New York City Politician Melissa Mark-Viverito Is Arrested During a Protest of MoMA Trustee Steven Tananbaum

This morning, local politician Melissa Mark-Viverito was among a
group of protesters who were arrested outside the newly re-opened
Museum of Modern Art as part of demonstrations against trustee
Steven Tananbaum.

Several activist groups converged on MoMA, targeting the
museum’s official reopening to the public, which drew a line of
visitors stretching down the block. As opening time approached and
protesters began to appear, the NYPD and MoMA security began
placing barricades in front of the 53rd Street entrance.

According to one protester in attendance, Inaru Guara,
activists had marched down Sixth Avenue, starting at 55th Street
before turning onto 53rd. Guara noted that today’s action included
human rights and environmental activist groups, among
them New York Communities for
Change and Cancel The Debt. “As a community member, I
represent everyone,” she added.

A Facebook post from Communities for Change lays out the
reasoning for targeting the museum: Tananbaum, who sits on the MoMA board,
“made his money at the cost of closing schools, cutting retirement
pensions and other services in Puerto Rico.” The group called
Tananbaum’s hedge fund, Golden Tree, “one of the most aggressive
vulture funds taking advantage of Puerto Rico’s debt crisis.”

“We are taking action at the MOMA reopening demanding the museum
to take out Steve Tananbaum from its board of trustees,” the post
continued. “For the people of Puerto Rico!”

Mark-Viverito, who was previously speaker of the New York City
Council and is currently running to replace Bronx
representative José Serrano, was part of a group that occupied
53rd street holding a banner reading “4,645 Puerto Ricans,” a
reference to the number of people who died in the devastating 2017
Hurricane Maria. The banner also included the slogan
#CANCELTHEDEBT.

“We cannot allow these types of cultural institutions to be used
as a way of whitewashing money,” Mark-Viverito said to a crowd
of reporters. “Puerto Rico is suffering. People are losing their
pensions. [Due to] privatization of resources, schools are closing
down and the higher education system is being stripped of its
budget. These practices must end. And we’re seeing global unrest
over similar practices. Austerity measures don’t work. Austerity
measures suck the life out of the future of the people of Puerto
Rico and we cannot allow that.”

Shortly before 11 am, the NYPD started broadcasting an
announcement warning demonstrators that they were “unlawfully”
blocking the roadway and needed to relocate to the sidewalk or be
placed under arrest for disorderly conduct if they remained in the
roadway.

Mark-Viverito and her group remained seated until police
officers moved in and began placing them one by one in plastic
handcuffs, eventually putting them in a nearby truck for
transportation to the local precinct. Mark-Viverito did not
immediately respond to request for comment though pictures and
comments were posted on her Twitter feed following
the incident.

According to reports, seven protesters were arrested. Overall,
the demonstrators numbered several dozens.

Not all members of New York’s activist community were impressed.
Decolonize This Place, which has recently led protests against the
Whitney, the American Museum of Natural History, and other venues,
denounced Mark-Viverito in an Instagram post. The group quoted Bronx
activist Shellyne Rodriguez calling Mark-Viverito a “snake” whose
record in City Council made her complicit with gentrification and
the NYPD, suggesting she was opportunistically latching onto museum
protests “to manufacture street cred.”

(Rodriguez currently works for MoMA as an
educator. She is quoted in the audio guide to the newly reinstalled
permanent collection offering insight into the work of Mexican
Muralist David Alfaro Siquieros.)

Monday morning’s action comes on the heels of another protest at
MoMA on Friday night, during MoMA’s exclusive opening party. Groups
including #MoMADivest and CodePink protested outside the museum,
targeting a different member of the museum board, Laurence D. Fink,
CEO of BlackRock, saying that he “profits from war, ICE detention
centers, private prisons, and the climate crisis.”

While the group on the street handed out a flyers to party
attendees, a smaller group who gained access to the
party unfurled banners and performed what CodePink
spokesperson and #MoMADivest member Rose Asafa described as a
“mic-drop” or chant that was partially drowned out by the party’s
DJ. Outside on the sidewalk, the group placed large blocks of ice
that had the words “Melt MoMA” and “Melt ICE” carved into them.

MoMA did not immediately respond to artnet News’ request for
comment.

The post New York City Politician Melissa Mark-Viverito Is
Arrested During a Protest of MoMA Trustee Steven Tananbaum
appeared first on artnet News.