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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://hyperallergic.com/871345/moma-shutters-as-500-protesters-infiltrate-atrium-in-support-of-palestine/">hyperallergic.com</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">MoMA Shutters as 500+ Protesters Infiltrate Atrium in Support of Palestine</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Rhea Nayyar</div>
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<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">February 10, 2024<br></div>
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<img width="391" height="293" src="https://i0.wp.com/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2024/02/20240210_154031.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&quality=100&ssl=1" alt="" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;"> <span>Activists took over the Museum of Modern Art's second-floor atrium for a massive demonstration. (all photos Rhea Nayyar/<i>Hyperallergic</i> unless otherwise noted)</span>
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<p>The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in Manhattan unexpectedly closed its
galleries to the public at around 3:45pm Saturday, February 10, after
over 500 pro-Palestinian protesters took over the building’s
second-floor atrium for a massive demonstration. By some organizers’
estimates, more than 800 activists filled the museum.</p>
<p>Co-organized by several advocacy groups and activists, the
demonstration included a variety of tactics. Starting at 3:30pm,
organizers split up to distribute over 1,000 custom-printed imitation
MoMA pamphlets calling out five museum trustees — <a href="https://hyperallergic.com/tag/leon-black/">Leon Black</a>, <a href="https://hyperallergic.com/tag/larry-fink/">Larry Fink</a>, <a href="https://hyperallergic.com/649814/protesters-convene-at-moma-to-denounce-police-violence-in-colombia/">Paula Crown</a>, <a href="https://hyperallergic.com/844996/moma-closes-during-climate-protests-against-board-chair/">Marie-Josée Kravis</a>,
and Ronald S. Lauder — and their alleged financial and corporate
investments into Israeli military weaponry and surveillance technology,
real estate, and foreign support groups. Shortly afterwards, hundreds of
demonstrators began a sit-in in the atrium.</p>
<p>A group of demonstrators unveiled a banner from the second floor
overlooking the museum’s lobby and rear exit that read “MoMA Trustees
Fund Genocide, Apartheid, and Settler Colonialism” for people on the
first floor to view.</p>
<img width="391" height="293" src="https://i0.wp.com/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2024/02/20240210_160114-1200x900.jpg?resize=780%2C585&quality=100&ssl=1" alt="" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;">The
organizers called out MoMA trustees’ alleged financial ties to
financial and corporate investments in Israeli military efforts.
<img width="391" height="308" src="https://i0.wp.com/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2024/02/20240210_165028-1200x946.jpg?resize=780%2C615&quality=100&ssl=1" alt="" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;">The museum closed its galleries to the public at around 3:45pm.
<p>From the third and fifth floors, additional banners — calling for an
immediate ceasefire, a free Palestine, and for all prisons to be emptied
— were launched from the viewing ledges, suspended alongside artist
Carolina Caycedo’s current display of fishing net sculptures.</p>
<p>“Free, free Palestine,” chanted protesters after the signs were
unveiled, followed by a group reading of a passage from the imitation
pamphlet addressed to visitors that elaborated on the premise of the
protest and the decision to criticize the museum specifically.</p>
<p>A 27-year-old illustrator and printmaker from Queens who participated in the sit-in and asked to remain anonymous told <em>Hyperallergic</em>
that they learned about the protest on social media. “Our taxes are
already going to genocide,” they said. “The best thing that can come
from this is people canceling their memberships to MoMA and boycotting
until the museum divests from board members who fund genocide.”</p>
<p>“The museum should be a place for us New Yorkers, and a majority of
us aren’t on board with funding genocide,” the artist continued. “Cancel
your museum memberships, don’t pay for the $30 ticket.”</p>
<p>Within less than 15 minutes, MoMA security closed the galleries,
began turning away people who wanted to enter, and allowed visitors to
exit. Members of the press were allowed into the building at
approximately 4:45pm. Around 5:15pm, organizers began to trickle out of
the museum and continued the protest outside, marching down Midtown
Manhattan.</p>
<img width="391" height="293" src="https://i0.wp.com/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2024/02/LONG-LIVE-CITIBIKES-1200x900.jpg?resize=780%2C585&quality=100&ssl=1" alt="" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;">Protesters wave signs in a show of solidarity with Palestine in front of the Brooklyn Museum. (photo Maya Pontone/<em>Hyperallergic</em>)
<p>Today’s action at MoMA coincided with another demonstration that drew
over 300 people outside the Brooklyn Museum, organized by Within Our
Lifetime Palestine (WOL Palestine). At least four protesters were
arrested there, as confirmed by <em>Hyperallergic</em> on the scene.</p>
<p>Both actions also happened at the same time as the release of an <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd7dk_AIt_6USKTw9jSRI8mraKwOJQXmwNGq9zznBTyTh1V7A/viewform">open letter</a>
signed by more than 100 NYC cultural workers from organizations
including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and the
Studio Museum protesting the “the disgraceful silence of our
institutions as Israel commits genocide in Gaza.”</p>
<p>“While the museums and cultural institutions of our city claim to
hold commitments to justice, social action, and equity, their silence
has rendered them complicit in the killing of over 27,000 people in
Palestine, with thousands more trapped under rubble from bombings since
October 7, 2023,” the letter reads.</p>
<p>MoMA has not yet responded to <em>Hyperallergic</em>‘s request for comment.</p>
<img width="391" height="293" src="https://i0.wp.com/hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2024/02/20240210_154121-1200x900.jpg?resize=780%2C585&quality=100&ssl=1" alt="" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;">At
MoMA, banners were launched from the viewing ledges, suspended
alongside artist Carolina Caycedo’s current display of fishing net
sculptures.
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<p><a href="https://hyperallergic.com/author/rhea-nayyar/" rel="author">
<br> </a></p><div>
<p>
Rhea Nayyar (she/her) is a New York-based teaching artist who is
passionate about elevating minority perspectives within the academic and
editorial spheres of the art world. Rhea received her BFA in Visual...
<a href="https://hyperallergic.com/author/rhea-nayyar/" rel="author">
More by Rhea Nayyar </a>
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