Students at Goldsmiths, University of London, have ended their boycott of the Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA) after it cut ties with Candida and Zak Gertler and removed their names from one of its galleries.
The gallery had been named after the Gertlers, who had previously donated to the institution. Their names have also now been removed from the donor board. In May and June, students from the group Goldsmiths for Palestine occupied the art gallery for 27 days and launched a boycott, leading to its temporary closure over the summer. The campaigners were protesting against the Gertlers alleged support for the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu following the outbreak of the war in Gaza.
A PhD student at the university, who did not want to be named, said: “The CCA cutting ties with the Gertlers as a result of the boycott is massive for the Palestinian movement at both the university level and [in] the art world. This indicates the art gallery wants to cut ties with the Israeli war machine and end its endorsement of the genocide in Palestine. Little dominos are falling, showing that boycotts and protests work.”
A spokesperson for the CCA confirmed the Gertlers’ names have been removed from the gallery and donor board, and said that the institution has not received funds from the Gertlers since 2017.
Among the allegations put forward by Goldsmiths for Palestine during the campaign are that the Gertlers are personal friends of Netanyahu and have provided financial support for his political campaign. The Gertlers did not respond to a request for comment via the Outset Contemporary Art Fund, of which Candida Gertler is a founder.
During their occupation of the CCA, the protesting students covered over the wall plaque in the Zak and Candida Gertler gallery with the name Walid Daqqa, in honour of the Palestinian author and longest-serving political prisoner in Israeli jails, who spent a total of 38 years behind bars before dying in prison in April 2024. While occupying the CCA, the students also put up a “People’s Exhibition for Palestine” highlighting Palestinian artists and designers in the art gallery for more than a week in June.
Now back open, the CCA is currently displaying a solo exhibition by Sammy Baloji, which examines the interconnected strands of the artist's research on climate, tropical architecture, Belgian Art Nouveau and mineral extraction in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
