NYT: Facing Funding Cuts and Censorship Threats, Museums Band Together
About one-third of U.S. museums have lost government funding this year alone. Now, they look ahead — and find ways to move forward, despite the obstacles.
This article is part of the Fine Arts & Exhibits special section on how creativity can inspire in challenging times.
The Trump administration’s threats to the country’s cultural institutions became clear on the President’s first day in office, with a cascading passage of executive orders rejecting, among other things, diversity, equity and inclusion (D.E.I.) programs, gender ideology and what one order called efforts to “rewrite history.”
In just a few months, such policies — and the subsequent disruption of grants from now-imperiled cultural agencies like the National Endowment for the Arts (N.E.A.), the National Endowment for the Humanities (N.E.H.) and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (I.M.L.S.) — have put intense pressure not just on federal institutions like the Smithsonian, but on thousands of museums, galleries, archives and cultural agencies, with ripple effects spreading to cities and towns in every corner of the country.
The cultural community is now reeling and searching for answers. Many institutions have shown resilience, and sprouts of resistance are emerging. But the community at large has been slow, or unwilling, to muster an effective counteroffensive. The next few months, many say, will be critical.
