Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Indiana University cancels exhibition of prominent Palestinian artist

Critics accuses the university of scrapping the show ‘to distance itself from the cause of Palestinian freedom’

More than 5,000 people have signed a petition urging Indiana University to reconsider its decision to cancel an exhibition of a prominent Palestinian artist’s work. 

The state university’s Bloomington campus recently scrapped plans for a retrospective of paintings by Samia Halaby, who was born in Jerusalem, raised in the Midwest and whose work hangs in the permanent collections of the Guggenheim, the National Gallery of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago.

The university said in a statement that it had canceled the exhibit, which was set to open Feb. 10, “due to concerns about guaranteeing the integrity of the exhibit for its duration,” but has not elaborated on the nature of  these concerns.

Supporters of Halaby, 87, charge that the university is shunning her for speaking out against Israel’s campaign in Gaza. Her Instagram posts include accusations that Israel is committing genocide.

The campus of Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. The university had been set to host the exhibit Samia Halaby: Centers of Energy at its Eskenazi Museum of Art. Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images

The petition, organized by Madison Gordon, Halaby’s grandniece and a trustee of her foundation, accuses the university of failing to uphold its commitment to academic freedom and of undermining Palestinians.

It “is apparent that the University is canceling the show to distance itself from the cause of Palestinian freedom,” the petition reads. “For 50 years, Samia has been an outspoken and principled activist for the dignity, freedom, and self-determination of the Palestinian people.”

Plans at the university’s Eskenazi Museum of Art to host Samia Halaby: Centers of Energy had begun three years ago and included a sister exhibition at Michigan State, which is still slated to mount the retrospective at its Broad Art Museum later this year. 

The controversy over Halaby, who spent a decade on the faculty of the Yale School of Art, follows last month’s suspension of an Indiana University professor after the Palestine Solidarity Committee, a student organization which he advised, hosted an unauthorized event.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.