This weekend, artists are speaking out across the country

"I think the reality is that both artists and institutions right now are feeling this fear, and we're feeling unmoored about what we are supposed to do. And the fear, I think, of being silenced starts right here, starts in our heads," said Eric Gottesman, a visual artist based in Washington, D.C. He is also co-executive director of For Freedoms, an arts organization that promotes civic engagement."

"Gottesman and other artists around the nation say that many of their peers at cultural institutions are feeling scared and isolated, following sweeping grant cuts at the National Endowment for the Arts, the firings of programming staff at the Kennedy Center and an executive order from President Trump requiring an audit of Smithsonian museums. In August, Trump posted on social media that museums all over the country are "the last remaining segment of WOKE.""

More than 600 Fall of Freedom events are scheduled across more than 40 states, from Alaska to Florida. Artists and cultural institutions are experiencing fear, isolation, and paralysis driven by sweeping grant cuts at the National Endowment for the Arts, firings of programming staff at the Kennedy Center, an executive order requiring an audit of Smithsonian museums, and public denunciations labeling museums as 'WOKE.' Large museums are avoiding controversial programming out of fear of government retribution, creating a gap in institutional support for artists. Fall of Freedom intends to fill that gap by providing platforms for creative resistance and civic engagement.

Read at www.npr.org