New York City’s Noguchi Museum has fired three gallery visitors who said they would not comply with a controversial new rule banning staff from wearing the Palestinian headscarves known as keffiyehs. A fourth employee, the director of Visitor Services, was also fired amid the fallout from the policy announcement.
On Sunday, September 8, at least 60 people, including former employees and supporters, protested outside the Queens institution and handed out flyers informing visitors of the ban, which was announced by museum management as an update to the dress code that bans “political clothing.” which could ban ‘political clothing’. make visitors feel ‘unsafe’ or ‘uncomfortable’. More than 50 staff – two-thirds of the workforce – signed an internal petition calling for a reversal of the policy when it was first announced in late August.
The demonstration at the museum entrance this weekend took place simultaneously with a performance in the galleries by musician Alex Zhang Hungtai, who wore a keffiyeh in solidarity with the workers. Outside, former Noguchi Museum employee Trasonia Abbott addressed the crowd, as did director Amy Hau, deputy director Jennifer Lorch and board co-chairs Spencer Bailey and Susan Kessler — who were not present but whose names drew chants from protesters elicited: “Shame! ”
“We are gathered here today to mourn a once great museum,” Abbott said into a microphone.
Abbott worked at the museum for more than three years before being fired last week along with fellow gallery-goers Natalie Cappellini and Q. Chen, when they were told their jobs depended on adhering to a policy they say is indefensible.
In one meeting with Hau and human resources advisor Eric Perry on September 4, a recording of which was reviewed by HyperallergicAbbott, Cappellini and Chen learned they would be sent home without pay for wearing keffiyehs. When Cappellini asked if “cultural garments” were banned, Hau replied: “Unfortunately, the keffiyeh is also a political symbol, not just cultural.”
The staff has largely resisted this characterization, arguing that the keffiyeh is a traditional Arab headdress and that a call for an end to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza is a humanitarian rather than a political issue in any case.
“It’s one thing if I show up to work wearing Kamala Harris pins. That would be political,” said Abbott Hyperallergic. “But I think people being murdered in the massive, industrialized way that it happens — that’s not political.”
Cappellini also criticized the museum’s reasoning, calling the policy a “slippery slope.”
“It’s scary to think that anything cultural can be erased based on false claims of politicization,” she said. “What’s next? What is the next piece of clothing that will be seen as too inflammatory?”
In response to Hyperallergic‘s most recent request for comment, a spokesperson said the Noguchi Museum could not comment on personnel matters. An August 21 museum statement said: “While we understand that the intent behind wearing this garment was to express personal opinions, we recognize that such expressions may inadvertently alienate segments of our diverse visitor audience.”
On Sunday, signs with phrases like “Free Palestine” abounded, including one with the words “from the river to the sea” in Japanese and another with a message that was at the heart of workers’ arguments against the new line: “Noguchi was anti-fascist.” Currently on display at the museum are works by Isamu Noguchi that directly reference the lethality of the atomic bomb and the artist’s voluntary stay in a Japanese-American internment camp in Arizona during World War II, speakers at the demonstration pointed out.
Among them was Riki Eijima, a fourth-generation Japanese American whose ancestors were survivors of the camps; she started her address with a quote by Noguchi, who described museums as ‘a storehouse against time’.
“If this museum is to live up to its ideals of honoring Noguchi’s legacy and serving the global public, it must respect and affirm the rights of its employees and ultimately the rights of the Palestinian people,” Eijima said.
Some drivers driving up Vernon Boulevard honked and waved in support, while others voiced criticism. As one woman stopped to grab a flyer and wave her keffiyeh, another man shouted, “Worry about the people in the projects!” This has been going on for 4,000 years, so worry about what’s going on here!” (Researchers such as Islamic art scholar Stephennie Mulder have done that argued that this reasoning is factually incorrect and feeds anti-Arab stereotypes.)
A bystander, a middle-aged man who identified himself as Tom and did not give his last name, told the story Hyperallergic that he disagreed with the protesters’ views, because he believed that museums were “places of escape” and that “involving politics in this is a mistake.” He added that no one could claim to know what Noguchi might have done at this point, noting that the artist once sculpture garden in front of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
However, most visitors who stopped to witness yesterday’s demonstration said they supported the fired workers. Former Astoria resident Taylor Buser, an admirer of Noguchi’s works, had just left the galleries when he encountered protesters outside; he said Hyperallergic that the new policy was “extremely shameful.”
“If a company wants to live and survive in New York City, which should be a beacon of personal, political and cultural expression, you can’t ban someone’s clothing — that’s ridiculous,” Buser said.
Two current Noguchi Museum employees who spoke Hyperallergic Speaking on the condition of anonymity because they feared professional reprisals, they independently expressed concerns about “shattered” workplace morale in the wake of a policy they say has left “frustration, emotional exhaustion and a sense of powerlessness among staff.” causes.
Furthermore, the way the dress code update was implemented left more questions than answers, both current and former staff noted. It was noted that one worker was sent home because he was wearing a black and white scarf that resembled a keffiyeh but did not reflect its traditional style. fishnet pattern. And Abbott, who is Black, said that while other gallery visitors had worn the keffiyeh before, they were the only ones involved in a private meeting with Hau and an HR representative at a newly acquired building outside the museum’s main building.
“Damaging decision-making has had a destructive impact on the museum’s staff, and it will be difficult to recover from this and restore trust in leadership,” a current employee said. Hyperallergic. “Although things look bleak right now, I hope there is a path to restore peace to the museum through transparency, accountability, empathy and understanding.”
Toward the end of the action on Sunday, around 4:30 p.m., the group circled the museum building in a chorus of collective chanting. A woman handed out watermelon-flavored lollipops with a QR code linking to a fundraiser for a nurse in Gaza. Rabbi Dovid Feldman of the anti-Zionist Orthodox Jewish group Neturei Karta gave the demonstrators a wave of solidarity.
When asked about her choice to reject the new policy rather than comply and keep her job, Cappellini said she stood by her decision.
“If Palestinians are constantly silenced in the mainstream news, if their perspective is often secondary, if it is often a passive voice, if they wear a piece of clothing that is associated with the culture of the Palestinians, then that is beautiful to Palestinian culture – that’s what’s valuable to me,” she said.
