The Arts at Risk

Given the current administration's simultaneous assaults on so many of the pillars of democracy, it would be easy to overlook the degree to which culture is being targeted. But compiling a list of President Trump's radical policy prescriptions-however partial-helps us to comprehend the scope and focus of this concerted, multi-pronged effort to control the American cultural landscape, one unprecedented since the McCarthy era. The blizzard of recent executive orders-defunding school libraries and state historical councils, seemingly with the goal of diminishing civic literacy; elevating historical protagonists and erasing others; policing movement across our national borders according to ideological criteria (to name just a few)-announces a battle over narrative: what is to be remembered, what is to be forgotten, what it means to be American. This effort to fundamentally transform American culture is one that, as the scholar Sarah Lewis puts it, has a "hue": It is no coincidence that many of the administration's orders target people of color, both historical figures and contemporary leaders, as well as the language of diversity. These cultural initiatives fill out what is left unsaid politically. So many of the administration's policies and directives employ coded, ambiguous, and/or misleading terms in such a way that what is intended is not said out loud. The language of "greatness" is in fact a call for the whitewashing of history and the reinforcement of structures of racial hierarchy and patriarchy. The political meaning of the January 20 executive order "Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness," for example, is made manifest in its directive to change the name of North America's tallest mountain, Denali (its traditional name, made official in 2015 in recognition of its significance in Alaskan native culture), back to Mount McKinley, honoring a president who had no connection to the peak. The undermining of cultural institutions and the corresponding diminishment of cultural possibility are of course attacks on free expression and intellectual inquiry. We can easily surmise the reason why the administration has targeted culture, science, and higher education all at once, as other autocratic regimes have done historically: They are the soil in which democracy grows, producing informed and freethinking citizens who can negotiate between perspectives and lend an active voice in their own governance. Hence the current campaign aimed at discrediting the idea of the "public"-public libraries and public media, public support for culture and science, public service and even the very notion of the public good. As we approach the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, we must recognize that the administration's tactics are not only illegal and immoral but also fundamentally anti-American. At the same time, we must ask ourselves: What kind of culture is necessary for democracy? How can we defend it? How can we reimagine it? -The Editors

Battle · Cognitive reframing · Culture of the United States · Directive · Ideology · Meaning (existential · Politics · State (computer science · The arts · Art Education and Development · Cultural Industries and Urban Development · Public Spaces through Art