Latest news with #Smithsonian
Business Journals
2 hours ago
- Business
- Business Journals
Smithsonian exec Stephanie Brinley to lead Zoo New England
From the Boston Business Journal. Zoo New England has found its next president and CEO. Stephanie Brinley, the current deputy director of Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, will take on the new role in September, the zoo said Tuesday. She will oversee Franklin Park Zoo in Boston and Stone Zoo in Stoneham. UNLOCK EVERY ARTICLE Get Started For Only $9 GAIN ACCESS TO EVERY LOCAL INSIGHT, LEAD AND MORE! Become A Member 'I am truly honored and excited to be selected as the next President and CEO of Zoo New England,' Brinley said in a statement. 'I'm inspired by the incredible work already underway to connect visitors with wildlife, sparking curiosity, joy and a lifelong respect for nature.' As Zoo New England's chief executive, Brinley will oversee the completion and opening of the African Experience at Franklin Park Zoo next spring, according to the organization. She will also plan for future capital projects, lead the implementation of its new strategic plan, and ensure that the organization's activities align with its mission of conservation. Last July, the organization announced the retirement of longtime president and CEO John Linehan, who worked at the organization for more than four decades and served as president and CEO for 23 years. Linehan remained in his role while Zoo New England's board of directors conducted a nearly year-long search, according to the organization, which led them to Brinley. Linehan will continue to work with the organization during the leadership transition. 'I look forward to building on this foundation established by John and the team,' Brinley said, 'supporting the staff, deepening community partnerships and creating even more memorable experiences across our Zoos. Prior to taking on her role at Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, Brinley served as the assistant director for business operations and technology at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. She is a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy, and she served in the Air Force for 12 years. 'Her passion for science and conservation, as well as her data-driven, pragmatic approach to leadership, makes her the right person to chart the organization's future,' said Colin Van Dyke, chair of the Zoo New England board of directors.
Politico
17 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Politico
How the National Portrait Gallery got tangled in MAGA politics
EYE OF THE BEHOLDER — Amy Sherald, the distinctive artist renowned for her stylized portraits of Black Americans like former first lady Michelle Obama, pulled her upcoming exhibition, 'American Sublime,' from the National Portrait Gallery last week, saying that the museum feared her painting of a trans woman posed like the Statue of Liberty could offend President Donald Trump. The museum maintains that it never suggested removing the painting, but rather that it pitched an accompanying video to 'contextualize the piece.' In any case, the show's D.C. run is over before it began. Sherald's withdrawal highlights the Trump administration's pressure campaign on the Smithsonian's various museums, following a March executive order scrutinizing 'improper ideology' in its displays and the recent ouster of the gallery's longtime director, whom Trump accused of supporting 'DEI' and attempted to fire — a decision the Smithsonian challenged, saying he lacked the authority to make it — before she announced her resignation. But it also underscores something that predates Trump, a tension at the heart of the Portrait Gallery's mission that has ensnared it in controversy since long before MAGA was a glimmer in the president's eye. On the one hand, it's an arts institution, ostensibly dedicated to freedom of expression, aesthetic innovation and elevating the country's artistic genius. On the other, it's a government organization beholden to the whims of politics, the sensibilities of elected officials and the tastes of voters, many of whom aren't exactly fans of cutting-edge art. For politicians, the provocations and ambiguities of the avant-garde can be a political liability — or a cudgel with which to batter the other side. It was 2010 when the Portrait Gallery walked face-first into one of the most notorious censorship scandals to hit the fine art world in recent American history. The brouhaha surrounded a 1980 video piece titled, A Fire in My Belly, by the late writer and artist David Wojnarowicz, a polemic and highly celebrated contemporary of East Village luminaries like Keith Haring, Nan Goldin and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Wojnarowicz died of AIDS at age 37 in 1992, but the piece appeared in a 2010 show that the Portrait Gallery called 'the first major museum exhibition to focus on sexual difference in the making of modern American portraiture,' drawing the ire of the Catholic League and House Republicans, who seized on an 11-second shot of ants crawling over a crucifix. For the conservative gay writer Andrew Sullivan, himself a Christian, there was no mistaking the work as blasphemous. 'To see a rejected Jesus left on the cross and on the ground to be covered by ants, is, in this context, clearly neither offensive nor heresy,' he wrote at the time. But to the Catholic League's Bill Donohue, it was 'hate speech,' and congressional Republicans like House Speaker John Boehner and Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor leapt at the whiff of culture war. They threatened to cut the gallery's federal funding, calling the video offensive to Christians and casting it as a misuse of taxpayer dollars — even though the gallery did not use public funds to stage the exhibition, which was privately funded. The secretary of the Smithsonian, G. Wayne Clough, unilaterally caved to the censorship demands — a decision that proved to be a lose-lose, inviting condemnation from free-speech advocates but failing to fully alleviate pressure from the right, which continued to advocate for funding cuts and the takedown of the entire exhibition. (Clough, who left the role in 2014, defended his choice to censor the show, saying it allowed the rest of the exhibit to stand.) The gallery's commissioner, James T. Bartlett, resigned in protest. And the Andy Warhol Foundation, which had backed the show with grant money, vowed to never support the gallery again — a pledge it upholds to this day. The censorship scandal followed debates from the late 1980s and early 1990s over the National Endowment for the Arts and its support of artists who explored queerness, sexuality or religious imagery. In 1989, Goldin staged a show in New York about the AIDS crisis that included in its catalogue an essay by Wojnarowicz excoriating religious and political leaders for fomenting homophobia and exacerbating the epidemic. In response, the NEA withdrew a grant it had awarded the exhibition. (That money was later partially restored, under the condition that it would not support the catalogue.) The American Family Association, a champion of the Christian right, cropped images of sex acts from Wojnarowicz's artworks into mailers that it circulated around the country with headlines like, 'Your tax dollars help pay for these 'works of art.'' Wojnarowicz won a lawsuit against the group in New York for violating his copyright and misrepresenting his work, though he was awarded only $1 in damages. The backlash to the NEA funding of Wojnarowicz's art was part of a broader uproar over the sexually explicit photography of Robert Mapplethorpe and the accusations of blasphemy levied against Andres Serrano's 'Piss Christ,' a darkly enigmatic photograph of a crucifix submerged in the artist's urine. All of which presaged the gallery's apparent skittishness over Sherald's portrait of a Black, transgender Statue of Liberty today. But the latest dustup also breaches into new censorious territory. The political arguments over artists in the past, while often explicitly homophobic, largely focused on the supposed obscenity or blasphemy of their work — nudity, sex, religious iconography. However disingenuous, these criticisms appealed to deeply held discomfort in straight society surrounding depictions of sex — and particularly gay sex — as well as Christian symbols. Opposition to Sherald's painting, however, dispenses with these critiques altogether. You'll find no genitalia or supposedly profaned crosses in the portrait. It is a decidedly G-rated image. Were it not for the hackneyed title, Trans Forming Liberty, you could easily miss the transness of its subject entirely. Frankly, it's a boring painting — obvious, even ham-fisted in its invocation of a civic image, perhaps, but nothing remotely approaching the frankness or transgression of Wojnarowicz, Mapplethorpe and Serrano. Nonetheless, the White House celebrated the cancellation, with one official telling The New York Times it was a 'principled and necessary step.' In a sense, then, Sherald gave Trump exactly what he wanted, complying with a demand before it came — just as law firms and media organizations that bent the knee to the administration have been accused of 'anticipatory compliance.' The Trump administration has been successful in erasing trans people from government websites and documents. Now, apparently, it's winning in galleries, too. Ironically, that may increase the visibility of the portrait, which most of the country would not have seen if it hadn't splashed onto their phones along with the headlines. That was certainly the case for Wojnarowicz. After the gallery pulled his video, the media attention posthumously catapulted his name beyond the niche world of fine art and back into the political mainstream. The Museum of Modern Art and the New Museum, among others, screened the censored video. And in 2018, the Whitney staged a landmark retrospective of his work called History Keeps Me Awake at Night that effectively canonized Wojnarowicz, who has surged in popularity among young queer creatives. 'The most powerful moments of the exhibition have a moral grandeur rare in contemporary art,' wrote Philip Kennicott of the retrospective in the Washington Post, 'as it becomes clear that not only was Wojnarowicz fully cognizant of the tools being used against him, he made the onslaught the subject of his work.' Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@ Or contact tonight's author at dylonjones@ or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @tdylon_jones. What'd I Miss? — Trump: Epstein 'stole' young woman from Mar-a-Lago spa: President Donald Trump said today that Jeffrey Epstein 'stole' young women from his Mar-a-Lago beach club spa decades ago. 'People were taken out of the spa, hired by him. In other words, gone,' Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. 'When I heard about it, I told him, I said, listen, we don't want you taking our people, whether it's spa or not spa … And he was fine. And not too long after he did it again. And I said outta here.' The anecdote comes a day after Trump said that he severed ties with the disgraced financier and child sex offender, who died in prison by suicide six years ago, after 'he stole people who worked for me.' — Trump administration moves to repeal climate 'holy grail': The Environmental Protection Agency proposed repealing the federal government's bedrock scientific declaration on the dangers of greenhouse gases — in a legally risky move by President Donald Trump's administration to undo regulations on fossil fuels. The so-called endangerment finding, which the Obama administration issued in 2009, laid out a comprehensive case for how human emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases threaten human health and welfare. Rescinding it undermines the legal basis for most EPA climate rules, including limits on power plant and vehicle emissions. The elimination of the finding is sure to draw legal challenges from blue states and environmental groups, who note that decades of scientific research backs up the conclusion that planet-warming pollution from the use of oil, natural gas and coal are altering the Earth's climate. — Trump fired court-appointed Habba replacement, records show: President Donald Trump moved to fire the career federal prosecutor New Jersey judges picked to be acting U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, according to court records filed today. The Department of Justice revealed Trump's decision in an email filed with a federal judge in Pennsylvania, who is preparing to weigh in on an escalating fight between the Trump administration and the federal bench in New Jersey. The filing underscores Trump's direct involvement in a bid to keep his former personal attorney, Alina Habba, as New Jersey's top federal prosecutor, despite the expiration last week of her 120-day tenure as interim U.S. attorney and New Jersey judges selecting prosecutor Desiree Leigh Grace to serve in Habba's place. — Trump says 10-day deadline for Russia to broker ceasefire in Ukraine starts today: President Donald Trump said today that Russia must agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine by Aug. 8 or risk sanctions, accelerating a deadline that was previously up in the air. Trump in July set a 50-day deadline for the agreement with Ukraine, threatening tariffs if a deal was not made. On Monday, during his meeting with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, he said he was shortening this deadline to '10 or 12 days.' Aboard Air Force One on today, on his way back to the United States, Trump said the clock was ticking and it was '10 days from today.' 'And then we're going to put on tariffs,' Trump added, 'and I don't know if it's going to affect Russia, because he wants to, obviously, probably keep the war going.' — Senate Banking advances first large, bipartisan housing package in a decade: The Senate Banking Committee unanimously advanced landmark housing legislation today, marking a rare area of overwhelming bipartisanship in a divided Congress. The Renewing Opportunity in the American Dream to Housing Act of 2025, sponsored by Chair Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and ranking member Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), includes proposals that aim to expand and preserve the housing supply, improve housing affordability and access, advance accountability and fiscal responsibility, and improve oversight and program integrity. — Democrats sue over efforts to defund Planned Parenthood: California Attorney General Rob Bonta and 22 other Democratic attorneys general and governors are suing the Trump administration over a bid to strip federal funds from Planned Parenthood clinics. 'We need to just call it what it is: punishment for Planned Parenthood's constitutionally protected advocacy for abortion,' Bonta said at a press conference Tuesday morning. Congressional Republicans have wanted to cut funding to Planned Parenthood since Trump's first term. If they're successful, about 200 of the 600 clinics the nonprofit operates around the country could close, with over half of them in California. AROUND THE WORLD U.K. TO RECOGNIZE PALESTINIAN STATE — Keir Starmer has committed to recognizing a Palestinian state ahead of September's United Nations General Assembly, Downing Street announced today. The British prime minister told a special meeting of his Cabinet that 'now was the right time to move this position forward' because of the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza and the diminishing prospects of a peace process. He said that the U.K. will recognize a Palestinian state in September unless the Israeli government takes 'substantive steps' to end the crisis in Gaza and commits to a long-term peace process that delivers a two-state solution. Israel swiftly dismissed the move as a 'reward for Hamas.' EU CONSIDERS PENALTIES — European Union countries are moving toward agreeing a plan to punish Israel over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza but stopped short of triggering the penalty at a meeting in Brussels today. The European Commission has proposed partially suspending Israel's association agreement with the EU, to curtail the country's access to a key research and development program for start-ups. The plan comes in response to a Commission review that found Israel was in breach of its human-rights obligations under the terms of the deal. EU countries' ambassadors discussed the Commission's proposal at a meeting today but there was no qualified majority in favor of pressing ahead with it now, according to three diplomats speaking to POLITICO on condition of anonymity because the matter is sensitive. Nightly Number RADAR SWEEP DRESSING THE PART — If you go to a Pitbull concert these days, you'll likely find yourself in a sea of fans wearing bald caps, suits and fake goatees, mimicking the artist's signature look. Fans dressing up like musicians — parkas for Oasis, cowboy boots and hats for Beyoncé, feather boas for Harry Styles — has become a key part of the concert-going experience since the pandemic. Expense and hard to get concert tickets have turned shows into an occasion to go all out, and some artists have used fans' desire to dress like them to build community and expand their reach with fashion and brand deals. The Economist reports on this new era in concert going. Parting Image Jacqueline Munis contributed to this newsletter. Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here.
Time of India
2 days ago
- Time of India
Their museum, my sighs
When Clive of India was recently spotted in Wales Family holidays are invariably hard work for those with an archaeologist or historian in the family. There's no basking in the sun with a book and a Margarita, no lie-in or breakfast in bed. The days follow a regular 9-5 routine. Endless aisles of Louvre are navigated, shoes are worn out at Smithsonian, and the mummies of British Museum are practically on first-name terms. There's always an exception to everything – something that breaks the pattern. A recent visit to Powis Castle in Wales to see the Clive Collection was one such outlier. Yes, Robert Clive – or Clive of India – who laid the foundation of the British East India Company's reign of Bengal. When he left India, it was with a cool personal fortune of £31mn (today's value), amassed at immeasurable human cost. That was just the cash and doesn't include the priceless artefacts that visitors are privileged to see. An impressive collection of Mughal-era artefacts is on display at Powis. It assembles items amassed by two generations of the Clive family: his son Edward served as the governor of Madras. It's also a reminder of the stealth, guile and deceit of East India Company. But that is history and one shouldn't quarrel with history. The most stunning display is one of the finials detached from the throne of Tipu Sultan of Mysore – a dazzlingly well-made tiger-head in solid gold, studded with diamonds, rubies and emeralds. Other objects that stand out include the ornately carved palanquin of Siraj ud-Daulah, the last Nawab of Bengal, and the elegant chintz cotton tent that Tipu used during his battles. The multitude of exquisite pieces, both on display and in storage, outnumbers any collection in national museums across South Asia. Each object was examined with an intensity the visitors didn't know they possessed. It was as if their own history lay bare among the ivory-hilted daggers and swords, curved gold-brocaded shoes, and elaborate paintings. The experience was like peering into a time gone by – an epoch otherwise encountered only in school textbooks and dry, one-dimensional history lessons. The affinity they felt towards the objects was difficult to make sense of – like trying to remember the details of a vivid but elusive dream. Nevertheless, standing among Clive's loot that morning, they heard the echo of battle cries, the neigh of horses and the stomping of hooves. The Indian visitors left Powis with the spectre of Robert Clive trailing behind them. Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Disclaimer Views expressed above are the author's own.
Axios
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Axios
Big Tex's boots head to D.C.
The rest of the country will soon learn why Big Tex's boots are a big deal. Driving the news: The size 96 boots are on the road to Washington, D.C., where they will be displayed in a Smithsonian exhibit about state fairs. Why it matters: Big Tex's boots rarely leave the state. They last traveled to Minneapolis in 1953, for a national Jaycees convention. Fun fact: Big Tex has multiple pairs of boots. The pair heading to D.C. are old, a spokesperson for the State Fair of Texas tells Axios. He's worn his current pair of boots since 2023, which feature an Irving resident's art. Flashback: Big Tex debuted at the 1952 State Fair, wearing size 70 boots and a 75-gallon hat. In October 2012, an electrical short in his boot caused a fire that stripped the cowboy down to his metal frame. Big Tex returned to the fair in 2013, wearing new 12 feet tall, 900-pound boots that were replicas of Big Tex's original boots from 1949. The latest: The boots designated for display are scheduled to arrive in D.C. on Aug. 1 for the Smithsonian American Art Museum's exhibit titled " State Fairs: Growing American Craft." The exhibit will share how artists have shaped fairs across the country. The Iowa State Fair's life-size butter cow and 700 jars of preserved fruits and vegetables will also be on display. The exhibit opens Aug. 22 and will close September 2026.
New York Times
3 days ago
- Politics
- New York Times
In Smithsonian Role, John Roberts Encounters History, Pandas and Trump
On June 9, the leadership of the Smithsonian gathered for a quarterly, but hardly routine, meeting behind closed doors. President Trump had already called out the Smithsonian for being part of a 'concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our nation's history' and announced he was firing the head of its National Portrait Gallery. Now the Smithsonian's board planned to discuss a response — a resolution carefully calibrated to avoid a confrontation with the president. The resolution would reinforce that only the Smithsonian had the power to fire its museum leader, but would also order a full review of Smithsonian content for bias. After the resolution had been introduced, Representative Carlos Gimenez of Florida, a Republican board member, interrupted, proposing instead that the board fire the gallery director, as Mr. Trump had sought. His effort was quickly shut down by the Smithsonian's chancellor — the chief justice of the Supreme Court, John G. Roberts Jr. 'We already have a motion on the floor,' Chief Justice Roberts said, according to three people with knowledge of the proceedings. The original resolution succeeded. The meeting quickly moved on. If the moment was unusually tense for a gathering of a museum board, the intervention by the chief justice, a committed parliamentarian, was not. As chancellor, he is known to preside over meetings with a strict focus on rules and procedures, assiduously avoiding partisan debates — a demeanor that aligns with his reputation as an institutionalist and incrementalist jurist. Since 1851, the chief justice of the Supreme Court has served as chancellor of the Smithsonian — a role that involves running the board meetings but also includes perks like getting an early look at the National Zoo's newborn pandas. For Chief Justice Roberts, though, the role recently has placed him in an unenviable position — helping to lead an institution in the crosshairs of President Trump. Mr. Trump's return to the White House has brought a flurry of policy changes — ending birthright citizenship, slashing federal agencies and ending protections for hundreds of thousands of immigrants. As lower court judges blocked many of the policies, lawyers for Mr. Trump filed emergency petitions with the Supreme Court, asking the justices to weigh in. So far — at least on temporary emergency orders — the justices have handed Mr. Trump a string of victories, clearing the way for many of his proposals. Chief Justice Roberts's role as chancellor may never bring him into a direct confrontation with the president, but his leadership post offers a window into the delicate, potentially fraught dance between a president and a powerful jurist who is, by all accounts, smitten with the Smithsonian. 'All of a sudden it becomes a political battleground and I think that's disorienting for a lot of people, but if you're the chief justice it's got to be challenging for a lot of reasons,' said Jeremy Fogel, a retired federal judge who worked closely with the chief justice as director of the judiciary's educational and research center. 'I think he's well aware of the awkwardness.' A Longstanding Leadership Role The chief justice's guiding role at the Smithsonian goes back nearly as far as the institution itself. The Smithsonian, the world's largest museum, education and research complex, was created by Congress in 1846 after a British chemist and mineralogist left his fortune to create 'an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men' in the U.S. capital. Congress, which provides the lion's share of the Smithsonian's budget, turned over the responsibility for running the institution to a 17-member board, known as the Board of Regents, that includes the chief justice, the vice president, six members of Congress and nine citizens. At first, the vice president had served as chancellor, but in 1851, the role was taken over by then-Chief Justice Roger B. Taney — best known for writing the infamous Dred Scott decision that upheld slavery and fueled the Civil War. The chancellor position is largely ceremonial, and there is typically little overlap between the court and the institution aside from when the Smithsonian has featured exhibitions on topics that came before the court. When William H. Rehnquist was chief justice, the National Museum of American History presented an exhibit on the landmark school desegregation case of Brown v. Board of Education and he took the entire court to see it. But Chief Justice Roberts, who declined to comment on his Smithsonian position, is not the first leader of the court to be thrust into controversies over the institution's collections and place in American life. During the Civil War, the Board of Regents, led by Justice Taney, faced controversy over the museum's refusal to allow an abolitionist lecture series to use the Smithsonian auditorium, a cavernous space inside the famed castle-like building on the National Mall. The museum eventually agreed to host the series, but blocked Frederick Douglass, the leading African American abolitionist, from speaking. The Smithsonian's secretary, Lonnie G. Bunch III, who is the institution's chief executive and its first Black leader, reflected on the controversy at his 2019 installation ceremony. 'Today we are here speaking in a place as an African-American, where Frederick Douglass could not speak, but we are a different institution,' Mr. Bunch told those gathered, including Chief Justice Roberts. 'A Great Side Gig' When Chief Justice Roberts, a history buff, joined the high court in 2005, nominated by President George W. Bush, he seemed a natural fit for the Smithsonian. In speeches, the chief justice often tells an anecdote about how he had wanted to become a historian, but changed his mind after a taxi driver told him that he, too, had been a history major at Harvard. Leaders of the Smithsonian have praised Chief Justice Roberts for his steady leadership. 'He is really in control,' said David M. Rubenstein, the co-founder of the Carlyle Group private equity firm and a former Regent, during remarks in 2019. 'There are no 5-to-4 votes. Everything is unanimous. When the chief says this is what he wants done, we recognize that he has the ultimate authority.' Mr. Rubenstein added that the chief justice took his responsibilities 'very seriously,' and that 'he comes to every single meeting he's supposed to, runs the meeting, and could not be a better chancellor.' In public remarks, Chief Justice Roberts has appeared to relish the role and the perks that come with it, calling the post at one point a 'nice distraction.' In one speech, he said he found it 'liberating' when other board members didn't expect him to be an expert in the Smithsonian's sometimes arcane matters. 'It's also very valuable, you know, when a panda is born — because you get to go see it right away,' he added. At another appearance in 2022, the chief justice called his position at the Smithsonian a 'historical accident,' adding that it had 'resulted in some wonderful moments' for him. He described the excitement of touching the robes of the first chief justice, John Jay. 'The curator was not looking at the time, because you are not supposed to do that,' he joked. He cajoled the Smithsonian into loaning the court Louis Armstrong's trumpet so that the famed trumpeter Wynton Marsalis could play it at a court ceremony. 'The curator again was not too keen on the idea, but we got the trumpet for him, and it was such a joy to watch him play and to think of the history behind it,' Chief Justice Roberts said, adding that his role as chancellor was 'a great 'side-gig,' and I'm happy to have it.' When the Supreme Court itself becomes a focus of the Smithsonian's attention, the overlap in the chief justice's roles can become more awkward. In 2016, for example, when the National Museum of African American History and Culture opened to fanfare, Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first Black man to serve on the court, was featured in an exhibit. But Justice Clarence Thomas, the court's second Black jurist, was only mentioned in a display that reported Anita Hill's accusations that he had sexually harassed her. Several conservative lawmakers accused the Smithsonian of bias. Justice Roberts never commented publicly on the controversy, and it is unclear if he played a role in easing tensions. The Board of Regents discussed the matter at a January 2017 meeting, where they were told the museum had arranged for curators to speak with members of Congress and their staffs, and that senior Smithsonian staff had met with lawmakers. But the meeting minutes show that the chief justice did not come to the meeting until later in the day, per usual. Though it left up the Hill display, the museum later in 2017 quietly added a display that recognized Justice Thomas in the exhibit that featured Justice Marshall. In the display, Justice Thomas, who has denied Ms. Hill's account, was pictured as a college student and on the cover of Jet Magazine. A President With a Smithsonian Agenda An incident shortly after Mr. Trump's first election in 2016 helped to fuel the White House's recent interest in the leadership of the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery. Julian Raven, an artist and ardent Trump supporter, asked the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery to display his 2015 acrylic painting of Mr. Trump — 'Unafraid and Unashamed,' which showed Mr. Trump next to a rising sun with a bald eagle — during the inauguration. After the museum refused to exhibit his portrait, Mr. Raven sued. He focused in particular on Kim Sajet, the head of the gallery and the first woman to run it, accusing her of political bias against Mr. Trump. Federal District Judge Trevor N. McFadden, a Trump appointee, appeared sympathetic to Mr. Raven, who represented himself. The judge noted in his 2018 ruling that the regents include members of the executive, legislative and judicial branches, and compared the governance model to Cerberus, the monstrous, three-headed dog from Greek mythology who guards the gates of the underworld. But the judge ultimately dismissed the lawsuit. 'Mr. Raven claims that the decision was motivated by political bias, violating his rights under the First and Fifth Amendments,' Judge McFadden wrote. 'He may be right about the motivation, but he is wrong about the law.' In November 2019, Mr. Raven asked the Supreme Court to take his case. About two months later, the justices rejected the matter with a notation that the chief justice had recused himself. When Mr. Trump returned to office earlier this year, he released a flurry of executive orders, including one in March that focused on the Smithsonian, which relies heavily on federal funds. In the last decade, Mr. Trump declared, the country had 'witnessed a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our nation's history.' He argued that the Smithsonian had 'in recent years, come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology.' What is more, the White House communications director, Steven Cheung, directly criticized the leadership of Mr. Bunch, characterizing him as a liar, a failure and a partisan Democrat. In the midst of such rhetoric, several supporters of Mr. Bunch said they hoped that the chief justice's role at the heart of the Smithsonian's operations might temper or avert a full-fledged attack on the institution. Former Senator Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat and a longtime Regent who stepped down in 2023, said he viewed the chief justice as a man who believed in the Smithsonian's mission and independence. 'He is not anyone who is going to be pushed around by anybody,' he said. The White House did not respond to a request for comment for this article. Two months after the executive order, on May 30, Mr. Trump took to social media to announce that he had fired the museum director, Ms. Sajet, calling her 'a highly partisan person, and a strong supporter of DEI, which is totally inappropriate for her position.' It is not clear exactly what led to the announcement, but the White House released a long list of bullet-points that it said bolstered the president's claims. The list included donations to Democrats, the dispute over Mr. Raven's painting and language from a photo caption of Mr. Trump that included a reference to his impeachments. Mr. Trump had cited no legal authority for the firing, and the Smithsonian did not follow through on it. Ms. Sajet continued to report to work, though two weeks later she said she had voluntarily chosen to step down. In announcing her move, she seemed to reflect on her efforts to broaden the museum's perspective. 'Together,' she wrote, 'we have worked to tell a fuller, more American story — one that fosters connection, reflection and understanding.' Experts who are closely watching the Smithsonian say Ms. Sajet's resignation is unlikely to end the Trump administration's focus on the institution and the pressure it puts on the Board of Regents, with the chief justice at the fore. Only last week, the Trump administration expressed satisfaction when an artist, Amy Sherald, canceled a Smithsonian exhibition because she believed the institution, fearing the president, intended to remove her painting of a transgender Statue of Liberty. A White House official described the work as an effort 'to reinterpret one of our nation's most sacred symbols through a divisive and ideological lens.' In his executive order, Mr. Trump also asked Vice President JD Vance, a Smithsonian board member, to help ensure that as terms of regents expired, his administration was in a position to appoint citizen members aligned with his values. Representative Gimenez, a newly appointed regent who, like Mr. Vance, has promoted Mr. Trump's viewpoint to other Smithsonian leaders, did not respond to a request for comment. Not all of Mr. Trump's focus on the Smithsonian has been critical. He helped secure a deal with Saudi Arabia to bring two rare Arabian leopards to the National Zoo. The regents voted to approve that cat exhibit at its June 9 meeting, contingent on a $50 million gift from Saudi Arabia. Judge Fogel said he thought the chief justice viewed his Smithsonian role as 'mind-expanding and enjoyable,' and would be likely to recuse himself from any Smithsonian-related matter that might lead to litigation. Until recently, Judge Fogel said, 'I don't think it's been a place that's politically fraught in the sense that the administration is demanding that somebody be fired. That's happened to a lot of institutions — the Library of Congress, the Holocaust Museum, the Kennedy Center — places that have been above 'big P' politics. I think that puts people who saw it as a national service in an awkward position.' Samuel J. Redman, a history professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst who has written extensively about the Smithsonian, described this moment as unprecedented. 'We have never encountered a political assault — a direct frontal assault on the Smithsonian in this way,' he said. 'Therefore, the Board of Regents has become more important politically than it has in any previous moment.' That puts increased pressure on the chief justice, he said. 'The chief justice has a really interesting aspect in this new political moment in the U.S.,' he said. In the past, 'different justices have mostly been a figurehead — no longer.' Julie Tate and Kitty Bennett contributed research.
