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GEOFF BENNETT: Now a story about
an exhibition you cannot see.

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Some arts institutions have
been roiled by tensions in
the ongoing war in the Middle

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East. And one controversy
has unfolded at the
Art Museum of Indiana
University, where a prominent

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Palestinian-American
artist was scheduled to
have her first American
retrospective this month.

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Jeffrey Brown reports for our
arts and culture series, Canvas.

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JEFFREY BROWN: A work of art
returning from an exhibition

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carried up the stairs to
the New York studio of
its creator, Samia Halaby.

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SAMIA HALABY, Artist: Here
it is, the Queen Bee being
treated like a princess.

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JEFFREY BROWN: But this
is no routine return. The
Queen Bee was never put on

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display. The exhibition,
titled Centers of Energy,
and scheduled to be shown

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at the Eskenazi Museum of Art
at Indiana University, was
canceled in late December.

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SAMIA HALABY: The only
thing they told me was
two-sentence letter.

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The show is canceled
and the artwork will be
returned safely. That's all.

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JEFFREY BROWN:
Eighty-seven-year-old
Samia Halaby is known
for her large and

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vibrant abstract paintings,
which she's been making for
more than 60 years. In addition,

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she creates sculptures and
works with fiber and textiles,
and was an early practitioner

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of computer and digital
art, teaching herself how
to write computer programs
starting in the 1980s.

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She's also a passionate
supporter of Palestinian
culture and advocate for

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Palestinian rights. She
was born in Jerusalem in
1936, when Palestine was
under British control,

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fleeing with her family amid
the fighting that eventually
led to the creation of the

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state of Israel in 1948, the
period known to Palestinians
as the Nakba, or catastrophe.

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Her family eventually came
to the U.S. and settled
in Cincinnati, Ohio.

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SAMIA HALABY: As an
intellectual, I chose
to be an abstractionist.
I am a Palestinian,

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and I believe in the
Palestinian will to have
freedom. I believe in

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the right of self-determination
and self-defense.

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I love Palestinian culture.
All of these things are me.

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JEFFREY BROWN: Her tie to
Indiana University is strong.
She received her master of fine

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arts degree there in 1963
and later taught, before
moving to Yale in 1972,

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where she was the first woman
to have the title of associate
professor at the School of Art.

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Her work is in the collections
of major U.S. museums, including
the National Gallery of Art

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in Washington and the Guggenheim
in New York. And she recently
had a large retrospective in

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the United Arab Emirates. The
cancellation came as she was
using Instagram to express

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outrage at Israel's
bombing of Gaza in response
to the October 7 Hamas
terror attacks on Israel.

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She called Israel's retaliation
a genocide and compared Gaza
to Auschwitz. Though she

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was well aware of the
tensions at universities
around the country,

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including Indiana, she says the
cancellation was a surprise.

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SAMIA HALABY: I thought stupidly
that I was immune because I
was an alumni and belonged

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there. And so it came
as a surprise. My first
reaction was to be upset,

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because, hey, this is my second
home. You know, someone is now
stealing my second home from me.

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But then I got over that
quickly and I thought,

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ah, the community there is
really very upset about it.

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ETHAN SANDWEISS, Indiana
Public Media: It's been
quite a big deal, and the
fallout is still coming.

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JEFFREY BROWN: Ethan Sandweiss
has been covering campus
reaction at Indiana as

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a multimedia journalist
with Indiana Public Media.

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ETHAN SANDWEISS: We're
seeing a lot of students and
faculty organizing protests,

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sit-ins, teach-ins. A venue
in town is putting on a
retrospective in the place

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of the museum. So, the response
here has been quite significant.

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JEFFREY BROWN: The
university itself, however,
has said little publicly.

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In response to the "NewsHour"'s
request for an interview
with university president

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Pamela Whitten, we were
referred to this previously
released short statement:

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"Academic leaders and
campus officials canceled
the exhibit due to concerns

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about guaranteeing the
integrity of the exhibit
for its duration."

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Last month, university
provost Rahul Shrivastav

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also cited security
concerns at a faculty
forum, saying, in part:

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RAHUL SHRIVASTAV,
Provost and Executive
Vice President, Indiana
University: In this case,

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we had clearly competing
values. We had an exciting
debut exhibit of a

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major international
abstract artist and alumna
three years in the making.

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We also had a potential
lightning rod at a
charged political moment

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that might draw ongoing or major
protests and require significant

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and long-term security
we would need for
hundreds of other events.

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JEFFREY BROWN: Reporter
Ethan Sandweiss sampled
responses across the campus.

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ETHAN SANDWEISS: I haven't
spoken with anyone who
feels like this is a
compelling enough reason to

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cancel the exhibition.
I have talked to faculty
members who say, if
there is a security risk,

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then that's why we have an
I.U. Police Department that can
provide that extra security.

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So I don't think a whole
lot of people are buying it
within the I.U. community.

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JEFFREY BROWN: Halaby had
worked on the exhibition
for several years

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with a curatorial team headed by
Elliot Josephine Leila Reichert,

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who told us she was
instructed to refer press
inquiries to university
communications officials.

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In lieu of an interview, she
sent an e-mail statement to
the "NewsHour" saying: "I am

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immensely proud of the work that
Samia Halaby, Rachel Winter,
and I accomplished together.

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Anyone who has the privilege
to witness Halaby's
artwork in person will
understand some small

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piece of the beauty and
joy we have experienced
working together over
the past several years."

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The controversy at Indiana
is just one example of the
conflict in the arts and

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culture world since the October
7 Hamas attack, including 92NY.
The cultural center in New York,

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canceled an October event with
a novelist who signed a public
letter critical of Israel.

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Several staff members resigned
in protest and other authors
pulled out of their events.

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The editor in chief at
"Artforum," a prominent arts
magazine, was fired after

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the magazine published an
open letter from artists
calling for a cease-fire

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in Gaza. At another Midwestern
university, the Wexner Center
for the Arts the arts at

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Ohio State decided to keep an
exhibition by a Palestinian
artist that had opened prior

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to October 7. But it had
canceled a public panel she
was scheduled to take part in.

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In a follow-up e-mail to the
university administration,
we asked if it was aware

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of specific security risks,
whether it had canceled
the exhibition due to

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Samia Halaby's public
statements, and if it
had received pressure to
cancel the exhibition from

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politicians or donors. We
were once again referred to
the one-sentence statement.

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Samia Halaby, however,
believes she knows why
her exhibit was canceled.

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SAMIA HALABY: Oh, it's obviously
an extension of what's happening
in Gaza, where Palestinians are

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not allowed to speak or
express our opinion, or,
in my case, because it
wasn't a political show,

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provide a role model to
students as to what intellectual
activity could be like.

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JEFFREY BROWN: But a
museum or a university
in this case does have

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a right to decide who
they're going to exhibit?

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SAMIA HALABY: Yes, and
they decided to take me
two-and-a-half-years ago,

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so they changed when
the genocide began.
So, what gives here?

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JEFFREY BROWN: So, you
have no regrets about
using that language?

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SAMIA HALABY: Do I not
have a right to express my
feelings? My feelings is that

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I'm horrified. I'm equally
horrified when I see other
things happening. I'm

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equally horrified at the
Holocaust of the Jews. I'm
equally horrified at -- about

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Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I'm
horrified by what happened
to the African Americans.

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When I read about all of
these things, they bring
me to great sadness.

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JEFFREY BROWN: Meanwhile, on
campus, a petition to reinstate
the exhibition is circulating,

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and reporter Ethan Sandweiss
is hearing fears of
another kind of fallout.

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ETHAN SANDWEISS: A lot
of faculty that I have
spoken with are worried
that these signals that

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the university could be
sending, perhaps inadvertently,
that they are not standing

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strongly enough by their
researchers, it could
send a signal to people
who might apply to I.U.

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as students, as graduate
students, as faculty
that Indiana is not a
place where they would be

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welcome and it's not a
place where they would
be able to perform their
research undisturbed.

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JEFFREY BROWN: As for Samia
Halaby, her work will next
be shown at the upcoming

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Venice Biennale, one
of the world's leading
international art exhibitions.

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And her canceled retrospective
exhibition is so far scheduled
to run at its next venue,

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Michigan State University's
Broad Art Museum,
beginning June 29.

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For the "PBS NewsHour,"
I'm Jeffrey Brown.