"But, as recent months have made plain, when Donald Trump refers to the culture wars, he also means the arts. He fired the board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which Republicans want to rename for him. His Administration fired the national archivist and the Librarian of Congress, and pressured the director of the National Portrait Gallery to resign; it is reviewing the entire Smithsonian Institution, looking for what the President calls "improper ideology.""
"But Adam Gopnik believes that interpretation is a misreading. The loyalty purge at institutions such as the National Portrait Gallery is a key part of his agenda. "Pluralism is the key principle of a democratic culture," Gopnik tells David Remnick."
The administration has dismissed leadership at major cultural institutions, including the board of the Kennedy Center, the national archivist, and the Librarian of Congress. The director of the National Portrait Gallery was pressured to resign, and the Smithsonian Institution is under review for what the President calls "improper ideology." These moves target the arts and constitute a loyalty purge that reshapes institutional governance. Pluralism is identified as essential to democratic culture, and the replacement of independent cultural leadership risks imposing political control over acceptable art and criticism. Such control could lead to the silencing of prominent performers and commentators.
Read at The New Yorker
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]