‘Incredibly dangerous’: Fiery protesters slam Creative Australia over artist dumping

A small group of protesters descended on Creative Australia’s Sydney offices on Thursday morning, demanding that dumped artistic duo Khaled Sabsabi and Michael Dagostino be reinstated as the country’s representatives for the 2026 Venice Biennale.

About 30 artists and activists convened in Pyrmont as a show of solidarity with the pair, whose appointment was rescinded on February 13, hours after the Coalition raised questions in parliament about historical works by the Lebanese-born Sabsabi: the 2007 work You, depicting the late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike last year, and Sabsabi’s video rendering of the September 11, 2001, attacks in the 2006 work titled Thank You Very Much.

Palestinian activist and academic Fahad Ali (centre) attends a protest outside Creative Australia offices.Credit: Kate Geraghty

The protest came two days after the peak arts agency’s chief executive Adrian Collette and chair Robert Morgan told Senate estimates the decision was made to avoid “the worst kind of divisive debate”.

Collette also told estimates on Tuesday there was a possibility the agency may be unable to find a replacement in time, leaving Australia without a presence at the prestigious event.

Arts Minister Tony Burke announced on Thursday morning the departure of board member Christine Simpson Stokes at the end of her four-year term. His office denied it was in response to the board’s “unanimous” but contentious decision to sack the artistic team and said Ms Simpson Stokes’ term had expired and she had reached the limit of reappointments.

Another board member, artist Lindy Lee, stepped down 24 hours after the decision to rescind the invitation was made.

Speaking at the protest, Australian poet Omar Sakr slammed Creative Australia’s decision to dump the Venice entrants as incredibly dangerous, claiming it was done on the basis that people might talk too much about art.

“When art must serve the government’s political agenda, it’s no longer art, it’s propaganda,” Sakr said.

“We’re being told that it’s not just permissible, but necessary to cancel artists if they or their work might be considered disruptive or upsetting to a portion of the public or media.”

Sakr was one of three writers whose teen writing workshops were cancelled by the Victorian State Library last March, citing “child and cultural safety concerns”. All three had previously publicly expressed support for the Palestinian cause.

Poet Omar Sakr (right) was among the speakers at a protest outside Creative Australia’s Sydney offices on Thursday.Credit: Kate Geraghty

University of Sydney art historian Ariel Kline called on artists to “fight harder than ever to maintain our place”.

“We look around the arts world today, and we see hypocrites – we see people who care more about their bottom line than about the art that helps them accomplish it,” Kline said. “I want every one of us in the arts world to take this incident as a lesson.”

Sakr, whose highly acclaimed poetry book The Lost Arabs was written with grant funding from Creative Australia, was unsure whether he would lobby the arts agency for future support, citing concerns with its direction and treatment of marginalised communities.

“I don’t know, especially when I see a lot of good people resigning,” Sakr said. “I basically question who’s left, and by not leaving, are they endorsing what’s happening or not?”

Also among the protesters was representative of the Teachers and School Staff for Palestine Effie Najjarine, who said governments and institutions were trying to silence those speaking out against injustice and oppression.

Sakr warned Creative Australia’s relationship with artists would suffer as a result of its decision to dump Sabsabi and Dagostino.

“As someone who grew up poor, I’m the kind of success story this institution should be celebrating and championing, and the same is true of Khaled Sabsabi,” Sakr said.

“Instead, they’re cancelling him and trying to name him a mistake.”