As a critical friend to the arts and cultural sector, I try not to ‘out’ organisations who haven’t already made headlines. Unfortunately, after a year of record fumbles and fails in response to Palestine, that still leaves a lot from which to learn from (with new ones seemingly added every day).
So it’s been deeply disappointing to witness an organisation so many have held in high esteem become the high-profile poster child for poor practice. I look at the example of the State Library of Victoria in the latest edition of my ‘and another thing’ vlog.
Part 1:
Part 2:
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This edition of ‘and another thing’ draws from or references:
- The State Library of Victoria furore is about censorship, not Palestine, Crikey
- The State Library of Victoria controversy shows what can happen when institutions cling to ‘neutrality’, The Conversation
- Arctic Radar, The West Wing, (Season 4, Episode 10)
- Semiotics: Sign, Signifier, Signified, Writing Commons
Further reading: Palestine as a governance issue
You can check out all of the articles and resources in this series, which include:
- Writers festival reflections, October 2025
- Take on Board podcast on the ethics of AI, August 2025
- Why we cancelled our Bendigo Writers Festival panel, August 2025
- And Another Thing: from censorship to systemic change, June 2025
- And Another Thing: receiving and responding to harm, March 2025
- Contextually fine, October 2024
- And another thing: board solidarity, October 2024
- The statements we make, August 2024
- And another thing: SLV as the example you don’t want to be, August 2024
- And another thing: organisational ethics and deficit areas, July 2024
- And another thing: on cultural safety, May 2024
- Take on Board podcast on Palestine as a governance issue, May 2024
- Palestine governance resources in The Commons, April 2024
- The power of digital poetry, March 2024
- Dear arts organisations, January 2024
- Board members, we need to talk about Palestine, December 2023
- Ally is a verb, October 2023
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19 thoughts on “And another thing: SLV as the example you don’t want to be”