Chicago Museum Shutters Holy Land Map Exhibit

Of course, it's a safety issue, since a building that's only SEVEN months old needs to have a maintenance problem dealt with. Of course, that is the real "issue."

Luckily, there were no other "maintenance" issues elsewhere in the building, only on the floor that showed work from Palestinian-born artists had "maintenance" issues.

And of course, we must take the curator, Ms. Rosen's word that the "core audience", although bitching about the exhibit, wasn't the reason the show was shuttered.

Of course, it was strictly a "maintenance" issue, of course.

Spertus museum shutters Holy Land map exhibit

Curator says building repairs behind closing of controversial show

By Charles Storch and Alan G. Artner | Tribune reporters
May 14, 2008

A controversial exhibition on Holy Land maps and boundaries, both ancient and contemporary, was suspended in the Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies' museum less than a week after it opened.

Rhoda Rosen, the Chicago museum's director and curator of the exhibition, "Imaginary Coordinates," said Tuesday that the show was closed last Thursday because of maintenance issues in the 7-month-old building's 10th-floor gallery. She acknowledged that the show is provocative and "some people expressed concerns about presenting these issues in a Jewish museum."

She declined to elaborate on those concerns, saying only that they are coming from members of the institute's "core audience." She contended that the public response has been generally positive.

Because of the hiatus forced by gallery repairs, she said, "we took the opportunity to look at concerns as well." She said shows on other floors are not affected.

She said she was hopeful the exhibition would reopen this week.

The show, which opened May 2 and is to run until Sept. 7, includes works by eight Israeli- and Palestinian-born female artists as well as maps from the Spertus collection.

Thematically, the show goes beyond conventional notions of national borders and mapping. It expresses the ideas in such means as a video by a Palestinian artist has her discussing her sexuality while showing images of her nude mother.