London Art Institute Workers Say They Were Fired for Supporting Palestine
Artist Rheim Alkadhi said she'll withdraw her solo show if the organization fails to respond to the allegations with "disclosure and accountability."
Berlin-based artist Rheim Alkadhi says she will pull her work out of London’s Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) if the center does not take accountability for allegedly retaliating against workers who have expressed solidarity with Palestinians.
“I cannot accept for my work to be instrumentalized in the service of structural repression, weapons manufacture, apartheid or genocide,” Alkadhi wrote in an Instagram statement on July 16. "Unless the ICA leadership responds with disclosure and accountability, I will begin the process of withdrawing my solo exhibition currently on view at ICA."
Templates for Liberation is the artist's first solo exhibition in the United Kingdom. Slated to run through September 8, the show grapples with the consequences of colonialist exploitation in Iraq and the surrounding region through sculpture, photography, and archival material.
Earlier this month, a group of former ICA workers alleged that the institute fired them in connection with participating in the October 20 Global Strike for Palestine and posting an open letter on the venue’s website calling for a cultural boycott of Israel without the approval of ICA's leadership.
"On March 13th, it was announced at an all-staff meeting that 14 roles were at risk of redundancy. Among these 14 roles were all the staff who had been given informal warnings in October [for their role in the action], as well as the trade union representatives who were supporting them," read the terminated workers' statement posted to Instagram by the groups Cultural Workers Against Genocide (CWAG) and Artists and Culture Workers LDN. "Staff were told the reasons behind these redundancies were financial. The union membership’s demand for senior level pay cuts was rejected."
In an email to Hyperallergic, the ICA denied the workers’ allegation that they were fired for their support for Palestine.
“We have been transparent with all our employees from the outset that like many UK arts and culture organisations, we are facing significant financial challenges such as the aftershocks of Covid as well as rising inflation and cost-of-living crisis here in the UK,” an ICA representative told Hyperallergic, citing the institution's 2023 financial report.
While its calls for senior leadership pay cuts to cope with the institution's financial difficulties were denied, the museum union was able to save three out of the 14 terminated jobs. However, all of the communications department workers who had received “informal warnings” were fired. Compounding the downsizing, "other workers suffered demotions, pay cuts, and reductions to their roles,” the group of former workers told Hyperallergic.
“As former ICA workers, we want to make clear that those who were part of organising these events were fired for it,” the group added, also noting that at least six employees have resigned “both in solidarity with the fired workers and against the ICA’s financial mismanagement and mistreatment of its workers.”
In response, the ICA said: "We are having ongoing conversations with all of our partners and are committed to supporting the artists we exhibit."
Alkadhi chose not to comment on this article. On Instagram, she wrote: “The institution has never been our moral compass; it is empty but for the heart and labor of its workers, curators, and educators.”
