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With 'heart, sensitivity, and delicacy,' Wing Luke Museum plans to re-open after staff walkout

The Wing Luke Museum in Seattle’s Chinatown International District is working to reopen after roughly two dozen staff walked out in protest. At issue: a new exhibit called “Confronting Hate Together,” which looks at how Seattle’s Black, Asian-American, and Jewish communities have faced prejudice both historically and in the present. 

On the day it was set to debut, about half of the Wing Luke’s staff walked off the job.

Those workers said in a statement that parts of “Confronting Hate Together,” which the museum had been working on since before October 7th, conflated Anti-Zionism with anti-semitism. They also  criticized the absence of Palestinian, Muslim and Arab voices. 

Soundside host Libby Denkmann spoke with Wing Luke's executive director, Joël Barraquiel Tan, about how the museum is responding to staff’s demands while also balancing the autonomy of its partners in this project.

Guest(s):

  • Joël Barraquiel Tan, executive director of the Wing Luke Museum

 

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