On Tuesday afternoon, approximately 70 Rhode Island School of Design students rallied outside 20 Washington Place — a RISD administrative building known as Prov-Wash — in response to the RISD administration’s request to relocate a pro-Palestine art exhibit on campus.
The art exhibit, titled “To Every Orange Tree,” opened on March 17 at the Carr Haus Cafe, a student-run cafe on RISD’s campus. The installation was a collaborative effort between the cafe and RISD Students for Justice in Palestine, featuring student and community pieces centered on political resistance, anti-imperialism and Palestinian liberation, an RSJP spokesperson, who was granted anonymity due to safety concerns, told The Herald.
But in an email sent to RSJP on March 25, Sarah Knarr, the director of RISD’s Center for Student Involvement, asked the group to remove the exhibit due to “threats of harm and safety concerns” surrounding the installation. Knarr requested that the artwork be taken down by Thursday afternoon.
In her email, Knarr stated that “at least one communication” directed to RISD President Crystal Williams demanded to know the names and contact information of all students with work in the exhibit. Knarr also wrote that one person “whom RISD could identify as being far away in another state in the U.S.” had harmful intent, posting details about the exhibit online. Several individuals also shared their plans to contact the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights to call for “investigations of antisemitism,” she added.
The exhibit was originally scheduled to remain on display until May 2, Carr Haus’s final day of operation for the semester, the RSJP spokesperson said. One of RSJP’s demands at the Tuesday rally was to reinstall the exhibit in Carr Haus.
In her email, Knarr asked for the exhibit not to be shown in a space accessible to the public. Knarr explained to RSJP that CSI had identified a space on the third floor of Prov-Wash where the exhibit could be relocated “so that anyone with a RISD ID who wants to see the exhibit must make conscious choices to do so,” the email reads.
But the RSJP spokesperson said that the group refuses to install the exhibition in Prov-Wash. “Our work is meant to be publicly accessible, and so it must specifically be in Carr Haus cafe,” they said. “Putting the show in a public office space means it no longer is that same show that it once was.”
“As an academic institution focused on art and design, RISD is committed to fostering an environment in which students can practice artistic expression of ideas and viewpoints,” RISD Spokesperson Jaime Marland wrote in a media statement sent to The Herald.
“Out of caution, we decided to relocate the student exhibition from a publicly open space to a more secure location,” Marland continued. “Relocating the exhibition enables us to prioritize safety, honor our commitments to artistic expression and freedom of speech and uphold our commitment to a culture of care, particularly in these fraught times.”
Besides demanding that RISD allow the group to reinstall the exhibit in Carr Haus, RSJP also called on Williams and the administration to “assure students, faculty and staff that they will not allow (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) on campus,” the spokesperson said.
RISD should also “not provide information, including disciplinary records and legal status that would allow ICE to detain or deport any RISD community member,” they added.
In a speech at the rally, the RSJP spokesperson also referenced the increased number of deportations under the Trump administration. They cited the deportation of Brown Assistant Professor of Medicine Rasha Alawieh as well as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s recent detainment of Rumeysa Ozturk, a graduate student at Tufts University.
At the demonstration, RSJP also demanded a meeting between the group, Williams and other RISD administrators to discuss an appeal process to the January rejection of a student-led divestment proposal by the RISD Board of Trustees. The proposal targeted the school’s relationship with companies affiliated with Israel.
After the rally, several members of RSJP met with representatives of CSI and The Center for Social Equity and Inclusion at 1 p.m to discuss the standing of the exhibit.
According to the RSJP spokesperson, RISD’s concerns regarding safety are unfounded.
“RISD is trying to make artwork inaccessible,” they said. “This is a blatant excuse to censor a pro-Palestine exhibit on campus.”
Last May, RSJP staged a three-day building occupation in Prov-Wash calling on the school to divest from companies affiliated with Israel, The Herald previously reported.
“If RISD cared about safety” the RSJP spokesperson asked why “there were never any concerns” about safety during the May 2024 demonstration. “Last year during the occupation, people would yell things at us, talk online or threaten harm against us,” they added.
They also expressed concerns over the lack of communication regarding potential barriers to the exhibit, especially as the installation had received approval from the school.
According to the RSJP spokesperson, the group filed forms through CSI in January to get approval for the exhibit. After receiving approval from CSI in January, RSJP posted a call for artwork on their Instagram, they explained.
Knarr acknowledged that CSI initially granted approval for the exhibit, but “since the show opened however, RISD has become aware of even more disappointment, fear and perceived threat of harm due to the content of the artwork that was included in the show,” according to her March 25 email.
“RISD has known about the exhibit since its inception,” the RSJP spokesperson said, adding that before RISD asked them to take down the exhibit, “no one voiced any concerns about safety.”
In the future, if “a perceived threat to a student exhibit occurs,” RISD administrators must not “shut down a show which has already gone through the proper channels of approval” without prior communication, they said.
The artwork from the exhibit is currently independently secured in a “place off campus,” the RSJP spokesperson said. After removing the original exhibit, RSJP revamped the Carr Haus installation with simple posters that read “this artwork has been censored by RISD,” among other statements.
Marland did not directly comment on the revamped exhibit.
This is a developing story. Check back for more updates.
Sanai Rashid lives in Long Island, New York. As an English and Economics concentrator, she is passionate about storytelling and how numbers and data create narratives in ways words alone cannot. When she is not writing, you can find her trying new pizza places in Providence or buying another whale stuffed animal.
