Amy Sherald, the painter who canceled her exhibition “American Sublime” at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in July due to censorship issues, has broken her silence in a MSNBC article. Sherald canceled her September show after the museum considered removing her painting *Trans Forming Liberty* (2024), depicting model and performance artist Arewà Basit as a Black transgender Statue of Liberty. In her op-ed, Sherald explains that institutional fear shaped by political hostility toward trans lives played a role, and she cannot comply with a culture of censorship targeting vulnerable communities.
This matters because it highlights the escalating conflict between the Trump administration and the Smithsonian Institution over curatorial independence. The Smithsonian, which receives about two-thirds of its $1 billion annual budget from the federal government, has faced executive orders to eliminate “improper, divisive or anti-American ideology” and the resignation of National Portrait Gallery director Kim Sajet. Sherald’s case exemplifies how political pressure can directly impact museum programming, raising broader questions about artistic freedom, government censorship, and the role of museums in presenting complex national narratives.