Harvard Museum Faces Second Die-In Protest Demanding Sackler Name Removal

A die-in protest involving 100 Harvard students and PAIN activists occurred at Harvard's Arthur M. Sackler Museum last Thursday. This marks the second such demonstration at the institution, which remains the last in the United States still bearing the Sackler name. The protest followed a screening of Laura Poitras's Oscar-nominated documentary All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (2022) in Harvard's Department of Art, Film, and Visual Studies. After the screening, Nan Goldin addressed the audience via Zoom. Goldin's documentary chronicles her campaign against the Sackler family's pharmaceutical legacy, which has successfully pressured numerous museums and institutions across Europe and the United States to cut ties with the Sackler name. Goldin first organized an anti-Sackler protest at Harvard's Sackler Museum five years ago. Despite these repeated actions, the university museum has not responded to demands for the name's removal. The protestors specifically called for the Sackler name to be taken off the museum's walls.