooded New York’s Museum of Modern Art with 
pro-Palestinian chants and flyers, causing security to shut down the 
galleries within 15 minutes. Other protests have occurred at the 
Brooklyn Museum and Jewish Museum in New York, the British Museum in 
London, and the Hamburger Bahnhof museum in Berlin.

At YBCA, the artist champoy, along with several people wearing masks and 
keffiyehs, turned champoy’s boat sculpture into an altar for Gazan 
people killed in Israeli airstrikes, with their names and ages written 
on notecards. Tracy Ren laid a banner on their wool rug installation 
that read “No more blood money — ceasefire now.”

A scultupre of a boat is covered in a drape of white and red, with 
notecards surrounding on the wooden floor below
Art by champoy is altered during a protest calling for a ceasefire in 
Gaza at the show ‘Bay Area Now’ at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in 
San Francisco on Feb. 15, 2024. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)

Other artists who modified their works included Sholeh Asgary, Courtney 
Desiree Morris and Leila Weefur.

Meanwhile, protestors from several Bay Area activist groups — including 
Jewish Voice for Peace, Palestinian Feminist Collective, U.S. 
Palestinian Communities Network and Palestinian Youth Movement — 
addressed the crowd through a megaphone.

“Art is a universal language meant to speak out against injustice. The 
institution of art, just like every U.S. corporation, is aligned with 
the state of Israel,” said Palestinian American muralist Chris Gazaleh. 
“As an artist, I use my art to educate about my people. Artists in 
general — we need to speak out against what is happening. It is our duty.”

A woman in a denim jacket and keffiyeh speaks into a megaphone to a 
group of about three dozen museumgoers
Aysha Abraibesh speaks during a protest calling for a ceasefire in Gaza 
at the show ‘Bay Area Now’ at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San 
Francisco on Feb. 15, 2024. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)

“We’ve come to tell San Francisco and the people of Yerba Buena that 
we’re not gonna stop,” said Maisa Morrar of Palestinian Feminist 
Collective. “We’re gonna show up in your art exhibits, at the Academy of 
Sciences, at the Golden Gate Bridge, at the Bay Bridge, at the Federal 
Building — we’re gonna be there. This genocide is one too many lives lost.”

The protest took place as the death toll in Gaza, according to Gaza’s 
Health Ministry, climbs to upwards of 28,000, including 12,300 children 
and 8,400 women.

When approached at the museum for comment, YBCA’s head of art and public 
programs Amy Kisch directed inquiries to Lauren Macmadu, head of 
external relations, in attendance nearby.

“We really want to be a space where we can support the community and 
bring people together to have open conversations,” Macmadu said, adding 
that she was not prepared to discuss the specifics of the protesters’ 
demands.

Artist Chris Gazaleh speaks during a protest calling for a ceasefire in 
Gaza at the show ‘Bay Area Now’ at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in 
San Francisco on Feb. 15, 2024. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)

During the protest, activists passed out flyers with the heading “Love 
Letter to Gaza” that contained a list of demands for YBCA leadership — 
firstly, that the museum join the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic 
and Cultural Boycott of Israel, which calls for international cultural 
institutions and universities to refrain from working with Israeli 
institutions. Without naming examples, the flyer also demands that YBCA 
“stop censoring artists’ language, work and programming that involves 
and centers Palestinian liberation.”

When reached by phone, exhibiting artist Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo — who 
helped coordinate the protest, but was not in attendance — told KQED 
that in 2023, YBCA had prevented them from including the words “Free 
Palestine” on the building’s orange marquee as part of their outdoor 
installation commissioned by the museum. YBCA has previously displayed 
messages on the marquee supporting Iran’s Woman Life Freedom movement 
<https://www.instagram.com/ybca/p/CtkentCvY-8/> and Black Lives Matter 
<https://ybca.org/2020-black-lives-matter/>.

Demonstrators chant during a protest calling for a ceasefire in Gaza at 
the show Bay Area Now at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San 
Francisco on Feb. 15, 2024. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)

In a Dec. 20 email reviewed by KQED, Kisch told Branfman-Verissimo that 
YBCA “will not be able to include mention of Palestine on the marquee,” 
citing YBCA’s 501(c)(3) status, as well as its position in the SOMA 
neighborhood, directly across from the Contemporary Jewish Museum.

Asked for comment over email, YBCA CEO Sara Fenske Bahat replied that 
throughout the process with Branfman-Verissimo, “YBCA remained committed 
to exploring options to highlight their advocacy work through 
programming and/or on other platforms. Lukaza did not respond to our 
offer, but continued to collaborate on the installation of their mural.” 
(Branfman-Verissimo disputed this characterization in a follow-up 
interview.)

an overhead view of a museum gallery full of artworks, with a 
Palestinian flag hanging to the right
Demonstrators calling for a ceasefire in Gaza alter art during protest 
at the show Bay Area Now at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San 
Francisco on Feb. 15, 2024. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)

Fenske Bahat also noted that YBCA did not interrupt or attempt to stop 
Thursday night’s protest, and reiterated the museum’s commitment to 
serving as a safe gathering space for people of different identities and 
viewpoints. She did not address a KQED inquiry about YBCA’s decision to 
display marquee messages for Black Lives Matter and Iran’s Woman Life 
Freedom Movement while refusing a message in support of Palestinians.

“As you might imagine, in our own curatorial and programming decisions 
we need to carefully weigh whether we are in fact contributing to deeper 
division, something we actively seek not to do, while striving to ensure 
different perspectives are heard,” she wrote. “To date, we are not aware 
of any accusations that any /BAN9/ artists have been mistreated by our 
team.”

For their part, the artists who altered their own exhibition work are 
primarily asking YBCA to make a statement of solidarity with the 
Palestinian people.

<https://uspcn.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0ce8bf015c0d49d11d99fdefb&id=d289b1d89f&e=b8ef84bf3a> 

    Tell Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA):

    Stop Censoring Art for Palestine!

<https://uspcn.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0ce8bf015c0d49d11d99fdefb&id=45204c5259&e=b8ef84bf3a> 

On Thursday, February 15th, 2024, eight artists altered their own work 
that is being exhibited in the Bay Area Now show as part of a surprise 
protest to demand the museum show support, publicly and institutionally, 
for the people of Gaza. The artists used banners, spray paint, and other 
creative interventions to update their pieces to reflect *solidarity 
with Palestine*.

“In recent years, YBCA created robust programming and community 
engagement in response to social justice issues ranging from Black Lives 
Matter to the war in Ukraine. *Why are they silent on the genocide of 
Palestinians?”*said Champoy, a Bay Area Now 9 artist who transformed 
their boat sculpture into an altar during the demonstration. “Cultural 
workers and artists across the Bay are dreaming of a free Palestine. We 
hope that YBCA would want to be included in that vision, not working 
against it.”

*In response, YBCA closed its doors this weekend*and canceled Fresh 
Festival San Francisco, an event centering artists whose work subverts, 
disrupts, and responds to the tokenizing identity politics forced onto 
Black creatives by art institutions.

Tell the leadership of YBCA to:

  *

    *Stop censoring artists who stand for the liberation of Palestine*

  *

    Keep the altered works on view until May 5, 2024 when the Bay Area
    Now 9 exhibition is scheduled to end

  *

    Commit to collaborating with artists showing at YBCA to create
    robust programming that *centers Palestinian voices and Palestinian
    liberation*

  *

    Make a public and internal commitment to The Palestinian Campaign
    for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI)

  *

    *Publicly apologize*for censoring artists, both the Bay Area Now 9
    artists and the artists of Fresh Festival

  *

    Reopen your doors and allow the public to see the altered and
    uplifted works of the eight Bay Area Now 9 artists involved in a
    Love Letter To Gaza

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to send an email to the staff and board at YBCA, with your support for 
these demands.

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Until Liberation and Return,

Rama Kased

USPCN Bay Area Chapter Member

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