Donald Trump is censoring artists like me.
Patricia is a visual artist and a distinguished professor of art. In 2002, she created the first marriage equality monument in the world, “Memorial to a Marriage.” The piece has been displayed in museums across the world and in the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC, one of the great honors of her career.
Donald Trump’s executive order targeting the Smithsonian changed all that. It classified art that the president doesn’t approve of as un-American and woke, and vowed to re-cast the institution in his image. Not only was this a shot across the bow at the Smithsonian; as Patricia notes, it sent the message to every other art institution in America: Don’t exhibit anything that might offend Trump.
Since then, Patricia has had two solo museum shows for her work cancelled without explanation. She says this kind of censorship is particularly insidious because it doesn’t just silence the artist—it sends a broader chilling effect across the whole art community, stifling free expression and inquiry. A democracy can’t flourish if the regime is able to censor artists with impunity.