We write as artists and scholars horrified by the firing of Dr. Sara Nadal-Melsió, Associate Director of the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program (ISP). Her firing by the Whitney Museum coincides with their cancellations of the work “No Aesthetic Outside My Freedom”: Mourning, Militancy, and Performance as well as the entirety of the ISP’s 2025–2026 program. As much as to protest this unjust firing, we write to demand the reopening of the ISP.
Dr. Nadal-Melsió was dismissed on June 2, 2025, just eleven days after publishing a letter protesting these cancellations. In her letter, Dr. Nadal-Melsió had the temerity to denounce the Whitney’s gross infringements upon both academic and artistic freedom, as expressed in its administrative decisions. Her courage won her what by all lights constitute extreme retaliatory measures: summary dismissal and exclusion from any conversation regarding the future of the program. We categorically reject the actions of the Whitney’s leadership, executed by director Scott Rothkopf, and their implications regarding Dr. Nadal-Melsió’s tenure at the ISP. Dr. Nadal-Melsió is an acclaimed critic and scholar under whose oversight the ISP, its participants, and thus its mission, have flourished. Her top-flight critical interventions, visible in numerous articles, books, and other publications, as well as her teaching and curatorial work over the last three decades in multiple universities, museums, and other institutions, give the lie to the Whitney’s attempt to erase or diminish her professional accomplishments.
Nadal-Melsió was, and remains, unequivocally fit to run the program. Her dismissal is one act of patriarchal institutional violence among many, yet another symptom of the entangled violences that suffuse the present climate of suppression in the United States. It is an unfortunate irony that Dr. Nadal-Melsió, whose acclaimed critical and pedagogical output contends with the complicity between culture and violence, is now a target of institutional suppression.
As Nadal-Melsió expressed in her statement: “It takes a lot of work and care to build a community, but only a moment of thoughtless violence to destroy, compromise, or instrumentalize it.” We observe that these acts constitute a specific form of institutional erasure: one which designates common-decency collective projects as political threats to be terminated; which establishes institutional retaliation directed at dissensual employees; which shutters long-standing cultural institutions at the first sign of collective political work; and which protects, with force, the financial interests of its donors, sponsors, and endowment even and especially when they run counter to the demands of artistic freedom.
We, the undersigned, call for the reinstatement of Dr. Nadal-Melsió and the reopening of the ISP. The Whitney must allow the ISP to be precisely that, independent, and thus a site where creative and critical thinking can take place without threat of censorship and erasure. It can fulfill this goal under the oversight of Dr. Nadal-Melsió, who has proven her commitment to artistic and intellectual freedoms at great cost to herself. Additionally, in agreement with Artists at Risk Connection (ARC), we call on the Whitney to convene an independent investigation into the termination of the ISP’s Associate Director and its implications for academic and artistic freedoms at the museum.
Signed,
Jorge Coronado, Professor, Northwestern University
Sarah Richter, Visiting Assistant Professor, Brown University
Silvia Federici, Emerita, Hofstra University
Anri Sala, Artist
JJJJJerome Ellis, Artist, ISP seminar leader
Anoka Faruqee, Professor, Yale University
Mónica de la Torre, Professor, English Brooklyn College/CUNY
Marcelo Expósito, Artist and Cultural Critic. Guest Professor Facultad de Artes, Universidad de Chile, and Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti (NABA, Milan), 2025
Claire Bishop, Professor, CUNY Graduate Center
Shadi Harouni, Professor, New York University
Manuel Cirauqui, Director, einaidea, Barcelona
Lauren van Haaften-Schick, Lecturer, Teachers College, Columbia University
Paul Haacke, Associate Professor, Pratt Institute
John Menick, Artist and writer
Anthony Graves, ISP Studio Alum ('05), Artist, Psychoanalyst
Bettina Lerner, Associate Professor, CCNY and The Graduate Center, CUNY
Javier Téllez, Artist, ISP alumni 1997-1998
Alejandro Cesarco, artist
Hans Haacke
Agnieszka Kurant, Artist, lectured at Whitney ISP
Irene Small, Professor, Princeton University
Hannah Feldman, Art Historian, ISP Alum, University of Pennsylvania
Jo Labanyi, Professor, New York University
Michael Rakowitz, Professor, Department of Art Theory and Practice, Northwestern University
Gala Porras-Kim, Artist
Ryan Conder, owner, south willard
Jesse Robinson, artist/teacher
Lisa Sigal, Artist ,Yale Norfolk School of Art, co-director
Avi Alpert, Princeton University
Daniel Bozhkov, Artist, Professor at Hunter College, CUNY
Sam Lewitt
Sandy Williams IV, Professor of Art, The University of Richmond
Barbara Held, Artist
Gelare Khoshgozaran, Assistant Professor, UCLA Art Department
Dushko Petrovich Córdova, Professor, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Fox Hysen, Professor, Leroy E. Hoffberger School of Painting, MICA
Kevin Bell, Associate Professor, Pennsylvania State University
Bahar Behbahani, Artist-Educator
Omar El-Sabrout, Artist, Stanford Alum
Denise F. da Silva, Professor, New York University
A. L. Steiner, ISP Lecturer
Fred Tomaselli, Artist
Tom Butter, Retired Part Time Faculty Parsons
Lia Gangitano, Participant Inc
Wendy Tronrud, Assistant Professor, Queens College, CUNY
Bruce Pearson, Artist
Emily Jacir, Artist/ Founder of Dar Jacir for Art and Research, NABA
Catherine.Malabou, Kingston University
Earthen Clay, Alumni, Yale School of Art
Heather Hart, Artist/professor, Rutgers University
Kevin Brisco Jr, Artist/Alumni Yale School of art
Patrick Killoran, Artist
Douglas Ross, Artist
Andros Zins-Browne, Choreographer, commissioned by The Whitney, 2017
Judith Fox, Independent curator, co-principal, curatorsquared
Grant Kester, Professor, University of California, San Diego
Eleanor King, Artist
Byron Kim, Yale School of Art
Suzanne mcclelland, Visual artist
David Dixon, Artist, Curator, Visiting Associate Professor, Fine Arts, Pratt Institute
Dave McKenzie, Artist
Nina Katchadourian, Artist, Clinical Professor, NYU Gallatin School of Individualized Study, ISP alum
Jillian Conrad, University of Houston
Liz Park
Jonathan Watkins, Independent Curator and Writer
Joseph Buckley, Artist
Manar Moursi, Artist and graduate student, MIT
Steven Brower, Artist
Luisa Rabbia, Artist
Danilo Correale, Artist, Educator
Wendy Brown, UPS Foundation Professor, Institute for Advanced Study
Gordon Hall, Artist / Assistant Professor of Art, Vassar College
Eli Coplan, Artist
Kyle Bellucci Johanson, Artist
Olivia Crough, Graduate student, Art Film and Visual Studies, Harvard University
Adam Simon, Artist
Anne Wu, Artist
Howie Chen
Diana SeoHyung, Writer
Jennifer Doyle, Professor, UC Riverside
Mina Takahashi, Editor, Hand Papermaking magazine
Daniel Melo Morales, ISP Studio Alum (24'-25'), Artist
John Barlog, MD Clinical Assistant Professor, Urology, SUNY Buffalo
Valentina Jager, ISP alum 2024-25
Serkan Özkaya
Olivia McCall, Graduate Student, History of Art, Bryn Mawr College
Stephen Woo, ISP Alum 2024-2025
Anton Vidokle, artist
Fritz Barbee (formerly LJ Parnell), Co-host, Cazimi Collective
John Oakes, writer and editor
Tamara Khasanova, ISP Alum 2024-25
Magdaléna Michlová, Charles University, Prague, CZ
Hannah Wilder , Royal college of art
Sejal, RCA
Nour Khamis, Alumni, RISD + Royal College of Art
Ry Sunday Faraola, Graduate Student, Royal College of Art
A, Educator and Designer
Daise, Illustrator and Educator
Misha Zakharov, PGR, University of Warwick
Lawrence Heath, Philosopher
Paddy Johnson, VVrkshop
Ama Birch, Poet
David Attwood, Artist
Ramone K Anderson, Graduate, Royal College of Art
Mike Picos, Artist
Shobun Baile, Artist, ISP Alum 2023-24
Michele Araujo, Artist
Slater Hanna, Graduate Student, Hertie School
Mat Thompson, Birkbeck, University of London
Anna Angelica Ainio, PhD candidate, ETH
Mikki Janower, Designer, and alumna, Royal College of Art
Jordi Alomar, Director, Museu de la Música de Barcelona
Sina Najafi, Cabinet magazine, editor-in-chief
Saul Anton, Associate Professor, Pratt Institute
Søren, Artist
Leslie Dick, Yale School of Art
Katryn Evinson, Assistant Professor of Romance Studies, Duke University
Joe Keys, artist
Zykkii
Vinícius B. Valente, Graduate student, Universidade Federal do Paraná
Alison Nguyen, Artist, ISP Studio Alumn 2023-2024
Søren Evinson, Artist
Eli Meyerhoff, Visiting Scholar, Duke University
Andrew Ross, Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis, NYU
Barry Trachtenberg, Rubin Presidential Chair of Jewish History, Wake Forest University
Jade Thacker, Founder & Director, Intermission
Maura Brewer, Artist, ISP Studio Alum 2014-2015
Jason Waite, Curator, ISP Curatorial Alumn 2012-13
Michael Just, Artist, City University of Hong Kong
Blake Oetting, ISP Critical Studies Alum, 2023-2024
Virginia Solomon, Assistant Professor, University of Utah, ISP Alum
Blake Stimson, Professor of Art History, University of Illinois, Chicago
Benjamin Horns, Artist
Valerie Tevere, Artist, Professor, CSI/CUNY, ISP Alum
Mark LeVine, Professor of history, UC Irvine
Jonah Rubin, Sr. Manager of Campus Organizing, Jewish Voice for Peace
Virginia L. Montgomery, Artist, University of Texas at Austin
Rebecca Alpert, Professor of Religion Emeritus, Temple University
Lizzie Homersham, Whitney ISP 2016-17
Irene G Ontiveros, Artista
Bethany Letiecq, Professor, George Mason University
Andrew Finegold, Associate Professor, University of Illinois Chicago
Elizabeth Benninger, Adjunct Faculty, NYU Gallatin School of Individualized Study
Shelly Silver, ISP 1980-81, Professor, School of the Arts, Columbia University
Julian Zehnder, Artist
Ryan Holmberg
Amy Hagopian, Professor, University of Washington
Tess Rankin, translator and editor
EMILY KUNSTLER, Co-Founder, Off Center Media
Susan Morrissey, Professor of History, UC Irvine
Zachary B. Feldman, Curator, Goethe-Institut New York; ISP Alum
Ginger Duggan, independent curator
Philip Cartelli, Associate Professor, Wagner College
Jacqueline Rose, Professor of Humanities, Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, Birkbeck University of London
Jamie Martinez, Artist, publisher and curator
Anissa Mack, Artist
Tavia Nyongo, Professor, Yale University
Paul Ramírez Jonas, Professor, Artist, ISP seminar leader
Jeffrey Kastner, writer and editor
Adelita Husni Bey, Artist and pedagogue, ISP alumn
Ethan Ryman
Michelle Chow, PhD Student, Yale
Matt Ledwidge, artist
Kerry Tribe, Artist, ISP Alum
Maryam Ghoreishi, Operations Director
Oscar Tuazon, artist
Maryam Ghoreishi, Operations Director at apexart
Jay Butler , PhD student in English, Duke University
Nate Harrison, ISP alum, Professor of the Practice, School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University
Ester Partegàs, Artist and PT Professor, The New School
Erika Weiberg, Assistant Professor of Classical Studies, Duke University
Michael Cavuto, Poet, Director at Large, Miguel Abreu Gallery
Demian DinéYazhi’, Indigenous Diné Artist, Poet, and Curator
eshrat erfanian, Artist, ISP Alumni 1994-95, Emerita, VCFA
Tom Ackers
Santiago Fillol, Filmmaker, educator
Esther Leslie, Professor of Political Aesthetics, Birkbeck, University of London
Andreas Petrossiants, NYU
Davide cantoni
Sarah Gilbert, Associate Professor of Sculpture, Pitzer College
Matthew Friday, ISP Alum, MFA Coordinator State University of New York New Paltz
Lydia Nobles, Conceptual Artist
Cailan Harris, PhD student, Luxembourg
Jonathan Crary, ISP seminar leader 1988-2023
Paul Nadal, Assistant Professor of English
Sue Montoya
Nari Ward, Professor Emeritus
Amy Barkow, Artist
Timmy Simonds, Artist / Associate Professor at Pratt Humanities & Media Studies
Carles Guerra, Independent curator and researcher, artistic director of The Forbidden Art Museum.
Terri Ginsberg, Assistant Professor of Cinema Studies, Rutgers University
Rehab Nazzal, Artist
Valentina Desideri, Researcher atCAPIm Stockholm/Gothenburg & ISP seminar leader
Andrés Morera, Postdoctoral Associate, Rutgers University
Stefan St-Laurent, Artistic Lead, Special Projects, SAW and Adjunct Professor, University of Ottawa
Elena Razlogova, Associate Professor of History, Concordia University, Montreal
Kevin Gould, Associate Professor, Concordia University, Montreal
Jake Davidson, Lecturer, Yale College
Mary Ellen Davis, Part time faculty, School of Cinema, Concordia U., Montréal
Malek Abisaab, Associate Professor, McGill University
Anthea Behmm ISP alum, Associate Professor, School of Art + Art History, UF
Grady Gerbrachtm ISP alum, Artist, Educator, Cultural laborer
Ed Cohen, Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies Rutgers University
Malin Arnell, Artist, Associate Professor Umea Academy of Fine Arts, Sweden, ISP Alum
Victoria Fu, ISP Alum, Artist, Professor of Visual Arts, University of San Diego
Trevor Stark, University of Calgary
Martin Kersels, Professor, Yale University
K Knittel, President, Other Places
Carter Johnson, artist, adjunct faculty SUNY Stony Brook, CUNY College of Staten Island
Peter Rostovsky, Artist, ISP Alum
Yensen LeBeau
Sophy Naess, Senior Critic, Yale School of Art
Joseph Kattou, Independent researcher
Charles Gaines
Max Jorge Hinderer Cruz, Former Academic Director ISP / PEI MACBA Barcelona
Bjarki Bragason, Artist, Dean of Fine Art, Iceland University of the Arts
Gareth Bentley, SOAS lecturer
Aya Abdullaeva, MA, CEU
Amanda Curreri, Graduate Director, Dept of Art, University of New Mexico
Carmen Amengual, Artist, ISP Alum 2021-22
Daniel G. Andújar, Artist
Luis Moreno-Caballud, Associate Professor, UPenn
Kevin Pask, Professor, Concordia University, Montreal
Cristóbal Lehyt, Assistant Professor Cooper Union, ISP 99-00
Greg Simsic, Artist
Hahn Rowe, Composer
Dante Migone-Ojeda, Artist
Catalina Antonio Granados, Artist, Educator
Paul B. Preciado, Writer
Amie Siegel
Edward Kihn, CUNY
Jack Pavlik, Artist
Nicholas Galanin, Artist
Rebecca Naegele, ISP Alum
Ru Marshall
Nathan Townes-Anderson, Artist and Administrator, New York University
Catherine Czacki, Artist
Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy
Jennifer Gonzalez, ISP Alum, Professor, University of California Santa Cruz
Hekla Dogg Jonsdottir, Former professor The Iceland University of the Arts
Nicolas Grenier, Artist
Evan Peltzman, Artist
Georgia Sagri, Artist, Professor, Athens School of Fine Arts
Coral Saucedo Lomeli
Tumelo Mosaka
Susette Min, ISP Alum, Associate Professor, UC Davis
Rachel Price, Associate Professor, Princeton University
The most current list of signatories can be viewed here.
