Sara Fenske Bahat, the interim CEO of San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) has resigned amid intense pushback over the institution’s response to a recent pro-Palestine protest that took place at the institution.
The protest took place in mid-February, led by artists participating in an exhibition Bay Area Now 9 that was scheduled to run at the centre from 6 October 2023 to 5 May. During the protest, eight artists modified their exhibited works to include pro-Palestine messages. In a video circulating online, one artist spray painted ‘Free Palestine’ over her sculptures and explained to the camera: “I’m modifying my work to say free Palestine, because this museum has been silencing us.”
The protesters further demanded that the museum commit to The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), stop censoring artists’ work that involves Palestinian liberation, remove Zionist board members and funders, and call for an immediate ceasefire. Leaflets were distributed at an event that ran concurrently to the protest.
On 21 February, YMCA’s board responded to the protest in a statement, suggesting that the leaflets contained ‘a series of false accusations and unreasonable demands on YBCA’ and used language that were ‘neither productive nor tolerable’
Following that statement, an open letter was issued by the museum staff who accused the centre of censorship of artists and activists and their ‘continued failure in acknowledging the pain, danger, and trauma of genocide.’ The letter gathered hundreds of signatories.
On 6 March, YBCA’s board of directors issued another statement announcing their ‘reluctant acceptance of Sarah’s resignation’ and temporary closure of the exhibition.
The statement continues to comment on their stance on the protest: ‘[Altering the work] is not art. That isn’t protest. That is simply wrong and unacceptable. As they were presented as a package, and subsequently reiterated on social media, we will not address a reasonable aspect of someone’s act while ignoring the hateful aspects.’
