President Donald Trump accused the Smithsonian of portraying US history in an excessively negative light and prompted a formal review of its programming. The White House launched a four-month review covering exhibitions, programmes and internal processes at eight Smithsonian museums, including history, natural history, NMAAHC, American Indian, air and space, American art, portrait and modern art institutions. A 12 August letter to Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch directs museums to begin implementing content corrections where necessary and to replace divisive or ideologically driven language with unifying, historically accurate descriptions. The Smithsonian receives about 53% of its $1.09bn funding from congressional appropriations and is governed by a board of regents that includes high-ranking judicial, executive and bipartisan figures. Advocacy groups warn that external pressures on museum content could create a chilling effect across the museum sector.
The president's statement comes as the White House undertakes a four-month review of exhibitions, programmes and internal processes at eight of the Smithsonian's 21 museums: the National Museum of American History, the National Museum of Natural History, the NMAAHC, the National Museum of the American Indian, the National Air and Space Museum, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.
At the end of that process, according to a letter sent to Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch on 12 August, the museums are expected to "begin implementing content corrections where necessary, replacing divisive or ideologically driven language with unifying, historically accurate and constructive descriptions". The Smithsonian is the largest museum, education and research complex in the world, but it is not part of the federal government.
Collection
[
|
...
]