Oolite Arts Cancels This Year's Ellies Awards

Facing an ongoing boycott by resident artists over alleged censorship, Oolite Arts has canceled all programming until the end of the year.

That includes the Ellie Awards, an annual program that provides grants to local visual artists.

The Miami Beach nonprofit arts organization announced the news in a July 23 email from interim CEO Maggy Cuesta sent to resident artists and viewed by New Times. Excerpts were later shared on social media by Miami Arts Accountability (MAA), the organization leading the boycott.

"Over the past two months, the board and leadership of Oolite Arts have heard from many in the arts community who have urged us to pause and reflect on the recent controversy regarding the Walgreens' exhibition and examine our processes and procedures in how we interact with and support artists," Cuesta wrote, referencing the controversial removal artwork byVũ Hoàng Khánh Nguyên that initiated a backlash from artists. "As a result, we are pausing much of our programming through the end of the year to allow time and space for evaluation and reflection."

Cuesta announced that exhibitions, programming, and art classes beyond those already scheduled would be canceled and that Oolite would relaunch in December in time for Art Basel Miami Beach and to mark the organization's 40th anniversary.

The Ellies, which award up to $500,000 annually, won't return until the spring of 2025, and artists who applied for the coveted grants will need to reapply.

"While we anticipate keeping the overall amount distributed the same as last year, we are assessing the categories and individual award levels and how we might change the Ellies to make these grants more impactful for artists, their projects, and the Miami Arts Community," Cuesta wrote.

The move has already drawn criticism.

On Instagram, MAA accused Oolite of "doubling down and putting up storm shutters for the year as they continue to refuse to meet with artists nor address any of our concerns, instead choosing to flex for Basel visitors and then have a year-long 40th-anniversary party."

That statement appears to overlook Cuesta's assurance in the email that the Oolite board will meet with resident artists, several of whom are involved in MAA, on August 2.

The controversy dates back to May when Oolite board chair Maria Elena Angulo ordered Vũ's artwork removed in response to complaints from Jewish Miami Beach residents over its central image: the phrase From the river to the sea. (Some view the phrase — often lengthened to From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free — as a rallying cry in support of Palestinian independence. But others interpret it as a call for genocide against Jews, especially since the terrorist group Hamas adopted it as a slogan a decade ago.)

Soon after the controversy over the removal, the board removed Esther Park and Munisha Underhill as interim co-directors, and Cuesta assumed the leadership role while Oolite continues to look for its new president and CEO after Dennis Scholl stepped down in 2023. The removal also caused artists at Oolite and in the wider community to publish an open letter demanding Angulo's resignation, which Oolite's board continues to ignore. The group later organized as MAA and launched its boycott after Oolite issued a statement defending the artwork's removal.

Several protesting artists also created a replacement work in the same space, titled, Killing the flowers will not delay spring, which was on view for several days in June before Oolite covered all the windows.