[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-930144692.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tThe removal of a controversial artwork in the exhibition \u201cStorage Room,\u201d which was curated by art students Erik Siegel and Angeles Juarez-Ruiz, is causing quite the stir beyond the walls of Dartmouth College\u2019s Black Family Visual Arts Center (BFVAC). The art center opened on Dartmouth\u2019s campus in 2012, thanks to a $48 million gift from billionaire financier and art collector\u2014and 1973 Dartmouth alum\u2014Leon Black and his wife Debra, whose friendship and business dealings with Jeffrey Epstein are well documented.<\/p>\n
\n\tBlack stepped down as the board chair of the Museum of Modern Art in 2021, after three years in the role. He has remained on the museum\u2019s board, however, and as recently as in March of this year, former MoMA director Glenn Lowery referred to Black as a \u201csolid trustee.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe artwork in question, titled Something Rotten<\/em> and attributed to Siegel and fellow art student Roan Wade, is made up of 20 moldy beef sticks arranged into a smiley face formation over the art center\u2019s dedication wall, which acknowledges Leon and Debra Black and four other Black family members, two of whom (Benjamin and Alexander) also graduated from Dartmouth, in 2006 and 2011, respectively.<\/p>\n Something Rotten<\/em> was removed on April 14, one week after the show opened, according to The Dartmouth<\/em>. The artwork\u2019s wall label includes the phrase \u201cAh man, the guy loved jerky. You didn\u2019t know?\u201d A search of the Epstein Files reveals over 300 references to \u201cjerky.\u201d The Dartmouth<\/em> quotes an email from Epstein with the subject line \u201cLeon Black\u2019s office address,\u201d sent on Nov. 16, 2012 (two months after the BFVAC opened): \u201cJojo is here and will walk the jerky over to Jeffrey. . . Please you just go on your own to Leon\u2019s office. Melanie is Leon\u2019s assistant. I will alert Melanie you are coming to see Jeffrey. Reply back please! :)\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tRoan Wade, one of the two artists responsible for the installation, identifies as an anti-capitalist artist and activist on their website. They told The Dartmouth<\/em> that Something Rotten<\/em> is meant to call attention to a \u201cpervasive culture of sexual violence and gender-based violence at Dartmouth that has existed long before Leon Black was a student here and long after.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tTricia Treacy, chair of Dartmouth\u2019s studio art department, said that the problem was the location of the piece on the BFVAC\u2019s dedication wall rather than in the center\u2019s Nearburg Gallery, where the other artworks in \u201cStorage Room\u201d were on view. It is, however, hard to image the piece having the same impact on a blank gallery wall. The Dartmouth<\/em> was unable to confirm if a photograph of the work in situ is in fact now on view in the Nearburg Gallery.<\/p>\n \n\tThe artwork is part of an ongoing effort\u2014by both current students and alumni organizations\u2014to remove Black\u2019s name from the art center, an idea the college\u2019s board of trustees says it will begin to address at its next meeting in June, according to the Valley News<\/em>.<\/p>\n \n\tMany groups, however, feel that merely committing to study \u201cnaming across campus\u201d is too slow and tepid a response. \u201cRegardless of whether Epstein held an official title, files confirm that within his capacity as director and personal consultant to Black, Epstein advised and planned Black\u2019s donations to Dartmouth,\u201d said the college\u2019s Student Government Association and the Student and Presidential Committee on Sexual Assault. \u201cThose donations are a financial scar on this institution.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/dartmouth-art-students-moldy-beef-jerky-installation-remove-leon-black-name-1234782440\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-930144692.jpg?w=1024″] The removal of a controversial artwork in the exhibition \u201cStorage Room,\u201d which was curated by art students Erik Siegel and Angeles Juarez-Ruiz, is causing quite the stir beyond the walls of Dartmouth College\u2019s Black Family Visual Arts Center (BFVAC). The art center opened on Dartmouth\u2019s campus in 2012, thanks to a $48 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-1900974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1900974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1900974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1900974\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1900974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1900974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1900974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}