Since retaking office in January, President Donald Trump has issued a flood of executive orders taking up topics such as the importation of Chinese goods, Venezuelan immigrants, union protections, and electoral politics. But one executive order has the art world particularly worried, and that one addresses the Smithsonian Institution, a museum network that counts some of the most widely visited institutions in the nation.
The order, issued in March, was intended to fight what a fact sheet called “anti-American ideology.” The ramifications of the order are still playing out at the Smithsonian, which earlier this year had already begun the process of disbanding its diversity offices.
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But what is the Smithsonian, and what possible effects could the order have? Below is a guide to the Smithsonian Institution and Trump’s new executive order.
What is the Smithsonian Institution?
The Smithsonian is effectively a museum consortium, with 21 institutions under its umbrella, plus a range of education and research centers and the National Zoo. Not all of its institutions are art museums. The Smithsonian runs history museums such as the National Museum of American History and the National Museum of African American History and Culture. But it also facilitates many institutions with a stated focus on art, including the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, for modern and contemporary art; the Smithsonian American Art Museum, for art made in this country across the centuries; and the National Museum of Asian Art, formerly known as the Freer/Sackler before a rebrand in 2019.
Nearly all Smithsonian museums are free to enter. Most, though not all, of the museums are located in Washington, D.C., with the National Museum of the American Indian also running an institution in New York.
While D.C. is typically considered a Smithsonian town, not all of its museums are Smithsonian institutions, either. The National Gallery of Art, for example, is not under the aegis of the Smithsonian, nor are private museums such as the Phillips Collection and the Rubell Collection.
Who runs the Smithsonian?
The Smithsonian is not a federal agency, though it does receive a good deal of government funding. This means that the government does not formally control the Smithsonian.
Instead, a Board of Regents runs the Smithsonian, as stipulated by Congress back in 1846, the year the Smithsonian was founded. But that doesn’t mean government officials aren’t involved. As it currently stands, the Board of Regents includes the Chief Justice of the United States, the Vice President, three Senators, three US Representatives, and nine citizens, per the Smithsonian website.
Who leads the Smithsonian?
Since 2019, Lonnie G. Bunch III has served as secretary of the Smithsonian. He was the founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, an institution under the Smithsonian banner.
What has Bunch done for the Smithsonian so far?
Under Bunch’s leadership, many Smithsonian museums have pushed harder than ever to diversify their offerings. The Smithsonian American Art Museum has rehung its galleries with a renewed emphasis on Black, Latinx, and Asian American artists, and the NMAAHC, the museum he founded, has continued to bring vital and under-recognized aspects of the Black experience in the US to the fore.
He has vocally advocated for changing the canon and telling new stories. “Cultural institutions, regardless of the subject matter, have to be as much about today and tomorrow as they are about yesterday,” he told the New York Times in 2021.
Also under Bunch, the Smithsonian kickstarted plans for institutions focused on women’s history and Latino history. The plans to build those museums are still pending.
How has the Trump administration impacted the Smithsonian?
Before Trump even issued an executive order focused on it, the Smithsonian Institution folded its DEI offices, a move that mirrored one undertaken by the National Gallery of Art not long before, in January. Bunch said at the time that this was merely a “first step” in adjusting to the new edicts of Trump and his fellow politicians. You can read more about museum DEI departments here.
Why is Trump targeting the Smithsonian?
In an executive order called “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” Trump accused the Smithsonian of putting forward a version of history that “deepens societal divides and fosters a sense of national shame.” “Once widely respected as a symbol of American excellence and a global icon of cultural achievement,” Trump wrote, “the Smithsonian Institution has, in recent years, come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology.”
By way of example, he singled out the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s exhibition “The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture,” which he said conveys “narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive.” He also took the NMAAHC to task, denouncing the terms it used to describe “White culture” in its didactics.
Trump deputized JD Vance, the Vice President, to work with Congress to ensure that “future appropriations” continue to flow to the Smithsonian in a section called “Saving Our Smithsonian.”
Can the government defund the Smithsonian?
Not entirely. Per its Smithsonian website, the Smithsonian Institution receives federal funding, as well as “gifts, revenue-generating activities, and investments.” This means that if Trump and Vance decide to strip the Smithsonian of funding, it can still receive money from private individuals.
How has Trump’s executive order impacted the Smithsonian?
The order has seemingly had little effect so far. “The Shape of Power” remains on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The Washington Post reported that NMAAHC director Kevin Young was on leave, and had been since March 14, something that was not announced to the public, but it is unclear whether this was related to the order, which was issued nearly two weeks later.
In an internal memo obtained by Courthouse News Service, Bunch, the Smithsonian secretary, told employees that his institutions would remain “free of partisanship.”
How has Trump’s order been received?
Historians have condemned the executive order, with the American Historical Association issuing a statement praising the Smithsonian for its unique ability to convey “our achievements and the painful moments of our rich and complicated past.” In an op-ed for ARTnews, I wrote that the order posed “a serious threat to the way American art history gets told.”
