Trump Dissolves Arts Committee Previously Restored by Biden
The Trump administration has quietly dissolved the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, part of a flurry of executive orders aimed at rolling back the previous administration’s policies on art, culture and historical commemoration.The move was part of President Trump’s first executive order, issued on Inauguration Day, that reversed more than two dozen “harmful executive orders and actions” taken by former President Joseph R.Biden Jr.That order has drawn attention for its rollback of diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the federal government, which has left federal museums and cultural organizations uncertain how to respond.
The dissolution of the arts committee, made without comment from the White House, has been little noticed.At some point, its website was taken down.Since it was established by President Ronald Reagan in 1982, the committee has brought together prominent artists, powerful allies of the president, academics and museum professionals to advise on cultural policy.
Members have included the singer Frank Sinatra; the cellist Yo-Yo Ma; Terry Semel, a former chairman of Warner Bros.; and Robert Menschel, a former Goldman Sachs partner.In the 1990s, it petitioned President Bill Clinton to restore funding for public arts education, to require high school students to have competency in a foreign language, and to expand tax incentives for cultural philanthropy.Under President Barack Obama, the committee developed Turnaround Arts, an experimental initiative to boost arts education in the nation’s lowest-performing schools.The committee was nonpartisan.
But during the first Trump administration, it inadvertently became a showcase for the mutual antagonism between Mr.Trump and what he has often derided as out-of-touch cultural elites.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.
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