On Saturday, the Brooklyn Museum is opening an exhibition of art and artifacts from Syria meant to recount the country’s refugee history. Days later, the Guggenheim will host a conversation with a Palestinian artist, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art will hold a seminar on how museums curate art from the Middle East.

These programs — along with similar ones at the Museum of Modern Art, Asia Society and other New York institutions — are part of a coordinated effort to display artwork from the Middle East and “build greater understanding between the United States and the Arab world.” They also happen to be coordinated by organizations closely tied to or generously funded by the Saudi government, which is now accused of the gruesome killing of a dissident journalist.

For years, nonprofits from museums to major universities have been strengthening ties with the oil kingdoms of the Middle East as a way to broaden their offerings, foster cross-cultural dialogue and obtain access to those countries’ considerable riches.

Now they are having to answer the same question as the one confronting the American government: whether the possible murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi is a reason to shun Saudi Arabia, or if the country is simply too wealthy and important to walk away from.