A dozen activists staged a silent action outside the Noguchi Museum during its annual benefit gala last Tuesday evening, October 29, in protest of the institution’s keffiyeh ban for staff implemented in August. Four employees have been terminated from their museum posts since leadership updated the staff dress code to prohibit “political dress” that could make visitors feel “unsafe” or “uncomfortable.”
The museum benefit not only fundraises for operational and exhibition support, but presents the Isamu Noguchi Award to “highly accomplished individuals who share Noguchi’s spirit of innovation,” as the institution states. This year, South Korean artist and academic Lee Ufan and Bengali British-American author Jhumpa Lahiri were selected for awards, but Lahiri recently declined the prize in response to the keffiyeh ban ahead of the ceremony. Lee accepted the award on Tuesday evening.
Calling themselves “autonomous actors” in a press release, the group of 12 protesters stood on the sidewalk outside of the museum while dressed in all black, sporting pantomime masks with the name “Noguchi” taped over the mouth slit and keffiyehs draped over their shoulders.
They handed attendees custom-printed mock pamphlets for the awards ceremony that used the museum’s branding, replacing the evening’s program details with information about the keffiyeh ban and subsequent termination of four employees.
The group also created their own “exemplary censorship award” poster prints for the museum leadership, targeting Director Amy Hau for “setting the Gold Standard for Institutional Control” and museum Board Co-Chairs Spencer Bailey and Susan Kessler for their “tireless efforts to ban cultural expression.”
The activists also managed to project messages against the museum’s brick exterior, including “Keffiyeh Banned Here,” “Culture Banned Here,” and “Is This How You Honor Noguchi, Amy?”
The projections reportedly lasted about 30 minutes throughout the three-hour demonstration lasting the duration of the gala, until museum security intervened.
“This action was taken in solidarity with the recently terminated staff members, but it was carried out entirely independently, with absolutely no knowledge, involvement, or consent from current or former museum staff,” the activists wrote in an email to Hyperallergic.
“Our connection to the museum is clear: We are all impacted when injustice prevails,” the group said. “We all need to let it be known to the museum director and board that there will be no ‘business as usual’ when they target those who stand in solidarity against oppression.”
The activists alleged that the museum called the police on them for the demonstration, and officers reported onsite and spoke with museum personnel, assessed the situation, and circled the block a few times before leaving. The group also claimed that museum security acted aggressively toward them.
A spokesperson for the museum told Hyperallergic that police were “aware of our benefit and typically include the Museum in their routine drive-by patrols during events,” explaining that there were officers stationed onsite, and the ones who drove by the museum and did not engage with the protesters.
“As we have stated previously, the Museum fully supports personal expression outside of their premises,” the spokesperson said. “Reflecting this commitment, they permitted a peaceful protest to continue for several hours on October 29 during the Benefit.”
Trasonia Abbott, a former museum gallery attendant who was the first to have been terminated due to the dress code update, confirmed to Hyperallergic that they, the other dismissed employees, and current staff opposed to the ban weren’t aware of the action until they were shown a social media post about it.
“It’s really cool that they did it in an artistic mode, because it speaks to the kind of people that were attending the gala,” Abbott said of the protest.
“What the museum is doing is genocide denial and racism,” they continued, directing criticism at Director Hau for implementing the keffiyeh ban as well as Board Chairs Bailey and Kessler, from whom the decision was issued on behalf of the trustees.
Since the dress code was updated, a majority of the current Noguchi Museum staff have expressed their disagreement with the keffiyeh ban. Over 50 of the 72 workers signed an internal petition calling for the policy to be reversed, stating that the ban “sets a strong precedent for the institution,” and that the scarf is a “culturally significant garment” rather than a political one.
“It’s a small museum,” Abbott said. “They don’t have to act like this.”
