Philip Kennicott's column raises concerns about the future of the United States' public art collection amid the Trump Administration's dismantling of federal bureaucracy. He emphasizes the fragility of art—how it can disappear through accidents, neglect, or design. The column argues that the loss of art represents a cultural void that affects national identity and memory. With over 26,000 works in the collection, Kennicott warns that proposed staff cuts could make it nearly impossible to preserve and maintain these vital cultural artifacts, further underscoring the potential impact of planned building sales on art preservation efforts.
Art has a way of disappearing. Paintings are fragile, photographs fade, and even work made from durable stone and metal requires maintenance and care. But sometimes it just vanishes: off walls, out of attics, carelessly misplaced, accidentally destroyed or purloined from museums, office buildings and warehouses.
Preserving that collection, more than 26,000 works including many commissioned during the darkest days of the Depression, will become infinitely more difficult and perhaps impossible if the Trump administration follows through on plans to terminate more than half of the dozens of staff, spread throughout the country, who maintain and protect the nation's art.
When it vanishes, by accident or carelessness or design, it creates a hole in the culture - a loss of history, nuance, expression, knowledge and learning. Who are we? Who were we? How have our aspirations and beliefs and judgments of what is important changed or stayed the same?
The GSA's art collection is also in danger because of a plan to put up for sale hundreds of buildings in its property portfolio, millions of which may house collections.
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