Trump targets 21 museums
JD Vance to oversee Smithsonian funding
— In partnership with Cornflower
Friday 28 March 2025 | news from museums, galleries, heritage and art, including:
Emin and Kahlo retrospectives at Tate Modern 🛏️
MoMA gets first new Director in 30 years 💼
Perth Museum smashes first year visitor targets 🏴
Happy Friday.
Today’s news about President Trump targeting the Smithsonian is alarming but not surprising (see below). He’s simply turned to the next page in the authoritarian’s playbook. A playbook that we currently see affect museums in Europe too.
In non-end-of-western-civilisation news (although I’ll come back to it) Grayson Perry’s Wallace Collection exhibition was unveiled this week, and opened to the public today. I’ll be seeing it soon to give my verdict, but the reviews were…shall we say…mixed.
The Independent loved it. Mark Hudson’s four-star critique was headlined: “[ask] not if it’s great or even good art, but if it makes you laugh – and it does.” That sentiment was echoed by Nancy Durrant in the Times who concluded it’s a “playful but thoughtful show.” The Guardian’s Hettie Judah wasn’t convinced. "The exhibition disintegrates into a mishmash” she wrote. “[He] seems to be indulging in nostalgia for lost status as an underdog.” The Telegraph’s Alastair Sooke was blunt: “An awkward, snarky venture.” Ouch.
Why do I offer this overview of the critics’ verdicts? For no other reason than it’s nice to remember that there are people who care about art and exhibitions enough to make a living being thoughtful about them, whatever their conclusion. And that there are newspapers and media outlets who publish a plurality of these views. And — of course — that there are people who want to read them to ultimately make up their own mind.
In my decade-plus career working in museums I know there’s a hyper-focus by staff on critics’ reviews. I can understand why, although sometimes I think it wouldn’t hurt to ‘see the bigger picture’ rather than a singular article.
Right now, the bigger picture has taken a horrifying existential turn. When the leader of the free world is parking his tanks on museum’s lawns (metaphorically, for now) in order to make them capitulate to his worldview, it can’t hurt to remember who your friends really are. And even more importantly, to remember the values — such as diversity of thought and opinion — that will need defending in our galleries more vigorously than before.
— maxwell
— In partnership with Cornflower
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Trump targets the Smithsonian museums
President Trump has targeted the Smithsonian Institution, the world’s largest group of museums. He’s signed an Executive Order tasking vice-president JD Vance to “eliminate improper, divisive, or anti-American ideology” from the Institute’s 21 museums.
Trump claimed there’s been a “concerted and widespread” effort to rewrite American history by replacing “objective facts” with a “distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth.” (Irony klaxon!). Trump singled out the National Museum of African American History, and the Women’s History Museum (which is in development).
“Museums in our Nation’s capital should be places where individuals go to learn — not to be subjected to ideological indoctrination or divisive narratives that distort our shared history,” he said. A Smithsonian spokesperson told the press “We have no comment for now.”
Vance will now work to make sure future funding for the Smithsonian — which has operated independently for 175 years — isn’t spent on programs that “degrade shared American values.”
V&A Director Tristram Hunt has criticiced the move , saying it’s “not a policy one associates with a free society.” (Read more)
🔗 OPINION | Trump’s attack on the Smithsonian marks an astonishing new low | Sean O’Grady in the Independent
Emin leads Tate’s 2026
Tracey Emin and Frida Kahlo are the blockbuster exhibitions Tate are pulling out the hat as they try to boost flagging visitor figures.
Tate Modern’s 2026 programme is headlined by arguably the two most famous female artists in Britain and beyond. A huge retrospective of Emin’s 40-year career will open in February and will feature brand new works alongside some of her biggest hits. Yes, the bed is back.
The “cultural phenomenon” Kahlo will get a major “in-depth exploration” through 130 of her own works alongside 80 other artists that she’s inspired.
Over at Tate Britain, the highlight next year is Europe’s first retrospective of James McNeill Whistler in over 30 years. Whistler's Mother will be coming to London from the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. Former British Vogue editor Edward Enninful will curate The 90s, which will bring together iconic images by photographers including Juergen Teller. with the work of artists like Damien Hirst, and with fashion items by Alexander McQueen. (Read more)
UK news 🇬🇧
Targeting art to end say protest group ❌
Protest group Just Stop Oil has pledged to cease attacking artworks as it announces an end to its campaign of direct action. The group said that as ending new oil and gas is now government policy, they’d managed to be “one of the most successful civil resistance campaigns in recent history.” “It is the end of soup on Van Goghs, cornstarch on Stonehenge” the group said. Over the past three years they had also targeted Constable’s The Hay Wain and the Magna Carta at the British Library. (Read more)
Our mutual Queen marks Dickens centenary 📚
HM The Queen took a shine to a diamond ring worn by Charles Dickens and joked “I won’t nick it” after holding the valuable piece of jewellery. Camilla saw the ring on a tour of the Charles Dickens Museum in London to mark its centenary, where she also saw items from the venue’s collection including a handwritten manuscript for Oliver Twist. Actors and museum patrons Simon Callow and Miriam Margolyes read Her Majesty extracts from Dickens letters and works. (Read more)
Welsh art gallery avoids showing art 🏴
A publicly funded art gallery in St Davids in Wales has not hosted a fine art exhibition for seven years, and locals fear it is being "downgraded" and is turning "its back on art". Oriel y Parc landscape gallery cost £3.5m and is a partnership between the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority and Museums Wales. It was built in 2008 to offer a "permanent home" for rotating exhibitions of artist Graham Sutherland's paintings. No works by Sutherland have been displayed since 2020. (Read more)
"Reckless” museum plans in Leicester 🏦
Plans to scale back the opening hours of many of Leicester’s museums have been described as "reckless” by opposition councillors in the city. Newarke Houses Museum will see its opening reduce from seven days a week to summer Saturdays only. The Grade II* listed Belgrave Hall will close altogether. The Labour-run council says it needs to “realign” resources to make the museum service “more relevant to Leicester people.” (Read more)
Global news 🌎
USA 🇺🇸
New York’s MoMA has announced its first new director on over 30 years. Christophe Cherix — who is currently the museum’s Chief Curator of Drawings and Prints — was selected unanimously during “a hastily called meeting” of the board this morning. In an interview with the New York Times today, Cherix said he was humbled, and that his aims were to broaden MoMA’s audience and help visitors get closer to the art. (Read more)
Netherlands 🇳🇱
An “eye-catching” new exhibition centre celebrating the history — and future — of the port of Rotterdam has opened. Portlantis offers three floors of permanent exhibition space telling the story of Europe’s largest port, alongside immersive experiences and installations. The striking new twisted industrial building overlooks the port and is topped with a panoramic viewing platform. Bosses hope it will attract 150,000 visitors a year. (Read more)
South Korea 🇰🇷
The largest ever wildfires to hit South Korea have damaged or destroyed 18 heritage sites. Two 1,000-year-old Buddhist temples burned to the ground, and a seated Buddha statue from the early 9th century was also reduced to ashes. In the city of Andong, firefighters worked to protect UNESCO Heritage sites as the inferno threatened to spread to those locations too. The country’s heritage service deployed around 750 people to protect or remove what still remains in the region. (Read more)
USA 🇺🇸
The Yale Center for British Art in Connecticut holds the largest collection of British art outside the UK. After a two-year closure amid a $16.5m project to conserve its Modernist building, it will reopen to the public tomorrow. It kicks off its new era with two new exhibitions. One is the first major presentation of Tracey Emin’s work in a North American museum. The other marks the 250th anniversary of JMW Turner’s birth. (Read more)
News in brief
Museum celebrates smashing target
Perth Museum marks its first birthday on Sunday, and it’s already celebrating sailing past its visitor target by 50%. Over 250,000 visitors have come through the doors of the £27m museum. (More)
Major city art festival returns
Liverpool Biennial has announced the full programme for its 2025 edition. Under the theme of 'BEDROCK', 30 artists will feature across 18 locations, and 22 new works will be commissioned for the free festival. (More)
Medieval church’s mediocre makeover
The tower of a 15th-century church in the Yorkshire Dales has been described as an “abomination” by local villagers after maintenance work turned it BRIGHT white. It really is quite something. (More)
Trump points finger at portrait
President Trump has blasted a portrait of him which has hung in Colorado’s Capitol since 2019 as "truly the worst." He alleged — without evidence — it had been “purposefully distorted.” It’s now been removed. (More)
Apple picks art dealer drama
Jessica Chastain is to star as a gallery owner who gets into a tangled relationship with the most gifted and unnerving artist on her roster — played by Adam Driver — in a new high drama TV show for Apple TV+ (More)
Generic products are costing you money
“Visitors want to buy something exclusive, not something that they could buy elsewhere” Cornflower’s CEO Simon Nutbrown says. Simon and his team can help your museum or attraction increase your retail income from merchandise. (Find out how)*
*This is sponsored
👀 Last week’s most clicked news story
— UK government announces raft of new museum trustees including ‘Traitors’ presenter Claudia Winkleman at the British Museum
📊 Last week’s poll results | Claudia Winkleman at her first Trustee board meeting at the British Museum...Traitor or Faithful?
— TRAITOR! 30%
— FAITHFUL! 70%
📊 This week’s poll
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What a sobering and vital read, Maxwell. The Trump–Vance move to “sanitize” the Smithsonian feels like the latest installment in a global campaign to neuter institutions that dare challenge dominant narratives. Framing truth-telling as “divisive” is how authoritarianism launders itself through culture. And the chilling part? This strategy isn't novel—it echoes Hungary, Poland, even Italy in recent years.
But what gives me hope is exactly what you highlighted: the plurality of voices in the arts, from critics to curators to visitors. It's also a reminder that museums aren’t just spaces of preservation—they’re battlegrounds for meaning. The idea that “objective facts” must be protected from ideological contamination is itself an ideological stance.
We need institutions brave enough to keep telling complex, uncomfortable stories—especially those that challenge mythologies of “shared” history. Because history isn’t shared until it’s fully told.
Curious to hear others’ thoughts: How should museums respond to political pressure like this while maintaining their integrity and public funding?