MoMA kicks out black artist after white visitor said was 'aggressive'
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Just because MoMA employees decided to believe a white visitor's version of an incident, a black well-known artist gets ejected from the museum.
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In this Nov. 20, 2004, file photo, people pass in front of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. (AP)
British Ghanian visual artist Heather Agyepong was kicked out of an installation at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York -- that was supposed to be a "safe space for Black visitors" -- after an interaction with a white visitor who complained to employees that Agyepong was "aggressive".
The museum has apologized to Agyepong, and a MoMA spokesperson vowed the museum will work on protecting "the experiences of Black visitors and visitors from Indigenous communities and communities of colour" and will now "explore" bespoke staff training programs, according to a statement to The Art Newspaper.
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"We reached out to Heather Agyepong and apologised," the spokesperson said. "We are committed to presenting programs that move race equity values forward and we acknowledge there will be challenges to work through and learn from as we support and invite artists and audiences to engage on these important issues."
After the incident, the artist posted on March 25 a video on Twitter, in which she explained what happened. She said that during her visit to the Black Power Naps installation, she was accused of being "aggressive" by a white lady just because Agyepong told her "I think the space is centred around Black people" after hearing the woman laughing.
I just got kicked out of @MuseumModernArt #blackpowernaps installation because a white woman said I was "aggressive". pic.twitter.com/FRWEVeCq8e
— Heather Agyepong (@heatha_a) March 25, 2023
Following a request for an interview at the time of publication, Agyepong did not respond.
Black Power Naps co-creator Navild Acosta was asked to comment about the incident and said that the artists' attempts "to create direct action, racial sensitivity trainings, outreach and social media campaigns" around the project "were not resourced" by MoMA.
"We insisted as soon as we were first contacted that this piece needed a serious commitment to anti-racism and that not doing so could warrant violence to our community, and we have been insisting ever since," Acosta said.
"It is only now that they are recognising how urgent this is and willing to remunerate this labour. It’s been an uphill battle. In January, we ourselves were told to be quiet in our own installation by a white visitor," he added.
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It is worth noting that visual artist, performer/actor and maker, Heather Agyepong, lives and works in London and is regarded as one of her generation's top photographers. She won the Photographers Gallery New Talent Award and the Photo London x Nikon Emerging Photographer Award in 2021, and she has been nominated for The Prix Pictet on numerous occasions. She was also recently announced as a Nikon European Ambassador.
Her works have been performed, published, and displayed around the UK and internationally; The Centre national des arts plastiques in Paris, The Autograph ABP and the Hyman Collection in London, the New Orleans Museum of Art, and other institutions all have collections of her work. The recently opened Centre for British Photography in London is now featuring an exhibition of her series Wish You Were Here (2020).
