The Gichigamiin Indigenous Nations Museum in Evanston, Illinois, has temporarily closed its doors to the public. The news of the closure comes after the museum terminated its contract with an Indigenous artist over his “unauthorized” inclusion of pro-Palestine visuals and slogans in a preliminary underpainting for a commissioned mural outside the institution.
The Gichigamiin Indigenous Nations Museum had commissioned Anishinaabe and Korean-American artist Jamie John to paint an outdoor mural honoring Anishinaabe culture. Finalized and approved in July, the design for the work paid homage to legendary figures such as Sky Woman, the giant turtle and the little muskrat, Thunderbird, and Nanaboozhoo, who play key roles in the Earth’s formation in traditional Anishinaabe creation stories.
During the work’s installation, John used pro-Palestine phrases and symbols to create the mural’s “doodle grid,” a common mural scaling technique in which an underpainting serves as reference for the final work. These included “Free the Land,” “Protect Immigrants,” “Fund Art, Not Weapons,” “Feed Gaza,” and “From the River to the Sea,” as well as images of watermelons, olive branches, and doves. In previous mural commissions, the artist has used similar motifs to create doodle grids, which are then covered up by the finished mural.
The project was scheduled to be completed by August 18, but in response to the content in the mural’s base illustrations — which John was in the middle of covering with an opaque topcoat — the museum ended its contract and subsequently painted over the work in progress.
“I am disappointed in the museum’s lack of accountability to the Native community of Chicagoland, many of whom recognize the Palestinian people as an Indigenous people who are suffering and fighting for their lives and their sovereignty under an unlawful and illegal colonial occupation,” John told Hyperallergic.
In a statement, the museum’s board of directors claimed that the content had not been “commissioned or approved by the museum.”
“The visuals have been removed, and we are reviewing our protocols to help prevent future unauthorized actions,” the statement said.
Museum executive director Kim Vigue told Evanston Roundtable that the doodle grid was a violation of the mural contract and “did not align with the museum’s focus.” She told the news outlet that the museum is planning to commission a different artist to execute the mural.
The museum closed yesterday, August 11, and will remain closed through this Saturday, August 16, with plans to resume its regular schedule next week, according to an announcement. An anonymous source cited in the Evanston RoundTable alleged that the reason for the closure was an August 10 Facebook post written by the artist encouraging museum visitors to “politely” ask the museum’s director about the terminated contract agreement during its Free Admissions day.
Hyperallergic has reached out to the museum for comment.
Beginning on July 7, the since-cancelled contract stipulated that John would be paid a $24 hourly wage; however, the artist claimed to Hyperallergic that the museum terminated his contract without pay. He also alleged that he was not given an opportunity to speak to the museum’s board or defend his actions to Vigue before his termination.
“I agreed to the mural because I thought I was going to be doing good work for what I thought was a pillar of Chicago’s Indigenous community,” John told Hyperallergic. “But I was betrayed and abandoned by an institution who censored, removed, and silenced the call for freedom to the Palestinian people.”
