Pratiksha Shome

Climate activists erected flags, banners, and a tiny oil rig outside the Museum of Modern Art on Thursday evening during its annual Party in the Garden, a significant fundraiser for the institution, as the sky over Manhattan turned a murky yellow from smoke brought down from Canadian wildfires.

In order to get Moma to fire Marie-Josée Kravis as its board chair, protesters from organisations like Climate Organising Hub, New York Communities for Change, and Reclaim Our Tomorrow attended.

Henry Kravis, co-founder and co-executive chairman of KKR, one of the biggest private equity firms in the world and a significant investor in the Coastal Gaslink Pipeline, is the husband of Kravis. Major supporters of MoMA, Henry and Marie-Josée Kravis’ names can be found on the walls of the Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis Studio, which exhibits performance and time-based art.

The demonstrators distributed flyers that contained a QR code that led to an open letter requesting that the museum end all relations with the Kravises. A request for response from MoMA was not immediately complied with.

A member of the Climate Organising Hub, Jonathan Westin, said, “MoMA can’t claim to be a sustainable organisation that wants to fight climate change but at the same time have a fossil fuel investor as the chair of the board, with their names on the walls,” as nervous-looking partygoers passed by the small crowd of protesters stationed outside the MoMA entrance. This was directly influenced by Nan Goldin’s and other activists’ efforts to get the Sackler name removed from the Met.

Contrary to publicly traded investment companies like BlackRock, KKR is a private equity organisation, which means it is not necessarily subject to rules or public criticism, according to activist Roni Zahavi-Brunner. Nobody is holding them responsible, according to Zahavi-Brunner.

Another justification is KKR’s participation in the contentious Coastal GasLink Pipeline. According to Amnesty International, because they intimidate and harass peaceful demonstrators on and around the pipeline’s construction site, which is still under construction, the Coastal GasLink Pipeline may be in violation of human rights laws. Indigenous activists from the Wet’suwet’en tribe have been trying to stop the pipeline’s construction for years, arguing that the project infringes on their sovereignty and endangers the ground they live on with pollution.

We literally can’t breathe our air because people like Kravis are keeping the fossil fuel business alive. One of the demonstrators enthused his fellow activists while drawing a parallel between the condition of the sky and the reason behind their demonstration.

A little over a dozen protesters eventually made their way around the block and gathered outside the gate to the MoMA garden. Following them, police and security personnel from the MoMA eventually outnumbered them.

“KKR, we see you, we deserve a future too,” they said as they approached the garden gate, through which they could see the partygoers and hear the music. “Henry Kravis you can’t run, we charge you with ecocide,” and “We need clean air, not another billionaire” are two statements. Before MoMA personnel set up a screen on the other side of the fence, visitors stood around while paying no attention to the demonstrators.

Police ordered demonstrators to move their makeshift oil rig and instructed them to cease using microphones. In their words, “if you flip that over the gate, that’s attempted murder.” “We weren’t planning on doing that,” Westin said before repositioning the rig a short distance. Eventually, police gave the crowd one final warning before starting the arrest process, which caused the crowd to calm down and start dispersing.

While police have become more forceful in their efforts to quell demonstrations in recent weeks, activist Alice Hu said that protesting at the museum seemed safer than doing so in the KKR lobby, where activists were promptly detained.

Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis, according to the activists, attended the celebration, which this year honoured artists Darren Walker, Ed Ruscha, Marlene Hess, Barbara Chase-Riboud, and featured a performance by the band MUNA.

Hu remarked, “Look, I personally adore the MoMA, but in light of the fact that the future of our planet is in jeopardy due to the climate crisis, this significant institution shouldn’t be granting them a social licence.” “If people outside started jeering at me while I was at a party with friends and a group of people I was trying to impress, I’d leave!”

Source: ARTnews