1978 at MMoCA’s predecessor, the Madison Art Center, and became a triennial in 1987. The 2022 Wisconsin Triennial exhibition became controversial after the majority of the exhibiting artists published an open letter protesting the museum’s director, Christina Brungardt, along with the board of directors, and their decisions relative to multiple incidents before and during the exhibition. The curatorial theme of the 2022 Wisconsin Triennial, “Ain’t I A Woman?” exclusively focused on the work of black or African American women, femmes and gender nonconforming artists in Wisconsin. This triennial exhibition was the first to be curated by a guest curator and the first to pay exhibiting artists honorariums. In an open letter published on FWDTruth.com, a collective of the artists denounced two incidents involving another triennial artist, Lilada Gee: once after a “verbal attack” by a former employee of the Overture Center for the Arts and another where her artwork was damaged and removed by visitors. Following the second incident, the museum director reportedly intervened to “de-escalate” the situation by asking Gee if the guests who had marred the work could also keep it. In their open letter published on August 19, 2022, the collective of artists in MMoCA’s 2022 Wisconsin Triennial presented a list of concerns including policy and contract violations, unfair compensation, unequal distribution of resources, and repeated onsite disrespect and harms, especially to Lilada Gee. The collective artists wrote that: “Well before the works of these artists rested in their designated places at MMoCA, the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art’s leadership has failed to demonstrate meaningful care for this exhibition and its participants by both failing to secure against outside harm and repeatedly perpetrating internal institutional harm.” Over half of the artists withdrew from the exhibition in protest over the last three months of the scheduled six-month exhibition, citing indications of misogynoir and institutional racism. “I don’t know that there’s anything that they could do now that would change how I feel about what’s happening,” Portia Cobb said. “The response now is basically underscoring their own supremacist and patriarchal standards. But I’m really proud to be part of this collective voice — it’s motivated us to understand what our power is, as individuals and as a collective.” In a response published on August 24, 2022, MMoCA’s executive committee called the criticisms “inappropriate and unfounded accusations of institutional racism [addressing] their handling of this unique situation.” They continue: “the