Museum Withdraws Artwork Created By Immigrants

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

The Davis Museum at Wellesley College in Massachusetts will not display works created or donated by immigrants. These works will be covered by a black cloth from today until next Monday, President's Day. Instead of the works, those who visit the museum will be able to see posters that say: "Created by an immigrant."

The initiative to remove the paintings is called 'Art-Less' (without art) and aims to highlight the impact of immigration in this country. "We have removed or covered these works to symbolically demonstrate what the Davis Museum would look like without its contributions to our collections and Wellesley College, and thereby honor its many priceless gifts," a museum spokesperson told CNN en Español. One of these, the portrait of George Washington by Swedish artist Adolf Ulrik Wertmuller, who emigrated to the United States in 1790, no longer graces the museum. The painting was donated to the Davis Museum by an immigrant family.

Davis Museum at Wellesley College Associate Director Tsugumi Joiner, hands only, places a placard near the shroud-covered painting Friends in a Storm Approaching, 1875-1876, by Scottish-born artist James McDougal Hart, Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017, at the museum, in Wellesley, Mass. To protest President Donald Trump's recent travel ban artworks by immigrants, or artworks given to the museum by immigrants, are to be covered with shrouds or de-installed from Thursday through Tuesday Feb. 21, to call attention to contributions that immigrants have made to culture. (AP Photo / Steven Senne)

Thursday was celebrated in the United States as “Immigrant-Free Day,” an initiative in which thousands of businesses across the country - from restaurants to beauty salons - remained closed. The protest is part of the movement to reject President Donald Trump's immigration policies and the growing immigration raids that have rocked the country.

In addition to the closings, there were also some marches in cities like New York and Los Angeles. “Thousands of immigrants stopped going to work; they are not shopping, eating at restaurants, buying gas, or sending their children to school,”NPR reporter Danielle Karson said this morning from Los Angeles. "Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis says immigrants, regardless of their legal status, contribute 40 percent of Los Angeles County's gross domestic product - about $ 300 billion a year."