Robin Pogrebin and Elizabeth A. Harris

“The targeted campaign of attacks against me and my company that has been waged these past several months has threatened to undermine the important work of the Whitney,” Kanders said in his resignation letter. “I joined this board to help the museum prosper. I do not wish to play a role, however inadvertent, in its demise.”

Kanders owns Safariland, a Jacksonville, Florida-based manufacturer of law enforcement and military supplies including bulletproof vests, bomb-defusing robots, gun holsters and tear gas. Protesters had demanded Kanders’ resignation, or removal from the board, after reports that Safariland’s tear-gas grenades had been used against migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border and elsewhere during protests.

The controversy thrust the museum into the political arguments roiling the country, and came at a time of increasing scrutiny of where cultural institutions get their money. Kanders’ departure could embolden other protest movements that have demanded, with some success, that museums part ways with major donors or trustees.

The growing influence of these movements, and their potential to drive away major sources of museums’ revenue, such as Kanders, was evident in the reaction of Adam D. Weinberg, the Whitney’s director.

“Here’s a man who has given a tremendous amount of his time and money to young, often edgy and radical artists — somebody who is very progressive — that’s one of the ironies of all this,” Weinberg said.

In what amounted to a brief counterprotest, hedge fund titan Kenneth C. Griffin also stepped down from the board Thursday, during a telephone call with other board members, according to a person who was on the call. Griffin, a billionaire whose name is on the Whitney’s lobby, was dismayed by what he described as the museum’s left-wing tilt, according to the person on the call.

But Griffin apparently reconsidered, and decided to stay. “I’m a trustee of the Whitney and excited to be on the board,” he said in a telephone interview Thursday evening. When pressed about what had transpired earlier in the day, Griffin said, “I think board conversations are private,” adding, “I haven’t resigned.”

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/25/arts/whitney-warren-kanders-resigns.html" id="dcb68096-bfab-3e3e-aa6e-7a22696ebed4">The New York Times</a>.

NEW YORK — Warren B. Kanders, a vice chairman of the Whitney Museum of American Art, stepped down Thursday after months of protests over his company’s sale of tear gas, culminating in the withdrawal of eight artists last week from the prestigious Whitney Biennial exhibition.

Warren Kanders Resigns From Whitney Board After Tear Gas Protests

The Metropolitan Museum of Art and other museums have said they would stop accepting gifts from members of the Sackler family associated with the maker of OxyContin, after allegations that the company deliberately concealed its addictive potential. Museums in Britain have faced pressure to cut ties with the oil company BP, which has been accused of contributing to the climate crisis.

“The Whitney Museum is one of the most progressive, the most diverse, the most engaged open programs of any major institution in the country,” Weinberg added. “Every museum director is looking at us right now and saying, ‘Gee, if the Whitney is being targeted, what’s going to happen to us?’”

He also said, “all cultural institutions in the United States should be places of open dialogue.”

For those who had called on Kanders to leave, the day was a joyous one. The eight artists who withdrew from the Biennial said that they would now remain in the show. (Their works had not yet been removed.) And the group that led the protests, Decolonize This Place, said that it was heartened by Kanders’ departure, thanked the museum for heeding its calls while also suggesting that the group was not done demanding changes.

“Now we address the day after Kanders and call on Adam Weinberg and the museum leadership to meet with stakeholders to discuss from tear gas to decolonization, a process of reformulating our museums to be responsive to the constituencies they claim to serve,” the group said in a statement.

Kanders, 61, joined the Whitney board in 2006, had been on the executive committee for seven years, and has donated more than $10 million to the museum. Through a spokesman, he declined to comment Thursday.

He and his wife, Allison, are avid art collectors, owning work by contemporary artists like Jeff Koons, Christopher Wool, Rudolf Stingel and Ed Ruscha. Allison Kanders was co-chairwoman of the museum’s painting and sculpture committee; she resigned simultaneously with her husband.

A graduate of Choate Rosemary Hall, the elite Connecticut boarding school, and Brown University, Kanders began working in finance doing mergers and acquisitions at Morgan Stanley. He later struck out on his own, buying up a series of eyewear stores, lens and frame manufacturers that he eventually sold in 1996.

Kanders plowed some of his profits into a company called American Body Armor. After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, another business he had purchased, which made armor for vehicles, took off, and he continued investing in law enforcement and military products.

Pressure on the Whitney began last November, when more than 100 staff members signed a letter demanding that the museum respond to a report on the website Hyperallergic that linked Kanders to the tear gas fired by border protection agents into a crowd that included children.

In December, one of the artists in the Biennial, Michael Rakowitz, pulled out of the exhibition to protest Kanders. Four months later, a group of critics, scholars and artists called for Kanders’ removal. Periodic demonstrations at the museum reached a climax at the official opening of the Biennial in May, as a giant tear gas sculpture was parked near the entrance and protesters marched to Kanders’ Greenwich Village town house.

Then last week, four artists — including MacArthur “genius grant” winner Nicole Eisenman — in a letter published by Artforum asked the Whitney to remove their work from the Biennial, which runs through Sept. 22; four more followed suit. More than 60 artists remained in the show, but the withdrawals created a tipping point for tensions already overshadowing the Whitney’s signature event.

Kanders, who has donated generously to various charities besides the Whitney, and to politicians from both major parties, had remained unmoved. Responding to the museum staff’s letter, he wrote in December, “I think it is clear that I am not the problem the authors of the letter seek to solve.” Safariland’s slogan is “Together, We Save Lives,” and Kanders has said repeatedly that there were many examples of police officers who were saved by his company’s products.

The Whitney had stood by its vice chairman since the fall — Kanders was unanimously reappointed vice chair just last month — but the situation began to flummox other trustees, according to people involved with board discussions who spoke on condition of anonymity so they could describe private conversations. Some felt Kanders should quit for the good of the museum; others worried that his doing so would embolden protesters to demand the resignation of other board members, including some who have also had business interests in industries that have been targeted by activists, like oil and gas companies and defense contractors.

In his resignation letter, Kanders wrote, “The politicized and oftentimes toxic environment in which we find ourselves across all spheres of public discourse, including the art community, puts the work of this board in great jeopardy.”

Still unclear is whether Kanders was ultimately pressured by the Whitney to step down. His resignation letter suggested that he was not parting on the best of terms. “I hope you assume the responsibility that your position bestows upon you,” he wrote, “and find the leadership to maintain the integrity of this museum.”

In what amounted to a counterprotest, another prominent board member, hedge fund titan Kenneth C. Griffin, stepped down hours later, citing what he described as the museum’s left-wing tilt.

The growing influence of these movements, and their potential to drive away major sources of museums’ revenue, such as Kanders and Griffin, was evident in the reaction of Adam D. Weinberg, the Whitney’s director.

Of Kanders, he said, “Here’s a man who has given a tremendous amount of his time and money to young, often edgy and radical artists — somebody who is very progressive — that’s one of the ironies of all this.”

But for those who had called on Kanders to leave, the day was a joyous one. The eight artists who withdrew from the Biennial said that they would now remain in the show. (Their works had not yet been removed.) And the group that led the protests, Decolonize This Place, said that it was heartened by Kanders’ departure, thanked the museum for heeding its calls while also suggesting that the group was not done demanding changes.

Warren Kanders Resigns From Whitney Board After Tear Gas Protests; Second Trustee Also Quits

Griffin’s resignation came during a board of directors’ phone call to discuss Kanders’ departure, according to a person who was on the call. Griffin — a billionaire whose name is on the Whitney’s lobby, and who recently added a $238 million Central Park South penthouse to his collection of properties — was said to be upset with what he considered a left-wing agenda at the museum. It was not clear what specifically had bothered him, but many of the staff members had backed the calls for Kanders’ removal, and some of the Biennial works are focused on themes of inequality and race. A representative for Griffin did not respond to requests for comment.

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Robin Pogrebin and Elizabeth A. Harris

Articles written by the author

Warren Kanders Resigns From Whitney Board After Tear Gas Protests

Warren Kanders Resigns From Whitney Board After Tear Gas Protests

Warren Kanders Resigns From Whitney Board After Tear Gas Protests; Second Trustee Also Quits

Warren Kanders Resigns From Whitney Board After Tear Gas Protests; Second Trustee Also Quits