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Lilada Gee left her mural at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art unfinished after a contentious encounter in March. On Friday, her artwork was vandalized.

Madison artist Lilada Gee's work at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art had already been upended once.

Last week, it happened again.

In March, a white staff member at the adjacent Overture Center for the Arts aggressively confronted Gee, who is Black, on her way back inside the building after retrieving art supplies from her car because she was entering a door not generally open to the public.

The experience led Gee to halt work on her mural, intended to "give light to Black girls who have been silenced and erased," and display it unfinished, she said.

 Gee's interrupted art installation looked like a workspace, with half-finished circular canvasses lying on a white table, a blank mural, paints, brushes and a video in which Gee recites an open letter she read aloud at the exhibit's opening.

Her installation was intended to serve as a statement about what Black women endure and an effort to show that "some things cannot be undone," she said before the exhibit opened. Her work had been displayed on the ground level of MMoCA for exactly two months, unbothered.

Artist Lilada Gee said her unfinished installation, shown before it was defaced, symbolizes the reality that "some things cannot be undone" and serves as a statement about the difficulties Black women endure.

On June 24, three museumgoers — a woman and her two children — apparently saw the empty space as an invitation to create their own works of art, attacking the canvases with brushes, paint and glitter before attempting to take the items home with them, Gee said, in an incident first reported by Madison365.com.

Gee's original piece was part of MMoCA's 2022 Wisconsin Triennial, titled "Ain't I A Woman?" — a quote from abolitionist and women's rights advocate Sojourner Truth. The exhibit features the art of 23 Black Wisconsin women.

Had the mother and her children walked away with the art, it would have marked the first time anyone stole art from the museum, MMoCA spokesperson Marni McEntee said. But the art was returned to the museum .

Gee said she struggled to comprehend how the vandals could have had uninterrupted access to her artwork. Aside from a custodian walking by, Gee said, the woman and her children had "almost 40 minutes alone" with the exhibit from security footage the museum provided her. Both children appeared to be "younger than 10," museum director Christina Brungardt said.

"It is my understanding that this exhibit was going to be monitored," Gee said. "It's a museum, for God's sake."

McEntee said Gee's work was unattended for 16 minutes, as one gallery attendant watched two adjacent spaces.

In the video, which MMoCA declined to share publicly, Gee said she saw the woman open bottles and cans of paint. On the unfinished canvasses and a board that would have been part of the unfinished mural, the group painted over the designs, including one design that Gee said looks like a penis.

The three museumgoers drew, painted, and poured glitter on Gee's canvasses before walking out the door with the pieces of the exhibit.

"When I saw the custodian walk right past them, as they were opening up cans of paint, my head fell off," she said. "It's just unbelievable." She also questioned why the vandals would have painted so haphazardly, even if they thought the piece was interactive.

MMoCA will adjust staffing levels to prevent gallery spaces from going unattended in the future, and placed a rope line around Gee's piece to "eliminate any potential confusion about what is and is not intended as interactive art within the space," McEntee said.

As of Thursday, however, there was no sign instructing visitors not to touch or interact with the piece.

The point of the museum "is to break down barriers for participation in art," said Karin Wolf, the city's arts program administrator. While she stressed she hoped the incident would not create new barriers, Wolf said the museum should only open the area if it has staff to "facilitate" visitors' interactions with the art.

"One of the first things you're taught while making art in kindergarten is not to mark on the other person's paper without permission," Wolf said. "This is pretty fundamentally about consent and respect for the other person's artistic production."

Respect is a central theme of Gee's installation. She said her mural was intended to represent the disrespect and interruptions many Black women experience. It included an open letter to all the "beths" who interrupt Black girls — named for the Overture employee who blocked her entrance into the building in March, Gee said.

Lilada Gee's installation includes video of her reading an open letter to the "beths" who interrupt Black women and girls.

Along with her work as an artist, Gee is the founder and president of Defending Black Girlhood and Black Women Heal, Madison nonprofits supporting Black women and girls. And with her brother, the Rev. Alex Gee, she is working on plans for the city's Center for Black Excellence and Culture.

"I wanted to create something magnificent in order to tell the stories of beautiful Black baby girls, who have forgotten who they were, before they could remember their greatness," Gee said in her open letter, "because of the thoughts of inferiority that you feed them on plastic lunch trays."

Now, that work had been defaced, "further erasing" her ideas, Gee said.

Stray brushstrokes mark a once-blank table that showcased Lilada Gee's unfinished artwork at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art.

"The museum would like to talk further with Lilada Gee about how to support her, repair the damage to her artwork, and address any other concerns she may have," McEntee said. "MMoCA extends a sincere apology to Lilada, the guest curator, and each artist featured in the exhibition."

Those who defaced Gee's art didn't stop there: They walked out the door, carrying the canvasses with them.

When it became apparent the mother and children intended to walk out the door with the artwork, a gallery attendant and a staff member at the front desk attempted to stop them, Brungardt said. But the museum's policies stress de-escalation and communication — especially in the presence of children.

Brungardt, with the gallery attendant on duty, walked quickly out of the museum to the top of Capitol Square on State Street, where they found the woman and children with the artwork in hand. Upon approaching, the mother was insistent upon keeping the artwork.

"It was a very volatile moment," Brungardt said, explaining that she tried to approach with "calm and using de-escalation techniques" while getting the artwork back to the building. 

Returning the artwork to the museum was Brungardt's first priority, she said. By promising to call Gee upon returning to MMoCA, Brungardt convinced the mother to go back to the museum.

MMoCA, Brungardt said, had no intention of letting the woman take the artwork home: Calling to Gee was meant to bring the woman to a "calm space."

"This was entirely to calm her down," she said. "It also helped us get the works into the building and away from her, in a space we made sure she couldn't get into."

"It was a very intense conversation," Brungardt said, "and very awkward to call an artist in a situation that you hope never happens."

Brungardt called Gee and expressed the woman's request to keep the work.

The prompt was a non-starter for Gee: "Why are you calling to ask me this?" she said she wondered at the time. Gee ended the conversation. When Brungardt asked if she could call back, Gee told her not to do so. That series of events, she said, did not justify the call.

"There was no reason for her to ever involve me in that," Gee said. "If she was trying to de-escalate the situation ... there's no way that's a reasonable thing where an executive director of a museum calls an artist and says those things to them."

After Brungardt informed the woman that Gee would not let her take the art home, the woman "escalated the situation again" and left the museum shortly after. 

"This is a very singular situation," Brungardt said. "I wanted to make sure we got the artwork back and safe."

Wolf said she expected Brungardt to take the situation "very seriously."

"I hope she gets the support she needs to make amends and try to heal the situation and make sure it doesn't happen to any other artist, ever," she said.

MMoCA has had no further contact with the woman or her children, though it "continues to evaluate further steps," McEntee said.

When Gee returned to the museum on Wednesday to see her installation, she said museum staff had begun returning it to its original state.

"I don't feel like they should have disturbed it further without my permission," Gee said.

MMoCA did not restore the art itself. The canvasses are still streaked with glitter and stray brushstrokes. While McEntee said the museum determined the work can be restored, they want Gee's "instructions and approval" before proceeding.

McEntee said the museum also contacted Madison police the day of the incident but was told that only the owner of the artwork could seek charges for any damages. 

In the past week, friends and other artists in the Madison area have reached out to Gee to offer support. A friend noted the irony of the situation: While Gee struggled to get in the door to paint her mural, the woman and children who vandalized it were able to disrupt her installation unbothered.

Still, "it's not just the vandalism," Gee said. "It's the utter disrespect with which the executive director engaged me."

Brungardt hopes to have a "deep conversation" with Gee about the events, she said — but also for both her and the museum to learn from the events while weighing "restoration and justice" for Gee.

"This is not a situation an artist should ever have to face," Brungardt said. "We sincerely do apologize for what transpired, not just to Lilada but to all the artists in the exposition."

The interaction reminded Gee of what she sees as deeper problems in the way Madison interacts with Black women and girls. 

"Art is big enough, but it's bigger than art," she said. "The stress of Black women — it's impacting our physical health, our mental health. This is a larger issue. That goes to quality of life."

Wolf said that she and Fabu Phillis Carter, Madison's former poet laureate, began putting together a panel of Black women artists to speak about how Madison could best support them and their work after Gee's incident in March.

Artists of color are more likely to be mistaken for not being artists, and to have their work taken less seriously, Wolf said: "We've made a mess, and we need to fix it. We can't talk about equity in our city if we don't take these kind of treatments of each other seriously."

"I want to know: How does this change how Madison views MMoCA?" Gee said. "I want to know how the sponsors, the supporters, how this changes how they see them. Everyone wants to say Madison is liberal, we don't see color. I want to know how Madison sees this."

Artist Janice Moore of Bryan, Ohio adds artwork to a display at the booth she shares with her husband and collaborator, Rick, during 63rd annual Art Fair on the Square presented by the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art in Madison, Wis., Saturday, Sept. 25, 2021. Re-scheduled this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, the event features the work of nearly 500 artists and continues through the weekend. JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL

Painter William Millonig of Campbellsport, Wis. works on piece as visitors peruse his booth at the 63rd annual Art Fair on the Square presented by the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art in Madison, Wis., Saturday, Sept. 25, 2021. Re-scheduled this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, the event features the work of nearly 500 artists and continues through the weekend. JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL

Stainless steel and aluminum sculptures created by Anderson’s Metal Sculpture in Cedar Springs, Mich. draw the interest of visitors to the 63rd annual Art Fair on the Square presented by the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art in Madison, Wis., Saturday, Sept. 25, 2021. Re-scheduled this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, the event features the work of nearly 500 artists and continues through the weekend. JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL

Gabor Koranyi tends a booth of work created by his wife, Alla Tsank, during the 63rd annual Art Fair on the Square presented by the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art in Madison, Wis., Saturday, Sept. 25, 2021. Re-scheduled this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, the event features the work of nearly 500 artists and continues through the weekend. JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL

A man carries a hand-crafted table through the 63rd annual Art Fair on the Square presented by the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art in Madison, Wis., Saturday, Sept. 25, 2021. Re-scheduled this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, the event features the work of nearly 500 artists and continues through the weekend. JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL

Visitors to the 63rd annual Art Fair on the Square presented by the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art are reflected in mirrors created by artist Dan Sayre of Akron, Ohio during the gathering in Madison, Wis., Saturday, Sept. 25, 2021. Re-scheduled this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, the event features the work of nearly 500 artists and continues through the weekend. JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL

Visitors to the 63rd annual Art Fair on the Square presented by the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art browse vendor booths during event in Madison, Wis., Saturday, Sept. 25, 2021. Re-scheduled this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, the event features the work of nearly 500 artists and continues through the weekend. JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL

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When I read the July 1 article about the defacing of Lilada Gee’s work at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, I was appalled at how the st…

Lilada Gee left her mural at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art unfinished after a contentious encounter in March. On Friday, her artwork was vandalized.

Stray brushstrokes mark a once-blank table that showcased Lilada Gee's unfinished artwork at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art.

Artist Lilada Gee said her unfinished installation, shown before it was defaced, symbolizes the reality that "some things cannot be undone" and serves as a statement about the difficulties Black women endure.

Lilada Gee's installation includes video of her reading an open letter to the "beths" who interrupt Black women and girls.

The three museumgoers drew, painted, and poured glitter on Gee's canvasses before walking out the door with the pieces of the exhibit.

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