{"id":19506,"date":"2025-12-24T13:49:53","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T13:49:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/12\/24\/the-year-in-museums-relatively-bleak-with-a-few-bright-spots\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T13:49:54","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T13:49:54","slug":"the-year-in-museums-relatively-bleak-with-a-few-bright-spots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/12\/24\/the-year-in-museums-relatively-bleak-with-a-few-bright-spots\/","title":{"rendered":"The Year in Museums: Relatively Bleak With a Few Bright Spots"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., ceased operations and canceled all programs during this year\u2019s lengthy government shutdown. Photo by Bill O’Leary\/The Washington Post via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Since his inauguration (and even before), President Donald Trump<\/a> has been at the center of nearly every political, social, constitutional, cultural and economic debate, roiling farmers, retailers, manufacturers and even the art market with his on-again, off-again tariffs<\/a>, attempting to defund or abolish certain federal agencies, denouncing diversity, equity and inclusion programs at private and governmental institutions, promoting unproven claims about vaccine risks, firing federal employees, upending the lives of immigrants and on and on. Museums in the U.S., which in recent years have been the focus of protests by progressive groups opposed to both fossil fuel production and Israel\u2019s actions in the Gaza Strip, this year found themselves under attack by his administration for the content of their exhibitions and their DEI policies. While actions by left-leaning groups have tended to be short-lived affairs, such as a one-day \u201cdie-in\u201d protest of Sackler family funding at the Metropolitan Museum by photographer Nan Goldin<\/a> or the tomato soup hurled onto the frames and glass covering paintings at various museums by Just Stop Oil, the threat of federal funding cutoffs represents a far more existential concern for museums across the country.<\/p>\n

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Erin Harkey<\/a>, chief executive officer of the Washington, D.C.-based Americans for the Arts, told Observer that \u201cover the past year, the arts community has been hit hard. Major institutions are under pressure, and smaller organizations in rural and working-class communities are losing the grants they depend on. At the same time, we\u2019re seeing growing resistance to creative expression and open dialogue. It adds up to one of the most pivotal moments for the arts in decades, and it threatens the shared fabric that holds us together as a country.\u201d<\/p>\n

A notable example is the administration\u2019s effort to dismantle the Institute of Museum and Library Services<\/a>, an independent federal agency that, since its creation in 1996, has been the principal source of federal funding for libraries and museums, awarding $266.7 million in grants in 2024. In May, a district court judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking the agency\u2019s 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 awarding hundreds of millions of dollars in grants in 2024, were ordered to reduce staff by 80 percent and rescind their 2025 grants<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The canceled grants stunned organizations nationwide. \u201cThe NEA withdrew our $40,000 grant awarded and announced in February 2025,\u201d said Kathryn Mikesell<\/a>, executive director of Fountainhead Arts, an artist residency program in Miami, while Harry Philbrick<\/a>, interim director of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, noted that \u201cour grant of $30,000 in support of our upcoming William Villalongo<\/a> exhibition was withdrawn.\u201d The National Council for the Traditional Arts said the cancellation of its $65,000 grant to help produce the 83rd National Folk Festival in Jackson, Mississippi, in 2026 was confusing, according to executive director Blaine Waide<\/a>, who added that \u201cwe\u2019ve been getting funding for the festival from the NEA since 1970.\u201d<\/p>\n

All of these actions \u201cbring up the fundamental question of what is art for, to what purposes does it direct itself in society,\u201d said Steven Tepper<\/a>, president of Hamilton College in Clinton, New York and author of Not Here, Not Now, Not That!<\/i> \u201cThe current efforts to curtail and rein in the art world take the position that art is about celebrating nationalism; it is about depicting a particular view of America; it is about affirming the current government\u2019s values and agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n

Going further, David A. Ross<\/a>, chair of the MFA Art Practice program at the School of Visual Arts and former director of the Whitney, stated that museums are \u201ca site for the contest of values and ideas, and therefore it should come as no surprise that the Trumpian turn to authoritarian rule in this nation and the corresponding danger to free speech and artistic expression would be the primary concern. We are living in a dangerous moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In March, President Donald Trump issued an executive order aiming to dismantle several federal agencies, including the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Photo by Robert Alexander\/Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With Democrats in the minority in both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, the courts have become the primary venue for challenging the administration\u2019s museum cuts. Lawsuits filed by attorneys general for 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 dismantling of the Institute of Museum and Library Services. In March, the American Civil Liberties Union filed Rhode Island Latino Arts v. National Endowment for the Arts<\/i><\/a> 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 stating that \u201cfederal funds shall not be used to promote gender ideology,\u201d arguing that the policy violates First Amendment rights.<\/p>\n

Reduced or eliminated federal funding has coincided with the departures of Smithsonian Institution museum directors. After the White House released an executive order titled Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History asserting that \u201ca revisionist movement seeks to undermine the remarkable achievements of the United States by casting its founding principles and historical milestones in a negative light,\u201d Kevin Young<\/a> was forced out as director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture and Kim Sajet<\/a> was fired as director of the National Portrait Gallery. (She was soon hired as director of the Milwaukee Art Museum.)<\/p>\n

Perhaps out of concern for similar repercussions, the Smithsonian\u2019s National Museum of American History removed references to President Trump\u2019s two impeachments from an exhibition in July, and shortly after Trump\u2019s inauguration, the National Gallery ended its diversity program. Over the summer, artist Amy Sherald, whose retrospective was scheduled to open in September at the National Portrait Gallery, withdrew the exhibition<\/a> after learning from gallery officials that one of her paintings, a 2024 work titled Trans Forming Liberty<\/i>, portraying a Black trans woman in a Statue of Liberty pose, had raised \u201cconcerns.\u201d The Baltimore Museum of Art quickly stepped in to present \u201cAmerican Sublime<\/a>,\u201d which previously had been on view at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney in New York City<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Other artists have grown frustrated by the sweeping politicization of cultural life. \u201cWe have become more tribal than ever, and that reflects in donations and memberships to cultural institutions,\u201d said Dean Mitchell<\/a>, a painter in Kansas City, Missouri. \u201cSome collectors are not willing to purchase an artist\u2019s work if they don\u2019t believe in their political views.\u201d He added that \u201cit is important that different voices are heard in the cultural landscape, especially those who feel their voices are marginalized. It\u2019s the only way to bridge understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n

What some call the Trump Effect includes controversial removals of artwork that are labeled censorship by critics. In February, police officers \u201carrested\u201d five photographs by Sally Mann on view at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, claiming the nude images of her children were child pornography. Charges were dropped, and the works were returned. In October, artworks deemed \u201cpolitical in nature\u201d were removed from the exhibition \u201cHold My Hand in Yours\u201d at the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. Protests by students and faculty led to the resignation of museum director Andrea Gyorody<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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 by order of Republican Governor Ron DeSantis<\/a>, who has sought to transform New College from a moderately progressive institution into one aligned with his more conservative agenda. The museum takeover prompted several current and prospective donors to withdraw support.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmerica\u2019s museums, like universities, foundations and other charitable institutions coast to coast, are understandably apprehensive about possible reprisals for the mere exercise of free expression,\u201d Maxwell L. Anderson, president of the Atlanta-based Souls Grown Deep Foundation and former director of the Dallas Art Museum, told Observer. \u201cSelf-censorship is an invisible but pernicious result of this climate.\u201d He worries that the current political climate will affect the policies and actions of institutions \u201cfor years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Apropos of nothing, the Philadelphia Museum of Art became the Philadelphia Art Museum. Gilbert Carrasquillo\/GC Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Beyond politics, museum news in 2025 was notably bleak. Two French museums (the Diderot Museum and the Louvre, both in Paris) suffered break-ins<\/a>, and 1,000 historic 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 announced layoffs tied to budget shortfalls. Several French museums announced ticket price increases<\/a>. The Whitney canceled a May performance of No Aesthetic Outside My Freedom: Mourning, Militancy, and Performance<\/i> after its director told the audience that anyone supporting Israel should leave. More puzzling was the Philadelphia Museum of Art\u2019s decision to rename itself the Philadelphia Art Museum, which drew harsh criticism.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t all bad, though. Under the heading of second chances, James Rondeau<\/a> returned from a voluntary leave of absence to resume his role as director of the Art Institute of Chicago. In May, the museum\u2019s board accepted his explanation that stripping off his clothes aboard an international flight the previous month resulted from mixing alcohol with prescription medications. More positively, the National Gallery of Art announced plans to share objects from its collections with rural institutions nationwide<\/a>, bringing rarely seen works to audiences who might never travel to the nation\u2019s capital. The Brooklyn Museum, which in February announced plans to lay off 10 percent of its staff due to a $10 million budget deficit, avoided doing so thanks to a $2.5 million appropriation from the New York City Council. And after the longest government shutdown in U.S. history ended, America\u2019s arts and culture institutions reopened their doors smoothly<\/a>. If memory serves, there were also more than a few exhibitions that drew widespread accolades, and some museums paused increases to their admission fees. Silver linings.<\/p>\n

More in Museums<\/h3>\n

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