The Whitney Museum of American Art has made the decision to suspend the Independent Study Program (ISP) for the 2025–26 year, following the cancellation of a performance on Palestinian mourning organized by the current Curatorial cohort. This move comes after the museum announced that the ISP’s associate director position, previously held by Sara Nadal-Melsió, will not be maintained.
In response to this decision, over 300 ISP alumni and community members, including prominent figures such as Judith Butler, Candice Breitz, and Huey Copeland, have signed an open letter to the museum expressing their support for the current cohort. The letter emphasizes the importance of the ISP as a site of critique and activism, and criticizes the museum for stifling dissent and reinvention.
The canceled performance, titled “No Aesthetic Outside My Freedom: Mourning, Militancy, and Performance,” was scheduled to take place as part of the ISP curatorial exhibition a grammar of attention. However, Director Scott Rothkopf objected to an earlier staging of the work last fall, where artist Fargo Tbakhi instructed audience members who supported Israel to leave the room. Rothkopf cited the museum’s “community guidelines” as the reason for canceling the performance.
In response to the museum’s decision, the three cohorts of the ISP program—Curatorial, Studio, and Critical Studies—issued public statements denouncing the cancellation. Critical Studies fellows even went as far as shutting down their capstone symposium to protest against the museum’s actions. Nadal-Melsió also publicly disagreed with the decision, stating that the independence of the ISP had been compromised.
Following the protests and backlash from the ISP community, the Whitney Museum confirmed that the next iteration of the annual ISP program would not take place. The museum cited the need for a new long-term Director to lead the program forward and stated that it would take the coming months to reflect on the ISP’s recent growth and changes.
The ISP, founded in 1968 by Ron Clark, has a long history of propelling artist, critic, and curator careers internationally. With alumni such as Jenny Holzer and LaToya Ruby Frazier, the program has been instrumental in shaping the art world. However, the recent events surrounding the cancellation of the performance and the suspension of the program highlight a broader political climate of fear and intimidation in the United States, particularly in relation to issues surrounding Palestine.
Today’s open letter from ISP alumni underscores the importance of free expression, protest, and speech in the arts, and calls for a reevaluation of the censorship and crackdowns on artists and scholars supporting Palestine. As the ISP community grapples with these challenges, the future of the program remains uncertain, but the voices of dissent and activism within the art world continue to resonate.
