A coalition of participants from the sixth Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB) have written to event organisers to voice discontent over a funding source, The Architect’s Newspaper reports.
This year’s edition, titled Shift: Architecture in Times of Radical Change, opened on 19 September. A day prior, a letter was sent to the executive team, citing discontent over CAB’s support from Crown Family Philanthropies, which owns a ten percent stake in General Dynamics, a military contractor that supplies weapons to Israel. On 16 September, a report from a United Nations commission stated that Israel has ‘committed genocide in the Gaza Strip’.
Twenty-one signatories requested for the CAB executive team to ‘not accept further funding from Crown Family Philanthropies or any other sponsor involved in the perpetration of war crimes for future editions of the Chicago Architecture Biennial’, citing contradictions between the biennial’s curatorial mission and its funding.
The letter stated ‘sponsorship is incompatible with the values of our work’. With 21 signatories, the letter represents around one fifth of biennial participants. Some opted to withdraw their exhibitions while others remained in the programme.
The action follows a previous letter sent by participants, on 14 August, which voiced concerns related to Crown Family Philanthropies. In response, the CAB team told signatories that no Crown Family funding was used to support their exhibitions, but instead went to educational programming, and that they were not in a financial position to return funds already committed.
The CAB has not yet publicly responded to the letter dated 18 September.
