Whitworth Gallery director Alistair Hudson is reported to have been asked to resign over a statement in an exhibition last year pledging support for Palestine.
The University of Manchester, of which the Whitworth is a part, has asked him to leave following a statement in an exhibition by the Turner Prize winning collective Forensic Architecture, Cloud Studies, which included a statement of support for Palestine’s “liberation struggle”.
It is not clear if Hudson’s dual role as director of Manchester Art Gallery is affected.
Hudson, the former director of Middlesbrough’s Mima, took over from Maria Balshaw in 2017 when she became director of Tate.
The action was taken after a series of complaints from UK Lawyers For Israel who said the statement, which denounced Israel’s military actions in Gaza, contained “inflammatory language and representations”.
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Forensic Architecture’s founder, Eyal Weizman, a professor at Goldsmith’s College, told the Manchester Evening News: “Alistair turned the Whitworth into an art space where the important questions of our time could be asked.
His sacking is the last in a series of bullying actions by the University of Manchester which initially aimed at silencing our solidarity with Palestinians, then at stifling open debate and taming political art more generally. This move will shrink the space for art and artists.”
