Update: Toronto Artist's Contract Ended due to View on Israel

This weekend, there's been much to-do over a Toronto gallery's surprising decision to renege on an artist's contract due to the artist's views on Israel. The gallery, the Koffler, is part of a Jewish cultural centre and the artist, Reena Katz, who is Jewish, was part of the Koffler's scheduled programming for May and June. Katz has been associated with Israel Apartheid Week, a group which questions Israel's actions in Palestine.

On Friday, the Koffler issued a statement dissociating themselves from Katz. Facebook uproar and articles in the local media (here and here) have since followed.

In my opinion, this is quite a bad move for the gallery. The Koffler has in recent years tried to open and hip-ify their image by doing more downtown programming (their actual gallery is located in the suburbs). Katz was to be part of that initiative. This decision goes right against that kind of open and flexible image.

Further, it's almost certain that artists who've exhibited at the gallery in the past--like BGL and Blue Republic--are not Zionist in identification.

So what's the problem here? It's that the artist is open about their non-Zionist views? That the information regarding same is available on her Facebook page?

Also, if the political views of artists was so important to the Koffler in the first place, they should have scoped all this out beforehand--before months of press material and hype have gone out on their part.

Photo of Reena Katz from the Star

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