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Museums and their Discontents

JL;DR SUMMARY Since October 2023, American museums have witnessed demonstrations similar to those on university campuses, with protesters calling for boycotts against Israel and alleging cultural complicity in Palestinian oppression. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

Cultural RepresentationProtestsActivismCultural InstitutionsPolitical ExpressionPalestinian SolidarityKeffiyeh ControversyMuseum ActivismWestern Colonialism

Places mentioned

New York City, New York, United States
"In February last year, an open letter was signed by hundreds of museum and culture workers in New York City, to protest the disgraceful silence of our institutions as Israel commits genocide in Gaza with the military and financial support of the United States, and to demand a cultural and intellectual boycott of that state."
Brooklyn, New York, United States
"A May protest at the Brooklyn Museum was described by ARTnews as one of the most fervent Gaza solidarity actions yet to descend on a New York City art institution, calling for the museum to condemn Israels attacks in Gaza and divest from corporations connected to Israel."
Queens, New York, United States
"In August 2024, at a lovely museum in Queens, New York, devoted to the sculpture of Isamu Noguchi, a staff member was told he would not be permitted to wear a keffiyeh in the museum."
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
"At the nations first museum devoted to the American Revolution, which opened in Philadelphia in 2017, a display about 18th-century American laborers seeking greater equality showed a shoemakers hammer and a farmers sickle arranged in the shape of the symbol of the Soviet Communist Party."
St. Louis, Missouri, United States
"A major exhibition supposedly celebrating the settling of the American West at the Arch in St. Louis is peppered with condescending disdain for the entire idea."
Washington DC, United States
"In 2013, for example, the National Archives unveiled a major exhibition to prepare its million annual visitors to see original copies of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution with the Bill of Rights."

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Retrieved 2025-05-14 05:32:23 UTC
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