Noguchi Museum fires three people for wearing keffiyeh

Three gallery employees at the Noguchi Museum in New York's Queens borough – a museum dedicated to him and founded by Japanese-American artist Isamu Noguchi – were fired last Wednesday for violating a new internal policy that prohibits employees from wearing a keffiyeh, a Middle Eastern head covering that has become a symbol of Palestinians.

The Noguchi Museum's new dress code, which prohibits “political clothing,” was introduced on August 14, when the museum's 72 employees received an email asking them to remove clothing and accessories with political messages. Shortly afterward, a petition against the policy was circulated, signed by 54 employees, and a strike by eight employees occurred on August 21.

On Sunday, artists, arts workers and residents protested outside the facility against the layoffs and called for the resignation of director Amy Hau.

The Noguchi Museum is not the only one firing its staff for political reasons. The 92NY cultural center in Manhattan also reportedly fired an employee after the center implemented a policy prohibiting staff who interact with customers from “expressing personal views on political or social issues.” According to HyperallergicAt least five other employees have also resigned because of this regulation.

The Manhattan-based cultural center, founded in 1874, had previously been criticized for canceling a lecture by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Viet Thanh Nguyen last October after the author signed an open letter in support of Palestine. All three staff members of 92NY's Unterberg Poetry Center resigned following the cancellation and the literary series was suspended indefinitely.