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The official White House newsletter last week posted an article titled "President Trump Is Right About The Smithsonian." It called out some of the work shown at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the National Museum of the American Latino and other institutions as objectionable art. NPR's Mandalit del Barco spoke to some of the artists and scholars mentioned on the list.
MANDALIT DEL BARCO, BYLINE: The White House highlighted some Smithsonian artwork, exhibitions and programs that focus on race, slavery, immigration and sexuality, work that was first written about in the conservative online magazine The Federalist. Last week, eight of the Smithsonian museums were given 120 days to submit their current and future plans for a comprehensive review to bring the Smithsonian in line with President Trump's cultural directives. Writer and scholar Ibram X. Kendi says he's not surprised to be targeted by the White House, which called him a, quote, "woke activist."
IBRAM X KENDI: They've been trying to discredit me and my work, and it's because they don't want white people and others to actually read my work.
DEL BARCO: Kendi is a professor at Howard University and author of the book "How To Be An Antiracist." It's featured on the website of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Kendi says, in his writing, he guides people how to deconstruct racism, unlearn racist ideas and recognize racial equality.
KENDI: That type of transformation and learning is in direct conflict to an administration that's trying to convince, particularly, white Americans that they are under attack or that they are being harmed or that racism doesn't exist or they're the primary subject of racism.
DEL BARCO: NPR reached out to the White House, asking for comment about the article highlighting the Smithsonian artists. They have not responded. But one artist, Hugo Crosthwaite, said he was shocked but pleased to see his name on the list.
HUGO CROSTHWAITE: I was kind of honored, you know, to be included in a list of great art pieces celebrating diversity.
DEL BARCO: In 2022, the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery commissioned Crosthwaite to create a study of Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical adviser to President Biden.
CROSTHWAITE: He's a very humble man. He didn't want the idea of a painting of him, I don't know, with a big shield fighting a virus. You know, something like that. But then I came with this idea, well, you know, I could do this stop-motion animation that basically tells the narrative of his career, you know?
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DEL BARCO: In a video, Crosthwaite animated 19 drawings depicting Fauci helping create vaccines during the HIV/AIDS crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic.
CROSTHWAITE: It kind of seems like they just came up with the idea, oh, this is about Fauci, so then we hate it. And they probably haven't even seen it.
DEL BARCO: Still, Crosthwaite says the attention he and the other artists are getting now isn't all negative.
CROSTHWAITE: They're trying to censor artwork, but it always kind of backfires. It usually draws more attention to these art pieces, which I think is wonderful.
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UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST: (Singing in non-English language).
DEL BARCO: On the White House list is a dance performance at the National Portrait Gallery from 2022. It illustrates two immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. That was also the theme of a painting by Texas artist Rigoberto Gonzalez.
RIGOBERTO GONZALEZ: At first, I was a little shocked, but then I was a little bit glad. You know, my work is political and that painting in particular was questioning the anti-immigrant sentiment of the time.
DEL BARCO: His painting "Refugees Crossing The Border Wall Into South Texas" was a competition finalist for the National Portrait Gallery in 2000. It's now in a private collection. Gonzalez was born in Mexico and is a U.S. citizen. He says being named on the White House list is an attempt to harass him, but he's unfazed.
GONZALEZ: The raids they were having, the ICE raids, I'm thinking of making a painting based on those raids because groups of people chasing other members of society and wrestling them down - it lends itself perfectly for my aesthetic, which is like a baroque Renaissance aesthetic, very dynamic. So I'm already thinking of ways to paint it.
DEL BARCO: But the thought of being named by the White House is daunting for other artists.
PATRICIA CRONIN: I'm terrified. Absolutely.
DEL BARCO: That's Brooklyn-based artist Patricia Cronin. Her bronze sculpture "Memorial To A Marriage" is part of the National Portrait Gallery's permanent collection. It depicts herself and her now-wife embracing on a bed. It's a monument to marriage equality.
CRONIN: Because of the LGBTQ+ subject matter, it would fall under being deemed un-American. So what are they going to do, melt it down?
DEL BARCO: Cronin says going after the Smithsonian could end up silencing other museums and galleries, and artists may begin censoring themselves.
CRONIN: I really shudder to think how much of the American story is going to be lost 'cause some of it won't even get created.
DEL BARCO: Mandalit del Barco, NPR News.
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