Obama Center, Nayland Blake, Danielle Mckinney
In a Hyperallergic editor’s letter and opinion excerpt, the publication criticizes the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) for placing Savneet Talwar, director of its graduate art therapy program, on leave after she assigned students to create a mock treatment plan for a hypothetical queer Arab woman who sympathized with pro-Palestinian protests and feared retaliation under the Trump administration. The piece states that SAIC provost Martin Berger deemed the exercise unacceptable and frames the action as an example of authoritarianism limiting students’ imagination, citing arrests of students for protesting and writing articles. The newsletter also lists other headlines, including a call by Italian labor unions and cultural workers for a national strike in the arts and culture sector on Friday, June 12, and layoffs at The New School of 19 full-time faculty and 68 staff amid a reported $160 million structural budget deficit. It additionally reports that David Hockney died in London at age 88.
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This story was covered in Power Plays: New Alliances and Cultural Stakes