JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
On any given day, there are hundreds of different exhibitions on view at the Smithsonian's many museums, but last week, the White House singled out one in an executive order. So NPR's Elizabeth Blair paid a visit to the Smithsonian American Art Museum to see that show about race and sculpture. The first work she encountered was a colorful, life-size sculpture by the artist Roberto Lugo.
ELIZABETH BLAIR, BYLINE: His body is divided into different patterns. On the bottom, there's this purple, yellow and white flag-type design. On his torso, the colors are red, green, black, orange. He's kind of a hefty guy.
ROBERTO LUGO: It's a very real body. I was 100 pounds heavier. And the reality is that, you know, being a person of color in America is very loaded.
BLAIR: Artist Roberto Lugo grew up in a poor neighborhood in Philadelphia.
LUGO: Many of us grew up in food deserts, in places where obesity was very common because of the lack of quality of food. And so when I make a piece like this, I like to allow myself to be vulnerable and let it all out because then everybody around you allows themself also to be vulnerable.
BLAIR: The White House executive order says the Smithsonian promotes narratives that are divisive. But Lugo says he wants his art to bring people of all backgrounds and political beliefs together, including white people.
LUGO: I think for many people who support Trump, I think they feel disenfranchised and like their quality of life suffers because they're not given opportunities because of their race. I feel as if that should be a point where we connect with one another. That's exactly, precisely how people of color feel.
BLAIR: "The Shape Of Power: Stories Of Race And Sculpture" spans three centuries up to the present day. There's a playful bronze statue from 1906 of a little girl gliding on one roller skate, her arms stretched out, squealing in delight and fear. The artist, Abastenia St. Leger Eberle, was known for depicting poor immigrants in her Lower Manhattan neighborhood. The exhibition points out that at the time, the mostly Italian, Eastern European and Jewish immigrants were not considered white. For visitor Gillian Vallad (ph), who's Black, that was...
GILLIAN VALLAD: Eye-opening. I think it's, you know, an opportunity to see another point of view.
BLAIR: Vallad says the Smithsonian tells stories that help people interrogate their own biases.
VALLAD: I think that's what you would want to do. Like, you would want to grow as a person and not, like, stay static.
BLAIR: The White House did not respond to a request for comment. "The Shape Of Power" is on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum through mid-September.
Elizabeth Blair, NPR News, Washington.
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