When Amy Sherald, the artist who painted Michelle Obama’s official portrait, withdrew her solo show from the National Portrait Gallery on July 24 citing censorship, it sent ripples through the art community.
The decision, by a high-profile artist, came as the Trump administration has railed against “wokeness” in federally funded museums and cut funding for local cultural institutions across the country, putting artists and their work in the spotlight.
Ms. Sherald said she was told there were discussions about removing one of her pieces from the exhibition – a painting that depicts a transgender woman as the Statue of Liberty. According to a statement obtained by the New York Times, Ms. Sherald said the Smithsonian had proposed replacing the piece with a video of people discussing it, which she says would have “opened up for debate the value of trans visibility.”
Why We Wrote This
Amy Sherald’s decision to pull her show from the National Portrait Gallery comes as the Trump administration has criticized DEI and “improper ideology” in museums. She is among artists who say their vision cannot be compromised without undermining the purpose of their art.
The Smithsonian Institution says the video was intended to contextualize the piece, not replace it.
Earlier this year, President Donald Trump signed an executive order claiming the Smithsonian Institution has been influenced by “divisive, race-centered ideology,” and directing Vice President JD Vance to work to stop funding for programs that expressed “improper ideology.” Mr. Vance sits on the Smithsonian’s 17-member Board of Regents, and does not have sole decisionmaking authority.
About two months later, in May, Mr. Trump announced that he had fired the director of the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, Kim Sajet, calling her “a strong supporter of DEI.” The Smithsonian released a statement in June reiterating its independence over hiring decisions. However, Ms. Sajet stepped down shortly after.
“We’re facing an administration that clearly wants to redefine the arts landscape,” says Dexter Wimberly, an art curator and senior critic at New York Academy of Art. “If artists don’t stand firm on what they believe in, then it begins to undermine the very purpose of the work that they’re doing.”
In addition to targeting federal museums, the Trump administration has been halting funds for arts and humanities programs across the United States. The president’s budget request for fiscal 2026 proposes eliminating programs, including the National Endowment for the Arts, that fund local museums, libraries, and arts organizations. Meanwhile, the Washington Post reported Thursday that references to Mr. Trump’s two impeachments have been removed from the National Museum of American History. After the Post’s story was published, the Smithsonian said “a future and updated exhibit will include all impeachments.”
The 2026 budget has not yet been approved, but many cultural centers have already seen grants canceled. Mr. Wimberly says he has worked with organizations whose operations are now threatened from lack of funds.
Many conservatives have long argued that government spending on arts is misguided. The libertarian-leaning Cato Institute published an article this past spring arguing that private philanthropy makes the NEA unnecessary, and that taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to fund art they might find offensive.
Cathy, a Trump supporter visiting the Portrait Gallery over the weekend who preferred not to give her last name, felt unsure about the president’s executive order. “That could be a little too close to censorship,” she said.
However, she thinks exhibiting Ms. Sherald’s painting would have been inappropriate and cause division.
“Why confuse things?” she asks. “I think Americans should be unified and agree on more than they disagree.”
“An expression of her resistance”
Ms. Sherald’s decision to cancel her Smithsonian exhibit is reminiscent of decisions within the realm of arts and humanities to use expression as a form of resistance.
Ken Grossinger, the author of “Art Works: How Organizers and Artists Are Creating a Better World Together,” believes the idea of art as resistance provides “an alternative voice to authoritarian narratives.”
“The Statue of Liberty, welcoming all comers, embodies an inclusive narrative. Amy Sherald expresses this by painting it as a transgender figure,” Mr. Grossinger said in an email. “Censoring her painting, if that is what the Smithsonian intended, expresses the opposite narrative, that trans people are not worthy of inclusion in America. [Her] decision to remove her exhibition … is an expression of her resistance to controlling her views.”
In a July 23 commentary for the Southern Poverty Law Center, Mr. Grossinger offered nine lessons for fighting authoritarianism using art, which included acceptance of creatives.
“Artists and organizers who collaborate with one another have great capacity to effect change,” Mr. Grossinger noted. “Community and labor organizations can mobilize and exercise their power, and by working with artists they can creatively shift authoritarian narratives that constrain our actions.”
“We’re not going to panic”
There have been varying results for artists and organizations who are dealing with lost funding and pushback on their ideals. The Washington Post recently published an article about the Amistad Research Center in New Orleans, which lost 40% of its operating budget due to the loss of four federal grants. In response, Executive Director Kathe Hambrick launched a million-dollar fundraising campaign.
“We’re just slowing down, but we’re not going anywhere,” Ms. Hambrick said in the article.
Ty Jones, the producing artistic director at the Classical Theatre of Harlem, and a former actor on 50 Cent’s popular crime drama, “Power,” is all too familiar with that dynamic.
Two months ago, CTH announced that it would lose $60,000 because of cuts in funding from the NEA.
“We’re not going to panic, so we’ll strategize, we’ll mobilize, and we will execute,” Mr. Jones said at the time.
On Sunday, after CTH finished its three-week run of “Memnon,” the story of the Ethiopian king and demigod who defends Troy during wartime, Mr. Jones took the stage.
“You all heard about the NEA terminated our grant of $60,000? … Nothing to worry about,” Mr. Jones posted in a video to his Instagram story on July 27. “Within one week, the community spoke up and we had a thousand donations that averaged anywhere between $60 and $80. We more than covered the gap.”
“It shows that the power of the people is always stronger than the people in power.”
