Since his inauguration (even before), President Donald Trump has been at the center of almost all political, social, constitutional, cultural and economic debates, wealthy farmers, merchants, manufacturers and the art market with his existing taxes and, ineffective, trying to exclude or eliminate certain government agencies, criticizing diversity, equality and government programs that are not included in private institutions and government programs that are not included. claims about the dangers of vaccinations, firing government workers, improving the lives of immigrants and more. Museums in the US, which in recent years have been the focus of protests by progressive groups against both fossil fuel production and Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip, this year found themselves under attack from his administration for the content of their exhibitions and their DEI policies. While the actions of left-leaning groups tend to be short-term issues, such as the one-day “die-in” protest of the Sackler family’s funding at the Metropolitan Museum by photographer Nan Goldin or the tomato soup thrown at the frames and glass-covered paintings at Just Stop Oil’s various museums, the threat of federal funding affects the entire country.
Erin Harkey, executive director of Washington, DC-based Americans for the Arts, told the Observer that “over the past year, the arts community has been hit hard. Big institutions are under pressure, and small rural organizations and working-class communities are losing the grants they depend on. At the same time, we’re seeing a growing resistance to creative expression and open dialogue. It’s been decades, and it’s threatening the collective fabric that holds us together as a country.”
A notable example is the administration’s attempt to dismantle the Institute of Museum and Library Services, an independent federal agency that, since its creation in 1996, has been the main source of federal funding for libraries and museums, issuing $266.7 million in grants by 2024. In May, a district court judge issued an injunction to stop the organization’s temporary dissolution. Another major source of federal support, the National Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities, both created by Congress in 1965 and responsible for providing hundreds of millions of dollars in grants through 2024, have been ordered to cut staff by 80 percent and withdraw their 2025 grants.
The canceled grants have shocked organizations across the country. “The NEA has withdrawn our $40,000 grant that was awarded and announced in February 2025,” said Kathryn Mikesell, executive director of Fountainhead Arts, an artist residency program in Miami, while Harry Philbrick, interim director of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, noted that “our $30,000 grant to support Williams was withdrawn.” The National Arts Council said the withdrawal of its $65,000 grant to help produce the 83rd National Arts Festival in Jackson, Mississippi, in 2026 was puzzling, according to executive director Blaine Waide, who added that “we’ve been receiving festival funding from the NEA since 1970.”
All of these actions “raise the fundamental question of what art is, what purposes it serves in society,” said Steven Tepper, president of Hamilton College in Clinton, New York and author of the book. Not Here, Not Now, Not That! “Current efforts to restrict and strengthen the arts sector take the position that art is about celebrating nationalism; it’s about expressing a certain vision of America; it’s about validating the values and agenda of the current government.”
Continuing, David A. Ross, chair of the MFA Art Practice program in the School of Visual Arts and former director of the Whitney, said that museums “are a place of competing values and ideas, so it should not be surprising that the Trumpians turn to totalitarianism in this nation and the accompanying danger to free expression and artistic expression would be a primary concern.
With Democrats in the minority in both the US House of Representatives and the Senate, the courts have become the first place to challenge the administration’s museum cuts. Lawsuits filed by the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin have temporarily blocked the dissolution of the Institute of Museum. and Library Services. In March, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a petition Rhode Island Latino Arts v. The National Endowment for the Arts on behalf of several arts organizations, including Rhode Island Latino Arts and the New York-based National Queer Theater, challenging a White House executive order that says “federal funds shall not be used to promote gender identity,” arguing that the policy violates First Amendment rights.
Reduced or eliminated federal funding has coincided with the departure of Smithsonian Institution museum directors. After the White House issued an executive order entitled Restoring Truth and Authenticity to American History that “the revisionist movement seeks to undermine the remarkable achievements of the United States by misrepresenting its founding principles and historical events,” Kevin Young was forced out as director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture and Kim Sajet was fired as director of the National Portrait Gallery. (He was soon hired as director of the Milwaukee Art Museum.)
Perhaps out of concern for similar repercussions, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History removed references to President Trump’s impeachment from an exhibit in July, and shortly after Trump’s inauguration, the National Gallery ended its diversity program. In the summer, the artist Amy Sherald, whose history was scheduled to open in September at the National Portrait Gallery, canceled the exhibition after learning from the gallery’s management that one of her paintings, the 2024 work titled. Trans Forming Libertyshowing a transsexual Black woman in a Liberty statue, had caused “concern.” The Baltimore Museum of Art quickly stepped in to present “American Sublime,” which had previously been on view at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney in New York City.
Some artists are frustrated by the politicization of cultural life. “We’ve become more of a nation than ever before, and that shows in donations and memberships in cultural institutions,” said Dean Mitchell, an artist from Kansas City, Missouri. “Some collectors are not willing to buy an artist’s work if they don’t believe in their political views.” He added that “it is important that different voices are heard in cultures, especially those who feel their voices are being discriminated against.
What some call the Trump Effect includes the controversial removal of works of art that critics call censorship. In February, police “seized” five pictures of Sally Mann on display at Fort Worth’s Modern Art Museum, claiming that nude pictures of her children were child pornography. Charges were dismissed, and jobs were reinstated. In October, artworks deemed “political in nature” were removed from the “Hold My Hand in Yours” exhibit at the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. Student and faculty protests led to the resignation of museum director Andrea Gyorody.
Another example is the transfer of control of the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art from Florida State University to New College of Florida at the behest of Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, who sought to transform New College from a moderately progressive institution to one that aligned with his conservative agenda. The takeover of the museum caused several current and potential donors to withdraw their support.
“America’s museums, like universities, foundations and other philanthropic institutions coast to coast, understandably fear potential retaliation for simply exercising free speech,” Maxwell L. Anderson, president of the Atlanta-based Souls Grown Deep Foundation and former director of the Dallas Art Museum, told the Observer. “Self-censorship is an invisible but dangerous side effect of this climate.” He is worried that the current political situation will affect the policies and actions of institutions “for years to come.”
Politics aside, the news for the museum in 2025 was very dark. Two French museums (the Diderot Museum and the Louvre, both in Paris) were stolen, and 1,000 historical artifacts, including jewelry, daguerreotypes and Native American baskets, were stolen from the Oakland Museum of California. The Speed Museum in Louisville, the Pacific Tsunami Museum in Hilo, Hawaii, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim in New York have announced layoffs due to budget shortfalls. Several French museums have announced increases in ticket prices. Whitney canceled the May performance There Is No Beauty Without My Freedom: Mourning, Fighting, and Working after its director told the audience that anyone who supports Israel should leave. Even more confusing was the decision by the Philadelphia Museum of Art to rename itself the Philadelphia Art Museum, which drew heavy criticism.
It wasn’t all bad though. Under the heading of second chances, James Rondeau has returned from voluntary retirement to resume his role as director of the Art Institute of Chicago. In May, the museum’s board accepted his explanation that taking off his clothes on an international flight last month was the result of mixing alcohol with prescription drugs. Even better, the National Gallery of Art announced plans to share items from its collections with rural institutions across the country, bringing rarely seen works to viewers who might never travel to the nation’s capital. The Brooklyn Museum, which in February announced plans to lay off 10 percent of its workforce due to a $10 million budget shortfall, avoided doing so thanks to a $2.5 million appropriation from the New York City Council. And after the end of the longest government shutdown in US history, America’s arts and culture centers have reopened their doors for good. If memory serves, there were also more than a few exhibits that received widespread acclaim, and some museums stopped raising their entrance fees. The silver linings.
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