The Chicago Architecture Biennial boasts that it is “Free and open to the public”, but is it ethical? 

The CAB’s track record of securing funding for “North America’s largest international survey of contemporary architecture and design” is being questioned by a group of architects, designers, artists and professors who have voiced concerns about its involvement with a family that has a stake in a weapons manufacturer supplying arms to Israel.

The group, calling itself CAB Participants Against Genocide, says in an open letter published on September 18, 2025, that “Our priority has always been to resolve this ethically and in alliance with the CAB”, but that the CAB has failed to address their concerns.

The Biennial takes place in the Windy City every two years, showcasing both up-and-coming artists and established firms.

Twenty-two signatories across disciplines, nine of whom are withdrawing from the biennial, state that their issue with the CAB arises because one of their donors, the Crown Family Philanthropies, is connected to Israel’s war in Gaza.

“It is a matter of public record that the Crown Family owns a 10 percent stake in General Dynamics, the world’s fifth-largest military contractor”, the group says.

“This corporation manufactures weapons and warcrafts, including those used by the Israeli military in its ongoing assault on Palestinians in Gaza such as the 2,000-lb [900 kg] MK-84 bomb.”

This is not the first letter the group has penned, as CAB has responded twice to address their concerns, without offering much in the way of consolation.

‘Cultural facade’

On August 8, 2025, the CAB Executive Team defensively says, after cushioning the blow in PR speak, that “The Crown Family Philanthropies’ financial contribution to the Chicago Architecture Biennial supports K–12 arts education programs and is not used to support participant exhibition production or curatorial content.”

The CAB Participants Against Genocide objects to this explanation, saying, “The realisation that an educational program in Chicago is funded with capital which (even if indirectly) comes from the gains made at the expense of the destruction of life and education facilities in Gaza is both contradictory and concerning”. 

They add that they do not want their work to “serve as a cultural facade or as reputational laundering for violations of human rights and war crimes currently under investigation (in Palestine or elsewhere).”

The group also says that they have offered to match the funds donated by The Crown Family Philanthropies, but to no avail.

In a letter dated August 14, 2025, the CAB Executive Team refuses the offer, claiming “We are actively fundraising to meet the budget needs for the 2025-26 Biennial, and are not in a financial position to return funds already committed.”

CAB Participants Against Genocide says that the signatories, in solidarity, request that “the Biennial not accept further funding from Crown Family Philanthropies or any other sponsor involved in the perpetration of war crimes for future editions.”

They also declare their discomfort with the Crown’s contributions, adding that “some of the signatories have taken further actions, ranging from the development of critical interventions and/or programming that explicitly addresses/denounces the matter of concern of this letter within the Biennial to the complete withdrawal of their work and presence from this edition of the Biennial.”

The sixth edition of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, SHIFT: Architecture in Times of Radical Change, opened on September 19, 2025 and will be on view through February 28, 2026.