It was a break-up letter of epic proportions, ending a three-year relationship and breaking the hearts of over a dozen men and women on Valentine’s Day.
February 14 was the day artist and professor of Environmental Arts and Justice at York University in Toronto Dr Andil Gosine received a letter from the Art Museum of the Americas, cancelling his exhibition Nature's Wild with Andil Gosine, without any explanation.
In the letter, director of the museum Adriana Ospina told Gosine its parent organisation, the Organization of American States (OAS), decided to indefinitely suspend all temporary travelling on-site exhibitions, including Nature’s Wild.
It read, “Because we recognise the importance and value of the Nature’s Wild project, we understand and share your frustration at the challenges presented now.
“We deeply appreciate your dedication to the arts and culture of the hemisphere, as well as your expertise. We hope to have the opportunity to collaborate in the future.”
Gosine, who grew up in Tableland and moved to Canada with his family as an adolescent, spent three years planning to open the exhibition on March 21. The exhibition was based on his 2021 book Nature’s Wild: Love, Sex and Law in the Caribbean..
It explored a variety of themes including environmental justice, sexuality and sexual justice, and included a number of collaborations with artists and writers across the Americas, including Lorraine O’Grady, Kelly Sinnapah Mary, Bev Koski, Zachari Logan, Natalie Wood, Angie Quick, Deborah Root and Llanor Alleyne, Shani Mootoo, Rajiv Mohabir, Shivanee Ramlochan, Marsha Pearce, Sur Rodney Sur and Maximillion Alegria, and was edited by Annie Paul.
On January 20, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order “ending radical and wasteful government DEI programmes and preferencing.” Then, on February 4, he issued another directing the Secretary of State to review US support to all international organisations and report how US money was being used and where cuts should be made.
That same day, Gosine was finalising the last details of the exhibition with the museum staff.
[caption id="attachment_1143082" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Magna Carta, a 2024 artpiece by Dr Andil Gosine of himself when he was about three years old in George Village, Tableland, which would have been part of the Nature's Wild exhibition. The photo was altered to make his shoes sparkle. - Photo courtesy Dr Andil Gosine.[/caption]
According to Gosine, on February 5 at 9.30 am, Ospina called him to say she was instructed to cancel his show. She gave no reason at the time, and the same was true when she followed up the call with her February 14 letter.
Also, on February 10, curator Cheryl D Edwards’ Before The Americas, a show of works by African descendants in the Caribbean and the Americans, was cancelled by the museum at the request of the Trump administration, which considered the exhibition a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiative.
Gosine admitted the museum, located in Washington, DC, had been ma
