In response to the recent arrest and detainment of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei in Beijing, the Guggenheim has launched an online petition to express concern for Ai’s freedom and call for his release. Leading museums around the world have joined and launched the online petition through their Web sites, Twitter, and Facebook sites, including the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD); Museum of Modern Art, New York; Tate, London; Gwangju Biennale, Korea; and the Musée national d'art moderne/Centre de création industrielle, Paris. We sincerely hope that our collective action using Ai Weiwei's favored medium of social sculpture will promote Ai’s liberty and the principle of free creative expression.

See the Guggenheim's online petition calling for Ai Weiwei's release.

Share this petition on Twitter and Facebook.

OVERVIEW
On April 3, internationally acclaimed Chinese artist Ai Weiwei was detained at the Beijing airport while en route to Hong Kong, and his papers and computers were seized from his studio compound. Ai's whereabouts remain unknown and he has been denied due process under Chinese law.

We members of the international arts community express our concern for Ai’s freedom and disappointment in China’s reluctance to live up to its promise to nurture creativity and independent thought, the keys to “soft power” and cultural influence.

Our institutions have among the largest online museum communities in the world. We have launched this online petition to our collective millions of Facebook fans and Twitter followers. By using Ai Weiwei’s favored medium of “social sculpture,” we hope to hasten the release of our visionary friend and artist.

Richard Armstrong, Director, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation, and Alexandra Munroe, Samsung Senior Curator of Asian Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

Juan Ignacio Vidarte, Director General, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, and Deputy Director and Chief Officer for Global Strategies, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation

Michael Govan, Director, Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Kaywin Feldman, President, Association of Art Museum Directors, and Director and President, Minneapolis Institute of Arts

Glenn Lowry, Director, Museum of Modern Art, New York

Yongwoo Lee, President, The Gwangju Biennale Foundation

Vishakha Desai, President, and Melissa Chiu, Vice President, Global Arts, Asia Society

Sir Nicholas Serota, Director, Tate, and Chris Dercon, Director, Tate Modern

Jim Cuno, President and Director, Art Institute of Chicago

Julián Zugazagoitia, Director, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City

Ann Philbin, Director, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles

Olga Viso, Director, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

Alfred Pacquement, Director, Musée national d'art moderne/Centre de création industrielle, Paris

Arnold Lehman, Director, Brooklyn Museum

Jill Medvedow, Director, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston

Julia Peyton-Jones, Director, and Hans Ulrich Obrist, Codirector of Exhibitions and Programmes and Director of International Projects, Serpentine Gallery, London

Poul Erik Tøjner, Director, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark

Nathalie Bondil, Director and Chief Curator, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

Neal Benezra, Director, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Tony Ellwood, Director, and Suhanya Raffel, Deputy Director, Queensland Art Gallery, Australia

Thomas W. Lentz, Elizabeth and John Moors Cabot Director, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Ann Goldstein, Director, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam

Apinan Poshynanda, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre Foundation, Bangkok

Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Artistic Director, Documenta 13, and Bernd Leifeld, CEO, Documenta

Manray Hsu, Founding Director, Taipei Contemporary Art Center

Holly Hotchner, Nanette L. Laitman Director, Museum of Arts and Design, New York

Joel Wachs, President, Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Pittsburgh

List in formation


PETITION LETTER

To the Honorable Minister Mr. Cai Wu
Ministry of Culture of the People's Republic of China

CALL FOR THE RELEASE OF AI WEIWEI

Our museums are members of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) and the International Committee of ICOM for Museums and Collections of Modern Art (CIMAM), a non-governmental organization with formal relations with UNESCO. On April 6, CIMAM sent a communiqué calling for the release of Ai Weiwei. Our museums, foundations, and communities of Facebook followers and Twitter fans support CIMAM's statement:

"The detention of artists and activists is not only inconsistent with China's commitment to the fundamental freedoms guaranteed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in China's own constitution, it is also inconsistent with the Chinese government's pledge, through the Ministry of Culture, to promote all artistic disciplines and to advance artistic ideas. As organisations that represent modern and contemporary art around the world, such actions and the obscurity surrounding them are diametrically opposed to our values. They are of grave concern and consequence for the well-being of Ai Weiwei and for the artistic community at large, and hinder future collaboration with the Chinese colleagues we welcomed at our recent annual meeting in Shanghai."

Photo courtesy the Tate Modern, London