The Director of the University of Manchester ’s Whitworth Gallery is being asked to step down following a row over a statement of solidarity with Palestine that was removed from an exhibition by a human rights investigations agency.
Alistair Hudson, who has headed up the Whitworth and Manchester Art Gallery since 2018, faced criticism from UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) over the recent Cloud Studies exhibition at the gallery.
The exhibition’s opening statement criticised Israel’s military operations in Gaza, which UKLFI said contained “obvious inaccuracies”.
The display was temporarily suspended after complaints from Jewish groups, but was reinstated in August with a promise from Hudson that the Whitworth would provide a space for alternative responses to the issues raised.
He said: “The university, as a non-political organisation, has tried to balance extremely complex issues raised by the exhibition, but we believe that the worst outcome for all parties concerned would have been to close this exhibition for an extended period of time.”
But The Guardian reports that the university explicitly cited his response to the fallout from Cloud Studies when asking him to step down.
UKLFI say they wrote to the university in September suggesting that they take appropriate disciplinary action against Hudson, following a freedom of information request which failed to demonstrate that Hudson had checked the accuracy of statements made in the exhibition.
Speaking to the Manchester Evening News, UKLFI chief executive Jonathan Turner said he did not know if Hudson had been asked to step down, but if he had "it is likely to be because he misled his employer as to the checks he made, or rather did not make, in relation to the Forensic Architecture exhibition".
"UKLFI and the Manchester Jewish Community were both concerned about the impact this would have on antisemitism in Manchester, which was already at a very high level," Turner said.
Forensic Architecture, the Turner prize-nominated human rights investigations agency behind Cloud Studies, strongly refutes the suggestion of any inaccuracies in the display.
Cloud Studies explored the impact of chemical attacks and explosions on marginalised people in Beirut, Syria and Indonesia, as well as Palestine.
A University of Manchester spokesperson said: “We absolutely uphold academic freedom. However, staffing matters are strictly internal to the University and we do not comment on questions of this nature, including in relation to our current Whitworth Art Gallery director.”
