A Wake for Woke
Trump's Assault on the Arts
By: Charles Giuliano - Dec 13, 2025
In a list of the year’s best exhibitions in the New York Times Holland Cotter ended on an ominous note.
“On repeat visits to Washington last spring and summer I saw some bold, truth-telling things. At the National Museum of African American History & Culture, there was “In Slavery’s Wake: Making Black Freedom in the World,” a multimedia traveling exhibition — headed to Africa, Europe and South America. And at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, there was “The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture,” a trenchant, tough-textured response to our monument-fixated moment. I caught two fine tribute-style shows at National Portrait Gallery, one devoted to the writer James Baldwin, the other to the Cuban-born American sculptor Felix Gonzalez-Torres. And at the Phillips Collection I savored a high-kilowatt survey of the underknown African American painter Vivian Browne (1929-1993), and an archival snapshot of the Chicago-born poet and gay activist Essex Hemphill (1957-1995).
“I wouldn’t have missed any of these eye-openers. All of them, like most ambitious projects, were years — three, four, five — in the planning, meaning they were conceived during a Black Lives Matter decade, when a new civil rights consciousness reached the national level. That era seems, for now, over. So while my heart was lifted and my mind fired by the 2025 shows, they also left me with anticipatory regret for those I may well not be seeing — three, four, five years and more down the line. Because with funding cuts and museums under censure, they are most likely not being planned.”
At least until a regime change there is a devastating impact on the nation’s cultural institutions and programming.
In a controversial move in November the Times reported that “The Philadelphia Art Museum’s board of trustees dismissed its director and chief executive Tuesday morning in an email that stated she was being terminated for cause.
“Sasha Suda, 45, was just three years into her five-year contract at the museum. She recently oversaw an effort to subtly rebrand the institution as the Philadelphia Art Museum, from the Philadelphia Museum of Art — its name since 1938. While some had praised the campaign, it largely failed to gain traction in Philadelphia, where locals started to mockingly refer to the 149-year-old institution as “PhArt,” instead of its suggested nickname, “PhAM.”
There was a gumbo of accusations that lead to her summery dismissal for which she has initiated a law suit. Over lunch at the Williams Faculty Club, a museum administrator and Philadelphia native, Noah Smalls, commented on the obvious reason for her ouster. The trustees were roiled by her woke programming.
Suda focused on regaining audiences through programming, including “The Time Is Always Now,” an exhibition featuring contemporary African American artists, and the opening of the Bring Center for African and African Diasporic Art. Being out of line with current programming and funding paradigms she was expandable. Museum directors do not survive who are out of sync with the vision and mandates of trustees.
During the next five year cycle when conceiving and funding ambitious exhibitions, administrators, foundations and trustees will keep a watchful eye on potential offenses against the government’s ban on diversity, equity and inclusion.
As Smalls commented with guarded optimism, “the pendulum is always swinging.” For now Trumpian vulgarity prevails but is arguably in decline from its apogee. When it settles we can at best hope for equity with a return of attention to marginalized artists from its current status of verboten annihilation. As Cotter observes we are likely to see little or no diversity in exhibition programming for the next several years. Museums and curators brave enough to defy the mandate face dire consequences.
Trump and his minions have devolved from cultural apathy to full bore upheaval. During his first term he all but shunned the Kennedy Center and now heads it with broad suggestions that it be renamed for him. Recently, he presided over the awarding of medals of dishnor to the likes of Rocky/Rambo and the absurdist heavy metal band Kiss. If you can stomach it the ceremony will soon air to a national audience.
America has long sent its best and brightest to represent us at the Venice Biennale. The most recent installation featured Native American, queer artist Jeffrey Gibson. His work is currently on view at MASS MoCA. For the next event the decision process was scooped away from independent curators and appropriated by the administration. It has chosen an artist whom most in the field have never heard of.
“Today, the Department of State announced the selection of The American Arts Conservancy (AAC) to represent the United States at the 61st Venice Art Biennale. ?The 2026 U.S. Pavilion exhibition ‘Alma Allen: Call Me the Breeze’ was organized by Commissioner Jenni Parido, founder of the American Arts Conservancy, and curator Jeffrey Uslip. ?It will present artworks that highlight Allen’s alchemical transformation of matter and explore the concept of ‘elevation,’ both as a physical manifestation of form and as a symbol of collective optimism and self-realization, furthering the Trump Administration’s focus on showcasing American excellence. ?The artist, Alma Allen, will create several new site-responsive sculptures, including one for the U.S. Pavilion’s outdoor forecourt.”
In its effort to sandbag American art and culture, particularly at the educational level, there is a makeover to racism, intolerance, and White Supremacy. Confederacy from statuary, to the naming of military camps, are being hoisted back onto their pedestals.
Recently I read the harrowing and disturbing 1619. There have been conflicting responses to the book which I feel should be read and discussed by all Americans. MAGA would ban the book from schools and substitute a whitewashed history. As Ken Burns reveals in his series on the American Revolution our Founding Father was a racist who betrayed our Native American allies. That’s a fact. Its airing is part of why Trump wants to annihilate PBS.
The greatest damage is being inflicted on American youth. They are denied the opportunity to deal with our terrible past including slavery, genocide, and exclusion of Asians. The President refers to Somalians as “garbage” with on camera assaults of female reporters.
The arts play a vital role by initiating essentialist dialogues. Dictators and demagogues always attempt to silence dissent particularly in the arts.
Although there is debate as to who first said it the Nazi statement resonates. “When I hear the word culture I reach for my gun.” The mandate of the arts is to disarm the assassins.