Noguchi Museum workers walk out of work to protest new dress code that bans Palestinians

Employees at the Noguchi Museum – a museum dedicated to modernist sculptor and designer Isamu Noguchi in New York City’s Astoria district – walked off work on Wednesday (August 21) to protest a new change to the employee dress code that prohibits employees from wearing clothing or accessories that display political messages, slogans or symbols. This includes clothing or items that promote political parties, candidates or ideological movements, such as the Kufiya.

According to museum staff who walked out in protest, the policy is “definitely anti-Palestinian” and stems from an incident last week in which a gallery attendant was reprimanded for wearing a keffiyeh to work. Noguchi Museum Rights members distributed a petition signed by 54 of the museum's 72 employees, which was in turn delivered to the museum's board, management and director Amy Hau. Eight staff walked out on August 21, according to a museum spokesperson.

The petition describes an incident on the morning of August 14 in which a gallery attendant was allegedly called to a meeting with Hau and the museum's Director of Human Resources and Culture, Lizan Highland, and ordered to stop wearing a keffiyeh at work. When they refused to remove it, they were sent home. That same afternoon, a staff meeting was hastily called, where employees were reportedly told they were prohibited from wearing “political attire.” The next morning, a previously scheduled monthly staff meeting reportedly ended “in tears,” and two gallery attendants were sent home for refusing to remove their keffiyeh. Many employees from several museum departments walked off work in protest at the time. The strikes were first reported by Art News.

“As staff, we are committed to protecting and nurturing the work and legacy of Isamu Noguchi – a man who deeply understood the injustice of targeted discrimination and displacement,” the Noguchi Museum Rights Petition states. “We believe this directive does not serve the overall mission of the museum. We reject the notion that 'politics' can be separated from cultural institutions.”

A museum spokesman said seven security guards were called to the scene on August 21 because it was expected that the eight gallery guards who normally work at the museum would not be present.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the museum confirmed that “concerns were raised about an employee wearing a keffiyeh at work.” The statement continued: “We are proud that our team reflects a wide range of perspectives and life experiences, and we fully support our employees' commitment to activism and freedom of expression outside of the workplace. However, within the museum, our responsibility is to create a safe, inclusive, and welcoming environment for all employees and visitors. To maintain this environment, we have made the decision to ban political speech from our work environment.”

The keffiyeh is a traditional head covering commonly worn by men in North Africa and West Asia. Black and white keffiyehs have been associated with the Palestinian solidarity and independence movement since the mid-20th century. Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas on October 7, 2023, wearing a keffiyeh has become a common practice for many who support Palestinians and call for a ceasefire in Gaza. This has led to repression due to this association – two people wearing keffiyehs were denied entry. in March at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, an incident for which the museum later apologized.

In the October 7 attacks, around 1,200 people were killed in Israel and around 250 were taken hostage. More than 40,000 Palestinians were killed in the Israeli invasion of Gaza.These are the latest figures from the Hamas-run Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip.