ANU School of Art and Design Censors Pro-Palestine Artists Following Major Art Theft and Vandalism

On June 11, an exhibition opened in the ANU School of Art and Design (SOAD) Project Space gallery, exploring themes of student activism, pro-Palestinan and anti-war advocacy, and criticism of ANU’s affiliations with weapons manufacturers. In the early morning of June 12, staff discovered all Palestinian and anti-war related art pieces had been vandalised and stolen. The incident was reported to the police but no perpetrator has been identified. Initially, SOAD promised the artists a new exhibition date in August, but executives walked back on that offer in private meetings. Executive also disclosed that where previously the Project Space could be booked by any SOAD student or staff for personal projects, it will now only be available for teaching purposes. This is clear censorship of creative expression and pro-Palestinian activism on campus.

Exhibition organiser, Ivo Lovric, told Woroni ‘SOAD is clearly violating academic and artistic freedoms that are essential for the effective functioning of both ANU and the ANU School of Art and Design’. Pro-Palestine groups also believe SOAD is censoring artists' work. SOAD executives informed artists that having the Palestinian flags in the exhibition space makes staff and students feel “unsafe”, despite it being the artists who have had their work stolen and vandalised in a blatant act of anti-Palestinian racism. The ANU management is stifling academic and creative expression on campus. This incident is one of many such cases, underscoring the ANU’s recurrent racist suppression. This follows the defacing of the Palestinian mural next to the BIPOC base earlier in the year.

Since June 12, the ANU has not only failed to release any outcome of its investigation, but they also claimed that the space is not insured and therefore they cannot compensate the students for the stolen and vandalised artwork. 

On Tuesday 6th August, Australian National University students conducted a rally and a sit-in and opened the “Shababeek Memorial Gallery”, formerly the ‘Project Space’ in the School of Art and Design (SOAD). This protest was in response to the University’s silencing of artistic expression and censorship of a pro-Palestine art exhibit and ongoing funding cuts to SOAD.

This incident does not stand isolated - it is a part of a dangerous trend of censorship and limiting of academic freedom and freedom of speech perpetrated by the Executive of Australia’s National University. Students will not sit idly as ANU continues war profiteering and enabling genocide, while censoring artistic and academic expression on campus. 

During the sit-in, students displayed artwork, made lino prints and painted banners together in peaceful occupation, renaming the Project Space to Shababeek Memorial Gallery. This is in honour of Shababeek Contemporary Arts Center in Gaza which was destroyed in the siege of nearby al Shifa Hospital in April. Shababeek means windows, and the arts centre provided a way to ‘express ourselves in a cultural-bound artistic language, when we talk to others.’ In practicing artistic expression in spite of the university’s racist censorship, the students demonstrated the ideals of academic freedom and community that a university should aspire for. The works displayed and created during the occupation were promptly removed by university staff before 5:30pm.

Following the protest on the 6th of August, the Dean of the College of Arts and Social Sciences sent 2 emails claiming that the protestors have caused “extensive damage” to the building, and how dare they chant and give speeches in a protest? The Dean considers Graffiti and public art as extensive damage! Of course, property damage is the most offensive of all violations of social order even during an ongoing genocide in Gaza.

The Dean also claimed that “this was not an artistic exhibition, it was protest activity”. We urge the Dean to read more about the history and practice of political Art and protest, because the ignorance and racism in framing this as a protest is astounding!

We also encourage the Dean to not omit the background and context of the protest, as someone who should be a champion of the arts and social sciences, we are sure that they would appreciate that student protests do not appear out of nothing, and it would be good to explain to staff and students and the wider ANU community what has happened exactly rather than spreading misinformation about what protesters have done. The Dean’s carceral logic also threatened the students, weaponising the Students Code of Conduct which has been consistently used by ANU management to silence student protesters on campus.

We call on SOAD to honor their prior agreement and provide a new exhibition date. We also demand that SOAD restore access to the Shababeek Memorial Gallery for all staff and students, and permit students to express themselves artistically and politically.