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The companies standing up to Trump on DEI<\/p>\n
Companies like Costco and Levi’s are rejecting the White House’s position on diversity, equity and inclusion.<\/p>\n
Artist Cheryl D. Edwards had eagerly anticipated the March 2025 opening of \u201cBefore the Americas,\u201d an exhibition she’d curated of nearly four dozen works by Afro-Latino, Caribbean and Black artists<\/a> scheduled at the Art Museum of the Americas in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n Then, in February, the Washington, D.C.-based painter and printmaker was in Costa Rica preparing for a solo show when she got a call from museum staff: The show she\u2019d spent three-plus years putting together was being cancelled.<\/p>\n She was crestfallen. “I asked why,” she said. \u201cThey said the funding had been taken away. I said, can we not raise the money some other way? And they said no.\u201d<\/p>\n The exhibit, she said, had become a casualty of the Trump administration\u2019s crackdown <\/a>on federal support for diversity initiatives.<\/p>\n Edwards\u2019 dismay didn\u2019t last long. Don Russell, the university curator at George Mason University<\/a> who’d previously shown some of Edwards\u2019 work, quickly reached out and offered to host the show at the school\u2019s Gillespie Gallery despite the venue\u2019s typical focus on contemporary art; \u201cBefore the Americas<\/a>\u201d opened there on Aug. 25.<\/p>\n With the Trump administration moving to make artistic and cultural institutions like the Smithsonian<\/a> less “woke” and nixing federal funding for diversity efforts, regional and local entities are embracing the responsibility of showcasing marginalized communities<\/a>, even as many face cutbacks<\/a> of their own.<\/p>\n In May, the administration rescinded hundreds of grants awarded through the National Endowment for the Arts<\/a> to redirect funding toward projects focused on the nation\u2019s 250th anniversary<\/a>, among other things.<\/p>\n A few institutions, like George Mason, are hosting exhibitions cancelled elsewhere, while some already focused on marginalized communities are doubling down on their missions. Others are striving to promote community, hoping to break down walls in a divided country.<\/p>\n Shortly after Trump took office, the NEA\u00a0scrapped a grant program targeting underserved populations<\/a>\u00a0and issued\u00a0new rules<\/a>\u00a0for grant-seeking arts groups, forbidding the use of federal funds to promote “diversity, equity and inclusion” or “gender ideology.”<\/p>\n \u201cI think we are taking a risk by doing this,\u201d Russell said of hosting the \u201cBefore the Americas\u201d exhibition, noting that George Mason, whose president<\/a> has made racial diversity a priority, \u201chas been in the spotlight around DEI issues.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI was around during the culture wars of the early 90s, and it seemed like the arts were the easiest thing to pick on,\u201d Russell said. \u201cNow, everything is being attacked. It\u2019s hard to predict where the chips will fall.\u201d<\/p>\n Earlier this year, the ACLU successfully<\/a> sued the government on behalf of several arts organizations challenging the NEA\u2019s ban on \u201cgender ideology<\/a>” as unconstitutional.<\/p>\n \u201cThe prohibition has led these organizations to alter the scope of their artistic projects \u2013 many of which involve transgender characters, cast transgender or nonbinary actors, and otherwise celebrate and affirm transgender and nonbinary people \u2013 or to be barred from NEA funding altogether,\u201d the ACLU said<\/a>.<\/p>\n Arts and humanities communities have faced cultural battles on multiple fronts ever since Trump\u2019s return to office. After the president signed an executive order<\/a> in March criticizing \u201cnarratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive,\u201d several federal arts institution leaders were either fired<\/a> or chose to step down<\/a> under administration pressure<\/a>.<\/p>\n In August, an article posted on WhiteHouse.gov<\/a> featured a list<\/a> of presumably objectionable examples of ways that U.S. museums have portrayed American history and diversity.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an incredibly serious moment,\u201d said Alyssa Nitchun, executive director of the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art<\/a> in New York City. \u201cBut the power of art right now is more important than ever. Art shifts hearts and minds like nothing else.\u201d<\/p>\n The LGBTQ-focused museum is among several institutions that stepped up to host portions of \u201cNature\u2019s Wild,\u201d an exhibition exploring homosexuality in the Caribbean that like \u201cBefore the Americas\u201d was scheduled to appear at the Art Museum of the Americas before being cancelled in February.<\/p>\n In Maryland, the Baltimore Museum of Art will feature \u201cAmy Sherald: American Sublime\u201d starting Nov. 2<\/a> after the artist withdrew her scheduled show<\/a> at the Smithsonian\u2019s National Portrait Gallery following pushback against her painting depicting the Statue of Liberty as a transgender woman.<\/p>\n The way in which regional institutions have moved to make sure these art works get seen \u201cunderscores how cultural resistance and strength require networks of individuals across institutions,\u201d Nitchun said.<\/p>\n Edwards, the Washington-based artist, said she tells the young artists she mentors that in the current atmosphere, it’s more crucial for them to create than ever.<\/p>\n “We have to create like our hair’s on fire,” she said. “We are witnessing the erasure of history and creativity. It’s important for us to document this moment…. We’ve always been marginalized, but it doesn’t stop us from creating and thriving.”<\/p>\n ‘An uncertain year’<\/p>\n While arts organizations get most of their funding from private sources and admissions, program fees, space rental and so on, public funding typically accounts for about one-tenth of their revenue, according to the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies<\/a>. Grants awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts, the nation’s largest arts and education funding source, have been especially prized for the prestige and extra funding prospects they bring, especially for rural or smaller institutions with less access to private foundations.<\/p>\n \u201cThose grants really helped smaller museums like ours,\u201d said Heather Arnet, executive director and CEO of the Heckscher Museum of Art<\/a> in Huntington, New York, which has devoted all of 2025 to LGBTQ artists from its permanent collection.<\/p>\n The museum doesn\u2019t generally rely on federal funding, Arnet said, but had sought an NEA grant to fund an exhibition this year. Otherwise, the institution has stayed true to its yearlong Pride initiative, scheduled to coincide with the 10-year anniversary of the U.S Supreme Court\u2019s ruling recognizing same-sex unions<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe still feel completely committed to these shows and our community,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The museum\u2019s lineup includes an ongoing exhibition featuring the work of Emma Stebbins, a lesbian neoclassical sculptor best known for her bronze statue of an angel at New York\u2019s Bethesda Fountain<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe sculpture is incredibly famous but most people don\u2019t know who she is,\u201d Arnet said. \u201cShe\u2019s never received a museum show until now.\u201d<\/p>\n Most of this year\u2019s related costs had already been incurred by the time she learned grant funding would be pulled, leaving no choice but to tap reserves, individual donors and corporate supporters to make up the difference.<\/p>\n \u201cIt has been an uncertain year for many of us in the arts sector,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n