Two years after months of social justice protests sparked by the death of George Floyd, the Portland Art Museum opened Black Artists of Oregon, celebrating Black artists in the Pacific Northwest. It was supported by the federal Institute for Museums and Library Services and several prestigious foundations.

Showcasing works from the 1800s to before the September 2023 opening, the exhibition was widely praised for highlighting the works of 67 Black artists in the region, most of whom had never been shown in the museum before.

“Curated by interdisciplinary artist Intisar Abioto, whose work is legacy in Portland’s Black community, Black Artists of Oregon revels in Abioto’s years of research, exploring the vast landscape of Black art in a state not known to be the most hospitable to Black people,” Willamette Week wrote at the time. ArtsWatch’s Laurel Reed Pavic stressed the exhibit’s ongoing pertinence: “[I]t is an exhibition of a community that is not only historical but also exists in the present and into the future,” she wrote.

The chances of that happening today are nonexistent. The Trump Administration moved quickly to dismantle the Institute for Museums and Library Services, the largest source of federal funding for museums, historical societies and libraries in the country. Now the only thing saving the IMLS is a preliminary injunction issued by a federal judge after Oregon and other states sued to prevent it and a number of other federal agencies from being shut down. (The impending Congressional vote on whether to end what has been the longest federal shutdown in history could change the situation yet again.)

And then President Donald Trump’s issued an Executive Order on March 31 that shows his contempt for museums teaching unfiltered history. Titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” it is aimed at the Smithsonian Institution‘s museums, education, and research centers, and is intended to “remove improper ideology from such properties” in order to project “a symbol of inspiration and American greatness.”

After that, on Aug. 7, Trump upped the ante by signing an Executive Order titled “Improving Oversight of Federal Grantmaking.” It explicitly prohibits funding for initiatives promoting “gender ideology,” “racial preferences,” or “anti-American values,” which is widely thought to ban portrayals of the displacement of Native Americans, the legacy of slavery, and anything else that portrays the history of the country in a negative light.

Such content-based restrictions are rippling through the arts world today, including in Portland. As recently as Oct. 29, the National Endowment for the Arts revoked a $30,000 grant for a planned exhibition at the Oregon Contemporary gallery in North Portland similar to the 2023 exhibit at the Portland Art Museum. It is the 2026 Artists’ Biennial, being curated by artist and writer TK Smith, Curator of the Arts of Africa and the African Diaspora at Emory University’s Michael C. Carlos Museum.

As first reported by Willamette Week, Oregon Contemporary Executive and Artistic Director Blake Shell said in a Nov. 6 letter to supporters that the NEA funding had been confirmed in August, but then canceled due to the names and biographical statements of the artists involved, including curator Smith.

The exhibition is still scheduled to open on April 1, but the nonprofit organization launched an emergency fundraising drive to make up the lost funds and cover other costs for the exhibition, which are expected to exceed $112,000, including $10,000 for additional security for the artists because of the controversy.

“There is little doubt the arts are under attack because of their power,” Shell told Oregon ArtsWatch.

In response to the fundraising drive, the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology on the Oregon Coast pledged up to $30,000 to bridge the funding gap.

“Art has always tested the boundaries of freedom. The 2026 Oregon Contemporary Artists’ Biennial invites reflection on how identity, justice, and our connection to place continue to shape the American story,” Sitka Executive Director Alison Dennis said when the pledge was announced on Nov. 11.

Although Oregon Contemporary is not a museum, its Artists’ Biennial began in 1949 as the Portland Biennial at the Portland Art Museum. Oregon Contemporary began the current version in 2010 and expanded it to include statewide artists in 2016.

Museums, historians oppose grant cuts, restrictions

Trump’s actions have sparked fierce pushbacks from historians and organizations representing museums and historical societies across the country. They include the Organization of American Historians, which denounced the “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” executive order.

“The directive seeks to limit the ways in which history is taught to the public and understood, especially by discouraging the incorporation of perspectives that might challenge simplified, one-dimensional, and biased views of American history,” the organization said. “The implications of this order are far-reaching and challenge the historian’s profession to its very core. It proposes to rewrite history to reflect a glorified narrative that downplays or disappears elements of America’s history — slavery, segregation, discrimination, division — while suppressing the voices of historically excluded groups.”

Closer to home, the Oregon Museums Association also came out against Trump’s pressure on museums.

“The Oregon Museums Association (OMA) stands in strong support of museum professionals who are facing censorship and pressure for the work they do to share history honestly and inclusively. Museum professionals are entrusted with preserving and interpreting stories that reflect the full diversity of our communities. When their work is restricted or silenced, entire histories risk being erased, and the public is denied the opportunity to learn from a wide range of voices and experiences,” their statement reads in part.

Since it was created by Congress in 1996, the Institute for Museums and Libraries has given hundreds of millions of dollars to hundreds of museums and libraries in the state. Major recipients include the Portland Art Museum, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, the High Desert Museum in Bend, the World Forestry Center, the Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria, the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon in Eugene, and many more smaller ones across the state. Although the State Library of Oregon has received its annual grant for the current fiscal year, the future of new IMLS grants to museums is unclear.

The High Desert Museum near Bend is one of numerous Oregon museums caught up in the whiplash. According to Executive Director Dana Whitelaw, the museum has lost $750,000 in federal funding since Trump took office: Five grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, two from Institute for Museums and Library Services, and a National Endowment for the Arts grant were terminated. Both IMLS grants were reinstated after the preliminary injunction was issued in the federal case, however, and the museum subsequently received a new IMLS grant and a new NEA grant. The five previous NEH grants and the one previous NEA grant, however, were not reinstated.

“As far as we know, that is the highest number of grants terminated to any museum in the country,” said Whitelaw, who also serves on the board of the American Alliance of Museums.

Whitelaw is unsure whether the museum will apply for new federal grants in the future. When the NEH canceled its grants, the agency said it is “repurposing its funding allocations in a new direction in furtherance of the President’s agenda.” Whitelaw worries that the purposes of future federal grants will not align with the museum’s values, which include inclusion and cultural humility.  

“Museums collect stories that are curated and made available in the future to teach about the past. Any gaps that are created will be felt future generations,” Whitelaw said.

Oregon museums push back

According to the Oregon Museums Association, there are approximately 200 museums and historical societies in the state. Some closed during the COVID-19 pandemic and many are now struggling because of the federal budget cuts.

“A large number of museums in Oregon and throughout the U.S. are run by small staff and sometimes all volunteer staff,” said OMA President Heather Christenbury, who is also the executive director of the Coos History Museum. “They rely on the availability of promised funds, such as grants from IMLS and NEH, which were terminated. Although some have been restored, the disruption continues to be felt as the future remains uncertain.”

Christenbury also decries Trump’s efforts to limit what museums can teach about history.

“Executive Order 14253 calls for the removal of inclusive history and censorship of hard truths. OMA, along with the American Association for State and Local History, the American Alliance of Museums, and many other museum organizations and professionals, argues that it is possible to be patriotic and also truthful about our history. The danger of removing or avoiding topics like racism, sexism, or colonialism is that it not only gives a skewed view of history, but it also excludes the experience of those who are already historically marginalized. Museums should have the right to share history with academic freedom without fear of government retaliation,” Christenbury said.

“The year 2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence — a milestone many museums nationwide have been preparing for over the past several years,” she added. Y”et, with the recent executive order directing ‘unifying’ revisions to federal exhibits at the Smithsonian and within the National Park Service, many institutions are now grappling with how to commemorate this moment while maintaining interpretive integrity. In Oregon, however, the approach remains clear. The State of Oregon and the Oregon Heritage Commission continue to champion inclusive, community-driven storytelling that reflects the state’s diverse histories and perspectives — principles shared and upheld by the Oregon Museums Association.”

Heritage and humanities leaders react to Trump’s actions

Oregon Historical Society Executive Director Kerry Tymchuk also laments Trump’s efforts to determine how history should be taught. Although the downtown Portland nonprofit does not currently receive any IMLS funding, Tymchuk said it would have second thoughts about applying for any grants in the future.

“Surveys repeatedly show that museums are at the top of the institutions that people trust. The surest way to lose that trust is to not tell true history. Our mission is to tell the true history of Oregon, the good, the bad and the ugly. And we are not going to change that,” Tymchuk said

As an example, Tymchuk notes OHS is currently hosting an exhibition titled The Yasui Family: An American Story. Presented in partnership with the Japanese American Museum of Oregon, it tells the story of the Yasui family, who were among millions of immigrants who came to America seeking new opportunities in the late 1800s and 1900s. After settling, they thrived despite racism and oppressive state and federal laws, but were among more than 111,000 descendants removed from their homes and sent to internment camps after Pearl Harbor.

That was not a shining moment in American history, but it would be wrong not to tell it,” Tymchuk said.

The exhibit was intentionally planned to run until Sept. 6, 2026, to coincide with OHS activities surrounding the 250^th anniversary of the founding of the country.

John Olbrantz, the Maribeth Collins Director of the Hallie Ford Museum of Art, paints Trump’s threat in dire terms. Although the museum is a department of Willamette University in Salem and does not rely on federal funding, he sees the administration’s attempts to reduce funding for the arts, culture, the humanities, museums, and libraries as an attack on democracy.

“These tactics are out of an autocratic playbook,” said Olbrantz, who has nearly 50 years of experience as museum director in different states. “In the 1930s, Adolph Hitler and the Nazis in Germany banned contemporary arts, closed theaters, galleries and museums, and took control of the press, film and national radio. People need to wake up to what is happening to the country.

“Everyone I’ve talked to in my field feels the same way. I doubt there’s a single museum director in the country who supports what Trump is doing.”

The Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education anticipated such problems. According to Executive Director Rebekah Sobel, the nonprofit organization in Northwest Portland chose not to submit a pending IMLS grant after Trump was elected to a second term. Since then, she’s seen friends and colleagues furloughed or even lose their jobs because of the administration’s budget cuts.

“It’s really sad and uniformed to cancel funding for the arts and humanities,” she said. “So much education takes place outside of schools. As the only Jewish museum and Holocaust studies center in the state, we serve teachers and students who study the Holocaust and genocide, which is required by state law.”

Sobel is also appalled by the content restrictions that Trump is trying to impose on museums and federal grants.

“They are ignorant, short-sighted and unfortunate,” she said. “The Western Canon leaves out a lot of voices and does not teach all of history. It is easy to see similarities to book bannings and burnings.”

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• Previous Oregon ArtsWatch stories about the federal funding cuts and content restrictions can be found at orartswatch.org/section/culture/funding.
• A previous Oregon ArtsWatch story on the Trump Administration’s efforts to dismantle the Institute of Museum and Library Services can be found here.
• Oregon Contemporary’s website is oregoncontemporary.org. The Artists’ Biennial’s emergency fundraising request can be found at donorbox.org/nea-revoked-we-need-you?preview=1762021166.
• Additional information on The Yasui Family: An American Story, presented by the Oregon Historical Society and Japanese American Museum of Oregon, can be found on the Historical Society’s website here.