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Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump Cut Funds From Wasteful Projects To Spend on Wasteful Statue Garden
President Donald Trump has pledged to cut government waste, but hasn't delivered much on that front so far. Even when his administration has cut from seemingly obvious sources—for example, federal funding for arts and humanities—Trump has simply redirected federal spending toward sources closer to his heart. During his first term, Trump signed executive orders calling for the creation of the National Garden of American Heroes, which was to contain 250 statues of "historically significant Americans…who have contributed positively to America throughout our history." In April, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) began taking applications from sculptors. The plan is for the garden to open on July 4, 2026—the 250th anniversary of American independence. That's a rather ambitious turnaround time. "America doesn't have enough quality sculptors or museum-caliber foundries to make this happen on Trump's speedy timeline," Politico's Michael Schaffer wrote this week. "Many U.S. fine-art foundries are booked anywhere from six to 18 months in advance. There also aren't many of them." As a result, "faster production often involves partnering with Chinese or other foreign facilities." There is also, as yet, no site chosen for the garden (though South Dakota Republican Gov. Larry Rhoden recommended a plot of land near Mount Rushmore, which its owner offered to donate). Trump has very exacting standards, dictating that "all statues must be life-size and made of marble, granite, bronze, copper, or brass," and "lifelike or realistic representations of the persons they depict, not abstract or modernist representations." "The biggest collection of artisans and fabricators working in Trump's preferred old-school realist style turns out to be in China, not the U.S.," Schaffer wrote. The list of figures to be honored ranges from historical heroes to entertainers and seemingly everyone in between. More to the point, the garden would involve a large expenditure of taxpayer funds. "The National Endowment for the Humanities has canceled most of its grant programs and started putting staff on administrative leave," Jennifer Schuessler of the The New York Times reported in April. "[Acting NEH Chairman Michael] McDonald told senior leadership that upward of 85 percent of the agency's hundreds of current grants were to be canceled." But even while making those cuts, the administration is shelling out for the statue garden: Schuessler later reported that the NEH and the National Endowment for the Arts would collectively contribute $34 million to the project. The NEH application says artists will receive up to $200,000 per commissioned statue and they are expected to start working on October 1. But even apart from the issues with foundry capacity, artists are unlikely to be able to create quality life-size statues on that budget and in that time frame. Last year, the U.S. Capitol added a seven-foot bronze statue of the evangelist Billy Graham to its halls. The North Carolina state government commissioned the figure in 2020, and it took four years to complete, at a cost of $650,000. Trump's order is now calling for hundreds of artists to design, sculpt, and smelt hundreds of similar sculptures, at one-third the cost and on a much shorter timeline. The statute of Graham—who is listed for inclusion in Trump's garden—is also instructive: There is already a place within the U.S. Capitol for displaying statues of honored Americans, as each state submits two statues for display in the National Statuary Hall. And the statue of Graham cost taxpayers nothing, as the construction was funded entirely by donations to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, with no direct state funding whatsoever. This should offer lessons for Trump's National Garden of American Heroes. If somebody wants to donate land, they're free to do so; if others want statues of certain historical Americans included, they're welcome to give money to the cause. But there's no reason the federal government has to play a role. The post Trump Cut Funds From Wasteful Projects To Spend on Wasteful Statue Garden appeared first on
Politico
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Politico
‘Completely Unworkable': Sculpture Experts Say Trump's $34 Million Statue Garden Has Major Problems
Illustration by Jade Cuevas/POLITICO (source images via AP and iStock) Michael Schaffer is a senior editor and columnist at POLITICO Magazine. He has covered national and local politics for over 20 years and spent seven years as editor-in-chief of the Washingtonian. His Capital City column chronicles the inside conversations and big trends shaping Washington politics. There's a big problem with Donald Trump's signature plan to create a National Garden of American Heroes. And, for once, it has nothing to do with culture-war bickering about just who should be included in the national statue display. Instead, artists, curators and critics who have reviewed the recent request for proposals have a more practical worry: America doesn't have enough quality sculptors or museum-caliber foundries to make this happen on Trump's speedy timeline. 'It seems completely unworkable,' said Daniel Kunitz, editor of Sculpture magazine. It's nothing if not ambitious. The plan is to unveil 250 life-sized statues in time for the nation's 250th birthday next year on July 4. Having decimated large chunks of the federal arts bureaucracy, the administration has reoriented much of what's left to the $34 million outdoor park project, a singular Trump goal since his first term. 'It's going to be something very extraordinary,' Trump told a White House audience in February. 'We're going to produce some of the most beautiful works of art.' According to one of several executive orders on the idea, it's all meant to 'reflect the awesome splendor of our country's timeless exceptionalism.' Unfortunately, the schedule all but guarantees something less than awesome, splendid or timeless. And, quite possibly, something less than American, too: The fine print forbids 'abstract or modernist' statues, and the biggest collection of artisans and fabricators working in Trump's preferred old-school realist style turns out to be in China, not the U.S. 'You'd be flooding the capacity of artists in this country who do that kind of stuff, and the capacity of foundries,' said Dylan Farnum, who for years ran the Walla Walla Foundry, a fine-art powerhouse that is one of the best-regarded such facilities in America. 'There are places where you can really whip some stuff off. They can do it in China.' Many U.S. fine-art foundries are booked anywhere from six to 18 months in advance. There also aren't many of them: The International Sculpture Center's list numbers 69. Though technology has sped things up — these days, you can 3D-print a model before casting it — faster production often involves partnering with Chinese or other foreign facilities. At best, such collaborations can lead to a usable statue at a good price. But if the work is slapdash and uninspired, the likeness can feel more like a cheap mannequin than a national monument. 'It doesn't yield the quality we're usually looking for,' said Andrew Pharmer, who runs a large fine art foundry in Kingston, New York. 'If you're physically sculpting something you get detail down to the level of a fingerprint. There's just nothing digital in my experience that can do that.' One wag likened Trump's project to a government-run version of Madame Tussaud's wax museum: Possibly enticing to tourists, but by no means awe-inspiring. The White House didn't respond to detailed questions about the schedule or the use of foreign facilities. 'The National Garden of American Heroes will be a beautiful monument to the spirit of America,' a spokesperson said. Even without worrying about trans-Pacific shipping (and new tariffs), the timeline is tight. The feds have yet to assign statues to sculptors. The application deadline is July 1, just 368 days before America's 250th. Applicants are supposed to pick 10 or 20 names from Trump's list of historic heroes; the National Endowment for the Humanities will then let winners know who they're supposed to sculpt. That won't happen until late September, cutting it still closer. The delivery date is June 1, 2026. It's also not clear who will apply. Low opinions of Trump in the artistic community could dissuade some applicants. And while the commissions are $200,000 per statue, it seems less lavish when you consider the costs of casting and base material, which the administration says must be marble, granite, bronze, copper, or brass. (In 2022, Arkansas dedicated $750,000 to create bronze statues of singer Johnny Cash and civil rights hero Daisy Bates for the U.S. Capitol.) Because many prominent U.S. sculptors don't do traditional figurative work, the artists vying for commissions may also have less experience in prestige projects. That's not necessarily a bad thing, especially for traditionalists who hope to elevate artists who deploy classical styles. But it increases the odds of a schedule-busting snafu. 'It's easy to AI-render a Dick Van Dyke sculpture,' Farnum told me. 'So much easier than actually getting it done.' There's a reason sculpture commissions, even in an age of computer modeling and robotic chiseling, can take years. Particularly when the subjects are deceased, the challenges involve finding an image, creating scale models, sculpting the final mold, casting a life-size statue, and then transporting the very heavy end product and overseeing its installation. On top of that, public art tends to involve a lot of collaboration and feedback from whoever is commissioning the work — a diplomatic dance that further slows things down. 'You put out an RFP and then there's just a long period working with the institutions,' said Kunitz. 'A year is highly unlikely.' It's hard to imagine a Trump-appointed leadership waiving its right to review whatever some artist cooks up. The NEH also didn't respond to a request for comment. And then there's the location of the garden: There isn't one. The plan calls for a suitable space to be identified. That hasn't happened yet, though the governor of South Dakota has offered a spot in the Black Hills near Mount Rushmore. Assuming the space works, it will still have to be acquired, cleared, and prepared for a vast collection of statues and (they hope) an even more vast collection of visitors. The shadow of Rushmore would surely suit the politics of the project. First announced amid the protests of 2020, the garden was a neat bit of ideological positioning: Where the left wanted to tear down statues, Trump said, he was celebrating America without apology. His executive order featured a long list of subjects including Patrick Henry, Sojourner Truth, Mark Twain, Eleanor Roosevelt, Muhammad Ali, William Rehnquist, Whitney Houston and Steve Jobs. Inevitably, the controversial roster of statue subjects has gotten lots of attention. Trump's list includes a few figures whose records on race made them targets, like Christopher Columbus, Andrew Jackson and John James Audubon. Others sniff that its array of conservative intellectuals (Russell Kirk, Milton Friedman, William F. Buckley Jr., Jeane Kirkpatrick) is more robust than its collection of left-leaning thinkers. And there are also some downright strange choices, such as the Canadian-born Jeopardy host Alex Trebek. But all too typically for our era of permanent culture war, the political fury has distracted attention from the basic logistics of the plan — and from the question of whether the end product would, as a simple matter of aesthetics, be worthy of a great country. In the fine-arts world, the answer to that latter question seems to be: Nope. 'It doesn't seem to be very serious,' Kunitz said. 'It's sort of trolling.' It's a classic artistic divide for a populist age: Should a project aim for mass appeal, a spot for Instagram selfies and zany poses? Or should it — as conservative cultural critics have long insisted — seek to be a lasting masterwork of civilization? Trump's entire career gives a pretty good indication of what his administration's answer would be, no matter how eloquently they may talk about creating a testament to American greatness. 'It's a circus mentality, and he's a showman,' said Ken Lum, a sculptor and University of Pennsylvania professor who has created major public monuments in the naturalist style. Lum says he's not optimistic about the garden's political impact, but thinks it could actually be popular if the administration manages to get it done — like a roadside attraction, if not a monument for the ages. 'For a lot of people going to Mount Rushmore, there will be public bathrooms and concession stands and souvenirs, and you could have your picture taken with Babe Ruth or MLK or whoever.'
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Museum Seeks To Close Funding Gap After Loss Of Federal Humanities Grant For Game Show Exhibit
As networks continue to dot their schedules with revivals of Match Game and Hollywood Squares and other mainstays, an exhibit to examine game show history and impact is looking to close a funding gap after a federal grant was pulled. The Strong Museum of Play, located in Rochester, NY, has been awarded a grant of almost $400,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities to create an exhibit called Beyond the Buzzer: Game Shows in America. More from Deadline MSNBC Hires Politico's Sudeep Reddy As Washington Bureau Chief Bruce Springsteen Says Trump Is Running "A Corrupt, Incompetent And Treasonous Administration" Judge Hears Arguments In Corporation For Public Broadcasting's Challenge To Donald Trump's Removal Of Three Board Members While game shows often are dismissed as part of cultural histories, the 5,200-square-foot exhibit is meant to show their impact. The NEH grant description read, 'Game shows in America emerged in the 20th century from the confluence of several key cultural factors: the centuries-long dream that anybody with enough pluck and luck can strike it rich; the rise of mass media as the unifying glue of American culture; and the unique power of fans to actively shape the cultures they are consuming.' In addition to sets and props, the exhibit would include 'digital formats and online exhibit elements' to 'extend the exhibit's educational value while broadening its reach and accessibility.' The grant was awarded last year, but it was among the many humanities grants that were canceled following a series of President Donald Trump's executive orders that have seen the NEH rescind funding for documentary filmmakers and many other projects. The agency has continued to award grants, but has re-shifted its priorities, including to 'projects related to the nation's semiquincentennial and American exceptionalism.' Among other things, the NEH has now launched a grant program to support the design and creation of statues for Trump's National Garden of American Heroes. Per Trump's executive order, the agency has canceled projects related to diversity, equity and inclusion and environmental justice. The agency also noted that under the order, all 'federal grantmaking agencies, including NEH, must ensure that taxpayer dollars are spent effectively and are consistent with each agency's mission.' An NEH spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment on why the Museum of Play grant was pulled. The Strong Museum of Play launched the National Archives of Game Show History in 2021, along with producers Bob Boden and Howard Blumenthal. Shane Rhinewald, a spokesperson for the museum, said, 'Despite the funding setback, the museum still intends to complete the exhibit, though the size, scope, and timeline may be affected if the funding gap isn't closed through other means, including donations, other grant opportunities, and industry support. The museum's priority now is to work with donors, supporters, and others to ensure the exhibit is completed as envisioned.' Best of Deadline Where To Watch All The 'Mission: Impossible' Movies: Streamers With Multiple Films In The Franchise Everything We Know About 'My Life With The Walter Boys' Season 2 So Far 'Bridgerton' Season 4: Everything We Know So Far
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
A landscape transformed: Arts community reels as it responds to federal program cuts
NEW YORK -- Poet Marie Howe, one of this year's winners of the Pulitzer Prize, says being a writer is often less a career than a vocation. You rely on teaching and other outside work and seek support from foundations or from a government agency, like the National Endowment for the Arts. 'Everybody applies for an NEA grant, year after after year, and if you get it, it's like wow — it's huge," says Howe, a Pulitzer winner for 'New and Selected Poems' and a former NEA creative writing fellow. 'It's not just the money. It's also deep encouragement. I just felt so grateful. It made a big, big difference. It gives you courage. It says to you, 'Go on, keep doing it.'' Behind so many award-winning careers, high-profile productions, beloved institutions and in-depth research projects there is often a quieter story of early support from the government — the grants from the NEA or National Endowment for the Humanities that enable a writer to complete a book, a community theater to stage a play, a scholar to access archival documents or a museum to organize an exhibit. For decades, there has been a nationwide artistic and cultural infrastructure receiving bipartisan support, including through the first administration of Donald Trump. Now that is changing — and drastically. Since returning to office in January, the president has alleged that federal agencies and institutions such as the NEA, NEH, PBS, the Kennedy Center and the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) were advancing a 'woke agenda' that undermined traditional values. Trump has ousted leaders, cut or eliminated programs and dramatically shifted priorities: At the same time the NEH and NEA were forcing out staff members and canceling grants, they announced a multimillion-dollar initiative to support statues for Trump's proposed "National Garden of American Heroes,' from George Washington to Shirley Temple. 'All future awards will, among other things, be merit-based, awarded to projects that do not promote extreme ideologies based upon race or gender, and that help to instill an understanding of the founding principles and ideals that make America an exceptional country," reads a statement on the NEH website. Individuals and organizations across the country, and across virtually every art form, now find themselves without money they had budgeted for or even spent, anticipating they would be reimbursed. Electric Literature, McSweeney's and n+1 are among dozens of literary publications that received notices their grants have been rescinded. Philadelphia's Rosenbach Museum & Library had to halt a project to create an online catalog after losing a near-$250,000 grant from the IMLS. The Stuttering Association for the Young, which manages a summer music camp, has a $35,000 gap. 'Our fundraising allows kids to attend our summer camp at a greatly reduced cost so the lost funds make it harder to fulfill that commitment," says the association's director, Russell Krumnow, who added that 'we planned our programming and made decisions with those funds in mind.' 'Government money ought to be consistent. It ought to be reliable,' says Talia Corren, co-executive director of the New York-based Alliance of Resident Theatres, which assists hundreds of nonprofit theater companies. 'You need to make decisions based on that money.' The NEA, NEH and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting were among the institutions established 60 years ago, during the height of President Lyndon Johnson's 'Great Society' domestic programs. At various times, they have faced criticism for supporting provocative artists, such as photographer Robert Mapplethorpe in the 1980s. But they have endured, in part, because of their perceived economic benefits, distributed through as many congressional districts as possible. Arts advocates contend that, like other forms of federal aid, the importance of an NEA or NEH grant isn't just the initial money, but the 'ripple' or 'mutliplier' effect. Government backing often carries the kind of prestige that makes a given organization more desirable to private donors. The millions of dollars channeled through state arts and humanities councils in turn support local projects. Funding for a theater production helps generate jobs for the cast and crew, brings in business for neighboring restaurants and bars and parking garages and spending money for the babysitter hired by parents having a night out. Actor Jane Alexander was just beginning her stage career when the endowment helped fund the 1967 Arena Stage production of Howard Sackler's drama about boxer Jack Johnson, 'The Great White Hope," which starred Alexander and James Earl Jones and eventually won the Pulitzer Prize. Alexander, who headed the NEA in the 1990s, remembered how Arena co-founder Zelda Fichandler worried that the endowment might hurt business by supporting other theaters in Washington. 'And I remember my late husband (Robert Alexander) who was artistic director of the Living Stage Theatre Company at the time, saying to her, 'No, it doesn't work that way. A rising tide floats all boats," she says. In the short term, organizations are seeking donations from the general public and philanthropists are attempting to fill in fiscal holes. The Mellon Foundation recently announced an 'emergency' $15 million fund for state humanities councils. At the Portland Playhouse in Oregon, artistic director Brian Weaver says that donors stepped in after the theater lost a $25,000 NEA grant just a day before they were to open a production of 'Joe Turner's Come and Gone,' But Weaver and others say private fundraising alone isn't a long-term solution, if only because individuals incur 'donor fatigue' and philanthropists change their minds. Jane Alexander remembers when the Arena theater in Washington founded a repertory company, supported in part by the Rockefeller Foundation. 'It was like the National Theatre in Britain," she says. '"We felt so proud that we can have a repertory company of 30 players rotating players through the season. It was very, very exciting. And we had, you know, voice lessons, we had fencing lessons. We were going to become the great company. And guess what happened? Rockefeller's priorities changed.'
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
A landscape transformed: As it responds to cuts in federal programs, the arts community reels
NEW YORK (AP) — Poet Marie Howe, one of this year's winners of the Pulitzer Prize, says being a writer is often less a career than a vocation. You rely on teaching and other outside work and seek support from foundations or from a government agency, like the National Endowment for the Arts. 'Everybody applies for an NEA grant, year after after year, and if you get it, it's like wow — it's huge," says Howe, a Pulitzer winner for 'New and Selected Poems' and a former NEA creative writing fellow. 'It's not just the money. It's also deep encouragement. I just felt so grateful. It made a big, big difference. It gives you courage. It says to you, 'Go on, keep doing it.'' Behind so many award-winning careers, high-profile productions, beloved institutions and in-depth research projects there is often a quieter story of early support from the government — the grants from the NEA or National Endowment for the Humanities that enable a writer to complete a book, a community theater to stage a play, a scholar to access archival documents or a museum to organize an exhibit. For decades, there has been a nationwide artistic and cultural infrastructure receiving bipartisan support, including through the first administration of Donald Trump. Now that is changing — and drastically. The new administration is taking a hard line Since returning to office in January, the president has alleged that federal agencies and institutions such as the NEA, NEH, PBS, the Kennedy Center and the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) were advancing a 'woke agenda' that undermined traditional values. Trump has ousted leaders, cut or eliminated programs and dramatically shifted priorities: At the same time the NEH and NEA were forcing out staff members and canceling grants, they announced a multimillion-dollar initiative to support statues for Trump's proposed "National Garden of American Heroes,' from George Washington to Shirley Temple. 'All future awards will, among other things, be merit-based, awarded to projects that do not promote extreme ideologies based upon race or gender, and that help to instill an understanding of the founding principles and ideals that make America an exceptional country," reads a statement on the NEH website. Individuals and organizations across the country, and across virtually every art form, now find themselves without money they had budgeted for or even spent, anticipating they would be reimbursed. Electric Literature, McSweeney's and n+1 are among dozens of literary publications that received notices their grants have been rescinded. Philadelphia's Rosenbach Museum & Library had to halt a project to create an online catalog after losing a near-$250,000 grant from the IMLS. The Stuttering Association for the Young, which manages a summer music camp, has a $35,000 gap. 'Our fundraising allows kids to attend our summer camp at a greatly reduced cost so the lost funds make it harder to fulfill that commitment," says the association's director, Russell Krumnow, who added that 'we planned our programming and made decisions with those funds in mind.' 'Government money ought to be consistent. It ought to be reliable,' says Talia Corren, co-executive director of the New York-based Alliance of Resident Theatres, which assists hundreds of nonprofit theater companies. 'You need to make decisions based on that money.' Institutions have a history of more than a half century The NEA, NEH and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting were among the institutions established 60 years ago, during the height of President Lyndon Johnson's 'Great Society' domestic programs. At various times, they have faced criticism for supporting provocative artists, such as photographer Robert Mapplethorpe in the 1980s. But they have endured, in part, because of their perceived economic benefits, distributed through as many congressional districts as possible. Arts advocates contend that, like other forms of federal aid, the importance of an NEA or NEH grant isn't just the initial money, but the 'ripple' or 'mutliplier' effect. Government backing often carries the kind of prestige that makes a given organization more desirable to private donors. The millions of dollars channeled through state arts and humanities councils in turn support local projects. Funding for a theater production helps generate jobs for the cast and crew, brings in business for neighboring restaurants and bars and parking garages and spending money for the babysitter hired by parents having a night out. Actor Jane Alexander was just beginning her stage career when the endowment helped fund the 1967 Arena Stage production of Howard Sackler's drama about boxer Jack Johnson, 'The Great White Hope," which starred Alexander and James Earl Jones and eventually won the Pulitzer Prize. Alexander, who headed the NEA in the 1990s, remembered how Arena co-founder Zelda Fichandler worried that the endowment might hurt business by supporting other theaters in Washington. 'And I remember my late husband (Robert Alexander) who was artistic director of the Living Stage Theatre Company at the time, saying to her, 'No, it doesn't work that way. A rising tide floats all boats," she says. In the short term, organizations are seeking donations from the general public and philanthropists are attempting to fill in fiscal holes. The Mellon Foundation recently announced an 'emergency' $15 million fund for state humanities councils. At the Portland Playhouse in Oregon, artistic director Brian Weaver says that donors stepped in after the theater lost a $25,000 NEA grant just a day before they were to open a production of 'Joe Turner's Come and Gone,' But Weaver and others say private fundraising alone isn't a long-term solution, if only because individuals incur 'donor fatigue' and philanthropists change their minds. Jane Alexander remembers when the Arena theater in Washington founded a repertory company, supported in part by the Rockefeller Foundation. 'It was like the National Theatre in Britain," she says. '"We felt so proud that we can have a repertory company of 30 players rotating players through the season. It was very, very exciting. And we had, you know, voice lessons, we had fencing lessons. We were going to become the great company. And guess what happened? Rockefeller's priorities changed.'
