President Donald Trump’s executive order (EO) mandating all federal agencies to end Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs is rippling throughout the arts and cultural sector as institutions either roll back initiatives or scramble to determine whether their programs are compliant with the new directives, which conflate diversity efforts with discrimination.
This week, the Smithsonian Institution closed its diversity office and removed references to DEI initiatives, including a webpage for the diversity and equity commitments of its Smithsonian Affiliations program, in response to Trump’s controversial mandate. The institution, which manages 21 museums, also changed the title of its head diversity officer and director of access to “director of the Office of Visitor Accessibility.”
That news followed the National Gallery of Art’s announcement a few days earlier that it was closing its Office of Belonging and Inclusion. Similarly, the museum expunged its website of DEI language, replacing the words “diversity, equity, access and inclusion” with “welcoming and accessible” on a page laying out its mission and values. The actions effectively undo a Biden Administration executive order directing 90 agencies to create “Equity Action Plans.”
Hyperallergic contacted over 20 museums across the United States to ask how they were responding to the White House’s crackdown on DEI. While the NGA and Smithsonian may be seen as bellwethers of the impact of Trump’s policies on the culture sector, ambiguous responses from institutions suggest widespread uncertainty and lack of clarity on the consequences of noncompliance.
A spokesperson for the North Carolina Museum of Art, which houses the state’s art collection, told Hyperallergic that the institution “cannot speculate at this time” about the EO’s applicability while the state’s government reviews the president’s new mandates. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston gave a similar response, saying that they are “still assessing the potential impact on the museum.”
It is also unclear how the administration’s anti-DEI stance could affect museums that receive small amounts of federal funding, already precarious under Trump’s since-rescinded Office of Management and Budget (OMB) memorandum to temporarily freeze “all federal financial assistance” while agencies undergo reviews for compliance with the president’s priorities.
The scrapped directive required federal agencies to halt the disbursement of funds to activities that violated Trump’s recent executive orders, including DEI initiatives and those associated with “woke gender ideology” and the Green New Deal.” Following the memo’s rescission, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the administration would continue to pursue efforts to halt federal spending that contradict the president’s agenda.
Nonprofit museums were already on edge since the House of Representatives passed the Republican-led Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act last fall. The bill, which targets organizations’ tax-exempt status, currently awaits a Senate vote.
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), which provides annual grant funding for individual projects, museums, and organizations nationwide, has also removed its “Equity Action Plan” from its website. The page, which is no longer accessible as of January 17, outlined the agency’s “Equity Action Plan,” created in response to Biden’s executive order, and listed the program’s “early accomplishments,” including translating its application guidelines into Spanish and Chinese, increasing the number of first-time grant applicants, and more engagement with historically Black colleges and universities and Native communities.
An NEA spokesperson told Hyperallergic that the agency “continues to review the recent executive orders and related documents to ensure compliance and provide the required reporting.”
Earlier this month, the NEA announced $36.8 million in grants for over 1,400 artists and organizations across the country, including awards to tribal communities, initiatives serving LGBTQ+ artists, and funds for works addressing climate change.
The DEI rollbacks at the Smithsonian and NGA also come five years since the racial reckoning sparked by the police murder of George Floyd and Black Lives Matter protests, during which museums including the Guggenheim, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Indianapolis Museum of Art faced criticism for their treatment of Black staffers and institutions announced action plans and commitments to address shortcomings on diversity matters.
While some institutions did not respond to Hyperallergic’s inquiries or refused to comment on the EO, others including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit (MOCAD), the Getty, and the High Museum said that they have no plans to make any changes to their DEI commitments, programs, or staffing. The order does not appear to impact privately funded nonprofit museums.
“We are guided by our mission and our approach to DEIA remains unchanged,” MOCAD co-directors Jova Lynne and Marie Madison-Patton told Hyperallergic. In 2020, after a coalition of 70 former employees under the name MOCAD Resists publicized complaints alleging a workplace rife with instances of racism, the museum terminated its former executive director Elysia Borowy-Reeder and rehired two out of three Black curators who had resigned in response to toxic working conditions, one of whom was Lynne.
“Our ongoing commitment to these values ensures that we will continue to foster a staff team that reflects diverse perspectives while curating meaningful programming reflective of our communities,” the MOCAD co-directors’ statement continued.
But it remains to be seen how the White House’s attacks on DEI will affect other institutions, in part because the order’s scope is still unclear. ReNika Moore, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Racial Justice Program, pointed out in an article that Trump’s EO attempts to “bully institutions into abandoning critical programs,” but as yet, “no court has declared DEIA efforts inherently illegal, and President Trump cannot override decades of legal precedent.”
Funding restrictions and other changes to the NEA could also trickle down to other grant-giving organizations, because the agency designates 40% of its grantmaking budget for state and regional arts agencies. A spokesperson for the National Assembly of State Art Agencies, a nonpartisan nonprofit that works to “strengthen” state arts bodies, told Hyperallergic that the OMB funding freeze would have “certainly affected” their members.
“We appreciate the rescinding of the memorandum, and we look forward to further clarity to help federal grantees navigate their way past the freeze in service to communities within their states,” the spokesperson continued.
The organization said it is seeking additional clarity on “moving forward from” the OMB memo.
