About the future of the Whitney Independent Study Program
Ongoing Turbulence in the Museum Sector
Dismissal of Sara Nadal-Melsió
The Future of the Whitney Independent Study Program is in the balance
30 October 2025
In recent months, the art museum field has witnessed a rise in censorship affecting curatorial programming. On 15 August 2025, the Museum Watch Committee of CIMAM – the International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art – shared the statement issued by the American Alliance of Museums addressing the growing threats of censorship to U.S. museums.
The statement raised a very important concern: “In recent months, museums have faced increasing external pressures to modify, remove, or limit exhibitions and programs. People trust museums because they rely on independent scholarship and research, uphold high professional standards, and embrace open inquiry. When any directive dictates what should or should not be displayed, it risks narrowing the public’s window into evidence, ideas, and a full range of perspectives.” [1]
Today, Museum Watch expresses its concern over the unresolved situation surrounding the dismissal of Sara Nadal-Melsió on June 2, 2025, from her position as associate director of the Whitney Independent Study Program (ISP), as well as the lack of transparency regarding the future of this long-established and respected program.
Nadal-Melsió was dismissed after supporting a planned performance of “No Aesthetics Outside My Freedom: Mourning, Militancy, and Performance,” a work by artists Fadl Fakhouri, Noel Maghathe, and Fargo Tbakhi based on texts by Brandon Shimoda, Christina Sharpe, and Natalie Diaz. The performance was planned as part of the ISP’s curatorial programming for the 2024-2025 year before Whitney Museum director Scott Rothkopf demanded its cancellation on May 12. Subsequently, Nadal-Melsió was terminated, and the entire ISP program was paused for 2025-26.
Quoting the statement from the National Coalition Against Censorship, “The Whitney’s decision—made without consulting the program’s Curatorial Cohort and refusing to engage them in conversation—undermines the ISP’s mission to promote deep engagement with “contemporary issues through extended conversation and collaboration” and to incubate "innovative, sustainable, and activist practices."
“By communicating that it can (and will) censor artworks if it disagrees with how their artists engage and think about politics, the Whitney Museum, a private cultural institution, mirrors the authoritarian approach of our current presidential administration,” stated Elizabeth Larison, Director of NCAC’s Arts & Culture Advocacy Program. [2]
Sara Nadal-Melsió's firing and the enforced hiatus of the program she helped to run are only the latest iteration of the turbulent responses to the Gaza conflict, which has been felt deeply across the cultural landscape, and particularly in relation to museums and exhibition spaces dedicated to contemporary art. The cancellation of “No Aesthetics Outside My Freedom” and the punishment meted out to Nadal-Melsió take their place alongside many other canceled exhibitions and dismissed museum professionals.
The statement from Artists at Risk Connection (ARC) reflects the critical current situation for museums: “The abrupt cancellation, just two days before the performance, sets a deeply troubling precedent for how museums engage with political and socially-critical artists.”
“The Whitney's decision to abruptly terminate Sara Nadal-Melsió and suspend the entire Independent Study Program is an alarming and disappointing development which further undermines principles of artistic freedom and open dialogue,” said ARC Executive Director Julie Trébault. [3]
The Independent Study Program, an internationally respected school under the aegis of the Whitney Museum, has been a significant platform for over fifty years, educating and developing many now-famous professionals who make up the diverse ecology of the artworld, including artists, curators and educators.
"These acts of administrative violence are increasingly common and can be best understood in their entanglement and continuity with one another. The details of the ISP case carry damaging consequences for experimental learning spaces in museums, especially this one that has not upheld its mission statement to be “experimental, responsive, and risk-taking””, declares Sara Nadal-Melsió in her OpEd for Hyperallergic [4].
The CIMAM Museum Watch is dismayed by the silencing of this program and the termination of Nadal-Melsió. In line with its mission and commitment to uphold ethical and fair governance in modern and contemporary art museums, CIMAM joins the many voices already protesting the cancellation of the performance, the dismissal of associate director Sara Nadal-Melsió, and the ISP program for 2025-26. CIMAM has addressed a letter to the Whitney Museum requesting clarifications on how it envisions its future direction and how it intends to safeguard the program’s legacy of intellectual independence and critical inquiry, thereby reaffirming the museum’s commitment to freedom of expression and ethical governance in art institutions.
References:
[1] American Alliance Museum Statement, 15 August, 2025
[2] Contemporary Culture Requires Artistic Freedom—Especially in times of Political Crisis, May, 28, 2025.
[3] ARC Condemns Whitney Museum’s Censorship of Palestinian Mourning Performance and Sara Nadal-Melsió's termination.
Sara Nadal-Melsió letter of protest:
https://www.cabinetmagazine.org/kiosk/nadal_melsio_sara_22_may_2025.php
Articles in the Press:
[4] OpEd By Sara Nadal-Melsió:
I Lost My Job at the Whitney, but the Art Community Lost Much More
Letter in Support of Sara Nadal-Melsió (it was initiated by a group that included alums, ISP faculty, and academics)
The ISP Alumni letter with links with all other statements by the 24-25 cohort and the censored Palestinian artists:
The CIMAM Museum Watch Committee:
- Zeina Arida, (Chair) Director, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, Qatar.
- Bart De Baere, Director, M HKA Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp, Belgium.
- Amanda de la Garza, Artistic Deputy Director, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (MNCARS), Madrid, Spain.
- Malgorzata Ludwisiak, Ph.D., Museum Management Expert / Freelance Curator / Academic Teacher, Warsaw, Poland.
- Agustin Perez Rubio, Independent Curator, Madrid, Spain.
- Kitty Scott, Strategic Director, Fogo Island Arts / Shorefast, Toronto, Canada.
- Yu Jin Seng, Director (Curatorial & Research), National Gallery Singapore, Singapore.
CIMAM – International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art – is an Affiliated Organization of ICOM.