Two local artists are criticizing a St. Louis art center for removing their exhibition, which the organization labeled as antisemitic.
Dani Collette and Allora McCollough were selected for Craft Alliance’s artists-in-residence program in July 2023. The 11-month program picks two artists to share a private studio, receive a stipend and tuition waivers for workshops, and compose a group exhibition that’s presented for a month at the end of the program.
The exhibition usually centers around a theme. This year, the artists’ exhibition, titled “Planting Seeds, Sprouting Hope,” focused on pro-Palestinian and anti-genocide movements.
The exhibition opened Friday. Two of Collette’s pieces were removed prior to the exhibit’s opening, which she said she was not aware of until she arrived at the event. One was a bowl with a keffiyeh print, titled “Symbol of Solidarity,” and the other was several watermelon seed-shaped pieces with the phrase “Land Back” carved into them.
A couple of title cards for her pieces were removed as well, including for the artworks “Indigenous to Palestine” and “From the River to the Sea.” The slogan, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” is a frequent chant used by supporters of Palestinian statehood and by demonstrators against the war in Gaza. But interpretations of the phrase are disputed. Some consider it a call for the destruction of Israel and its people.
Collette said she was using the phrase to “have a discourse about the positive way in which Palestinians/Gazans are using it. I have a first hand account from a Palestinian person who informed me that when they use it, it’s a call for freedom, equality, and peace for all inhabitants ‘From the river to the sea’ including Jews and Israelis.”
She said she was dismayed to find the title cards removed.
“I showed up and my artwork was gone, and my titles were gone, which I think is an incredibly disrespectful and aggressive stance to take without any sort of discourse or effort at discourse,” Collette said.
On Monday, Craft Alliance posted on Facebook and Instagram that it planned to remove the exhibition for using “antisemitic slogan[s] and imagery” that called for “violence and the destruction of the Jewish state of Israel.”
Craft Alliance did not immediately make anyone available for comment Wednesday.
The artists said they were transparent with Craft Alliance about the meaning of the exhibition when they decided on it almost two months ago.
“They’ve had every opportunity to come to us prior to the opening of the show, but they waited to react once the work was already up,” she said.
McCollough, the other artist, said it’s dangerous to make claims of antisemitism when people support Palestinians.
“To accuse us of being antisemitic because we want to support freedom for innocent civilians is absurd,” McCollough said.
The artists were employed by Craft Alliance to teach classes in addition to the residency program. They said they have since been terminated.
McCollough said Craft Alliance’s choice to remove the exhibition reflects negatively on the arts organization’s character. She said it should be promoting conversations around the messages behind contemporary art.
“I wish that more people were open to the idea of art spaces being a safe space for discourse, and that sometimes discourse is a little uncomfortable, but it should never be violent,” she said. “I think that the reaction of removing my livelihood and removing Dani’s work, specifically her indigenous work, are violent actions.”