This Is the Year We Redefine Art Institutions

"As we began 2025, optimism was tested in new ways - bringing to the surface what many of us in the arts had long felt simmering. DEI efforts were forcibly rolled back amid mounting political intervention in museum narratives, and high-profile disputes over representation and authorship played out in public. After Amy Sherald withdrew her exhibition American Sublime from the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery in July, citing concerns over curatorial and interpretive constraints,"

"The public governance turmoil at the Philadelphia Art Museum was emblematic of a moment in which authority, ownership, and leadership were all being renegotiated at once. Across labor, authorship, and governance, new precedents were being set in real time, without a shared roadmap for what comes next. By year's end, it was clear that the institutional landscape was changing - not slowly or subtly, but through a series of loud, brash, consequential decisions that revealed just how unsettled the field had become."

In early 2025, optimism across the arts was tested as DEI efforts faced forcible rollback amid political intervention in museum narratives. High-profile disputes over representation and authorship unfolded publicly. Amy Sherald withdrew American Sublime from the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery, citing curatorial and interpretive constraints; the Baltimore Museum of Art subsequently hosted the exhibition, showing artists rerouting around institutions. Public governance turmoil at the Philadelphia Art Museum renegotiated authority, ownership, and leadership. New precedents around labor, authorship, and governance emerged in real time, producing loud, consequential decisions that unsettled the institutional landscape by year’s end. Curator eunice bélidor and arts administrator Dejha Carrington remain positioned beyond but adjacent to institutions while recognizing museums' ongoing significance.

Read at Hyperallergic