Strike MoMA is a movement to strike the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

, targeting what its organizers describe as the "toxic philanthropy" of the museum's leadership. It has consisted of a series of 10 demonstrations organized over ten weeks, from April 9, 2021, through June 11.

History

The movement, led by a collective calling itself the International Imagination of Anti-National Anti-Imperialist Feelings (IIAAF), grew as an escalation of pressure against the institution following reports that MoMA chairman Leon Black had paid the convicted sex offender

Jeffrey Epstein Jeffrey Edward Epstein ( ; January 20, 1953August 10, 2019) was an American sex offender and financier. Epstein, who was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York City, began his professional life by teaching at the Dalton School in Manhattan, de ...

charged with sex trafficking $158 million. A successful open letter campaign endorsed by over 150 artists led to his resignation as chairman of the museum, although questions remained as to how his role at the museum would continue. Michael Rakowitz, one of the signing artists, noted that "MoMA has refused comment on every story that has emerged about Leon Black." He continued, "The museum stays silent while we as artists are asked to speak. Beyond speaking, I look forward to collectively imagining an ecosystem that does not enlist our content to go on display in institutions whose board members create the very conditions in the world that many of us are devoted to dismantling.” The museum's director, Glenn D. Lowry, whose contract Black had extended through 2025, has also been identified as conspicuously silent on the subject. In a statement on March 23, the IIAAF collective announced a 10-week strike against the MoMA starting April 9. On April 30, activists planning to demonstrate inside the museum were denied entry. Among the organizers was

Amin Husain Amin Husain is a Palestinian-American activist and adjunct professor at New York University, though he has been suspended from that position. He has founded, organized, participated in, and demonstrated with many social activist organizations ...

of Decolonize This Place, who had previously organized protests against the

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–194 ...

that led to the resignation of the vice-chairman Warren B. Kanders whose company

Safariland Safariland, LLC is a United States-based manufacturer of personal, and other equipment focused on the law enforcement, public safety, military, and recreational markets. It was formerly a division of the United Kingdom-based defense and aerospace ...

produces

tear gas Tear gas, also known as a lachrymator agent or lachrymator (), sometimes colloquially known as "mace" after the early commercial aerosol, is a chemical weapon that stimulates the nerves of the lacrimal gland in the eye to produce tears. In ...

grenades used on protesters. On May 26, 2021, the ''Times of Israel'' reported that activists associated with the movement accused board members of the MoMA— Ron Lauder, Leon Black, and Steven Tananbaum—of "supporting apartheid rule" and "

artwashing Artwashing describes the use of art and artists in a positive way to distract from or legitimize negative actions by an individual, organization, country, or government—especially in reference to gentrification. Etymology With a structure sim ...

" the "occupation of Palestine".{{Cite web, last=staff, first=T. O. I., title=Hundreds protest New York's Museum of Modern Art board's Israel ties, url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/hundreds-protest-new-yorks-museum-of-modern-art-boards-israel-ties/, access-date=2021-06-13, website=www.timesofisrael.com, language=en-US

References

Strikes (protest) 2021 protests Anti-capitalism Social movements in the United States Protests in New York (state) Museum of Modern Art (New York City) 2021 in New York City