DOGE Meeting With National Gallery of Art Sets Off Alarm Bells
The Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has set its sights on the National Gallery of Art (NGA) in Washington, DC, as the White House continues its escalation against federal arts and cultural institutions. In the months since Trump’s inauguration, the president has eviscerated diversity and inclusivity efforts, dismantled national grant funding initiatives for museums, libraries, and arts organizations, terminated dozens of federal workers, and redirected funds to bizarre nationalistic arts endeavors.
Members of DOGE met with museum leaders, including NGA Director Kaywin Feldman and General Counsel Luis Baquedano, last Thursday, April 17, to discuss the institution’s “legal status,” according to an email Feldman sent to staff that was obtained by Bloomberg CityLab.
It is unclear what “legal status” refers to, but the Trump administration has threatened to revoke tax-exempt status from organizations that do not comply with its federal policy agenda. Established by Congress in 1937 as a national museum, the NGA operates as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in partnership with the government.
The NGA’s meeting with DOGE could be the harbinger of impending layoffs or other cuts, as was the case for the grantmaking agency Institute of Museum and Library Services, which saw sweeping grant terminations and staff dismissals after reports of a “brief meeting between DOGE staff and IMLS leadership.”
DOGE representatives also visited the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) several times last month before employees were informed that Musk’s agency was seeking to slash up to 70% of the 180-person staff.
Neither a federal agency nor part of the distinct Smithsonian Institution, the National Gallery of Art receives a majority of funding through Congress, although it still relies on private donations to fund the institution’s acquisition efforts. In the 2024 fiscal year, Congress appropriated $209 million for the NGA, which went toward operational costs, including salaries and special exhibitions.
The museum is home to a collection of more than 150,000 paintings, sculptures, decorative arts, photographs, prints, and drawings. It is overseen by a nine-person board of trustees that has historically included government officials and leading cultural philanthropy donors, including current members Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and Ford Foundation President Darren Walker, who’s also the museum’s incoming president.
NGA spokesperson Christopher Abanavas confirmed to Hyperallergic that museum leadership met with DOGE representatives but declined to comment further. The White House has not responded to Hyperallergic’s inquiries.
“As a public-private partnership, we have worked with every administration since our inception and will continue to work with the Administration and Congress while we remain focused on fulfilling our mission to preserve and share artistic excellence with all Americans,” Abanavas told Hyperallergic. This statement also appears verbatim in Feldman’s email to staff last week.
The NGA has generally met the Trump administration’s executive orders and other requests, including hosting a fundraising dinner for the campaign’s inaugural committee prior to the president’s inauguration. The museum was also among the first of the major federally funded arts institutions to ditch diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives following President Trump’s January executive order designating such programs “illegal and immoral discrimination programs.”
The move was swiftly echoed by the Smithsonian Institution, which last month was also the subject of another executive order aimed at ridding the museum system of “race-centered ideology.” Last week, House democrats urged Vice President J.D. Vance to reject Trump’s mandate in a letter, calling attention to the Smithsonian’s long history of bipartisan support from Congress.
Hyperallergic has contacted the American Federation of Government Employees Local 1831, which represents staff at the NGA, for comment.
