Among the rapid dismantling by the Trump Administration of the federal bureaucracy and the open defying of traditional checks and balances among the national government’s three main branches, scores of large questions arise. Among them, if not among the most glaring, is the nevertheless unsettling question: What is the fate of the nation’s large public art collection?

Philip Kennicott, The Washington Post’s Pulitzer-winning art and architecture critic, addresses it squarely in a March 12 column, What it would mean to abandon the government’s huge art collection.

“Art has a way of disappearing,” Kennicott declares. “Paintings are fragile, photographs fade, and even work made from durable stone and metal requires maintenance and care. But sometimes it just vanishes: off walls, out of attics, carelessly misplaced, accidentally destroyed or purloined from museums, office buildings and warehouses.”

When it vanishes, by accident or carelessness or design, it creates a hole in the culture — a loss of history, nuance, expression, knowledge and learning. Who are we? Who were we? How have our aspirations and beliefs and judgments of what is important changed or stayed the same?

Such matters are contained and passed along in the nation’s large public art collection, traditionally maintained and often lent out to federal centers and cultural organizations throught the country by the nation’s General Services Administration.

“Preserving that collection, more than 26,000 works including many commissioned during the darkest days of the Depression, will become infinitely more difficult and perhaps impossible if the Trump administration follows through on plans to terminate more than half of the dozens of staff, spread throughout the country, who maintain and protect the nation’s art,” Kennicott writes.

He adds: “The GSA’s art collection is also in danger because of a plan to put up for sale hundreds of buildings in its property portfolio, millions of square feet of office space owned by the American people, in what could be a devastating saturation of the real estate market from coast to coast. Many of those buildings contain art, sometimes integral to their architecture, including murals, sculpture and installation pieces.

“… As former GSA official Elliot Doomes told The Post last week, there is bipartisan agreement that the government needs to improve its property management. But by all appearances this isn’t a thoughtful, considered downsizing or rightsizing operation, nor does it have anything to do with government efficiency. This is a reckless, poorly managed, entirely ill-conceived effort to simply unload buildings, and possibly the art along with them. Even if the art isn’t sold, if no one is watching it, it is at risk of plunder.”

It’s difficult to say at this point what the effect may or may not be in Oregon, where art from the national collection can be seen in places ranging from the Oregon Historical Society to the Portland Art Museum to post offices and schools across the state — and where public art has been lost or misplaced before, but never on the scale of what might yet occur.

Despite the federal building shutdowns and dwindling interest in “old things,” federally owned artworks continue in many places to be cared for, and in some cases, recovered after having been abandoned. In a March 13, 2025 release headlined GSA Locates New Deal Era Artwork in Portland, the General Service Administration’s Office of the Inspector General and Fine Arts Program announced that 48 New Deal artworks that had gone astray have been found and recovered.

“OIG special agents learned that 38 Works Progress Administration (WPA) lithographs were being maintained by a Portland-based curator who feared the artwork would be lost or destroyed,” the release announced. “One of the lithographs had been found in a school dumpster in 2008 and turned over to the curator for repair. The remaining 37 lithographs had been neglected in a school basement prior to being handed over to the curator for conservation.

“While OIG special agents were visiting the Portland Public School district, they found 10 additional paintings bearing WPA and Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) markings. One painting had been given to the school district as a gift from a private donor. Upon inspection, the agents noticed a brass Federal Art Project label and a WPA sticker on the back of the painting.”

All of the artworks are now on loan to Portland Public Schools.

And what of the very large rest of this national treasure?

“The workers laid off by the GSA are intimately involved in the preservation of the nation’s art collection, documenting its presence in institutions around the country and overseeing its care and preservation,” Kennicott writes. “The regional office workers who bore the brunt of many of the layoffs are mandated to inspect these works every two years. But when that expertise walks out the door, the ability to be a reliable steward of our national art is greatly compromised, perhaps fatally.”

Oregon cultural tax credit nets $5.2 million

The Oregon Cultural Trust has announced it raised $5.2 million from the state’s Cultural Tax Program for the 2024 tax year. The total represents a 3.2 percent increase over the previous year, and arrives at a time when funding of nonprofit organizations is at peril at the federal level, and when both the state and many local budgets are strapped.

The money is available because of Oregon’s cultural tax program, which the state Legislature established in 2001 to help offset, at least in Oregon, a national gap in government support of arts and culture. The program allows taxpayers to donate money to any of about 1,600 cultural nonprofit groups and match that amount with a donation to the Cultural Trust. Come tax time the Trust donation is returned to taxpayers’ pockets as a dollar-for-dollar credit on taxes owed. Donations, in turn, finance the Trust’s awards to cultural organizations.

“In a time when arts and cultural organizations across the country are facing challenges, it’s inspiring to see our communities step up and invest in the creative heartbeat of our state,” Cultural Trust Chair Sean Andries said in a prepared statement. “The Cultural Tax Credit is an incredible tool that allows us to sustain and grow the vibrant arts, heritage and humanities that make Oregon unique.”

The $5.2 million total, the Trust said, represents 10,570 donations and 1,138 donors new to the Cultural Trust, plus $552,349 raised through Willamette Week’s annual Give!Guide. Grants to arts, heritage, and humanities groups made possible by the Cultural Tax Program will be announced in late summer.

Broadway in Portland’s 2025-26 season

Broadway in Portland has announced a 10-show 2025-26 season of musicals at Keller Auditorium, kicking off with the quadruple Tony-winning Some Like It Hot Sept. 2-7 and including such perennial favorites as The Lion King, Les Misérables, The Wiz, Mamma Mia! and The Phantom of the Opera.

The season lineup:

Some Like It Hot, Sept. 2-7: Based on the classic movie comedy about musicians on the lam from the mob starring Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe, the stage adaptation won four Tony Awards and a Grammy for best musical theater album.

Disney’s The Lion King, Sept. 17-28: Adapted by Elton John and Tim Rice from the massively popular movie version, many of its extraordinary masks and puppets were designed and fabricated by Oregon’s Michael Curry Design, working with director Julie Taymor.

Shucked, Oct. 28-Nov. 2: The Tony-winning “corn-fed, corn-bred American musical”; a cheerful comedy evoking the joys of the nation’s heartland.

A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical, Jan. 6-11, 2026: Celebrating the music, life, and career of the pop-music phenomenon.

The Wiz, Feb. 3-8, 2026: The return of the highly entertaining soul, gospel, rock and funk adaptation of The Wizard of Oz, which began as a 1974 musical and was a huge success in its 1978 movie version featuring Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Nipsey Russell, Lena Horne, Richard Pryor and others.

The Notebook: The Musical, March 10-15, 2026: Based on Nicholas Sparks’ best-selling novel and its movie adaptation.

Les Misérables, March 31-April 5: The return of the massive musical hit based on Victor Hugo’s epic 19th century historical novel about the ex-convict Jean Valjean (who stole a loaf of bread to feed his starving sister) and his relentless pursuer, Inspector Javert.

The Phantom of the Opera, April 29-May 10, 2026: Andrew Lloyd Webber’s enduringly popular musical about a young soprano and a disfigured musical genius who lurks lovelorn in the depths of the Paris Opera House.

Mamma Mia!, June 2-7: Yet another oldie but goodie, this one based on the upbeat songs of the Swedish pop-musical hitmakers ABBA.

Back to the Future: The Musical, June 16-21, 2026: Yet another stage adaptation of an enormously popular movie, 1985’s sci-fi/comedy hit featuring Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, and a time-traveling DeLorean.

Meanwhile, several shows remain on the 2024-25 season: the current Hamilton, running through March 23 before moving to the Hult Center in Eugene; Life of Pi, April 8-13; Six, April 29-May 4; The Book of Mormon, May 27-June 1; MJ The Musical, the Michael Jackson show, July 15-20; and & Juliet, Aug. 5-10.

IFCC announces 23 artist awards

Friends of IFCC, the nonprofit group supporting the revitalizing Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center, has announced the awarding of grants to 23 Portland artists. Up to $12,000 plus work and event space and a year’s worth of collaboration possibilities is being given to each artist through the IFCC Artist Grant & Residency Program.

The artists, from music, dance, theater, photography, and other disciplines, are: Ambush, Danielle Barker, Domo Branch, Richard Brown, Charlie Brown III, Courtaney Collins, Licity Collins, Delphon Curtis Jr., Given Davis, Brendan Deiz, Bobby Fouther, Jacque Hammond, Elijah Hasan, Bridgette Hickey, Marcel Johansen, Katherine Mercado, Farnell Newton, Valerie Peterson, Jocelyn Rice, Lauren Steele, King Tokoli, Calvin Walker, and Damaris Webb.

IFCC was established in 1982 as a home for Black theater, art, history, and culture in North Portland, and flourished for many years. The city is in the process of developing plans to revive it as a center for Black culture. The grant and residency program is a collaboration among Friends of IFCC, Portland Parks & Recreation, the 1803 Fund, and the City of Portland’s Office of Arts & Culture.