By: Shanti Hubbard-Bennett, age 15
U.S. President Donald Trump is censoring artists by limiting their First Amendment rights to freedom of speech. Museum and arts censorship goes against everything this country has stood for since it was founded.
In the MAGA era, institutions like the Smithsonian museums in Washington, D.C., are getting censored because Trump says their exhibits are “too woke,” even though artists are just sharing their own opinions, cultures, and lived experiences, according to NPR. “This is not just a concern for select institutions,” the American Association of Museums said in an Aug. 15 statement to NPR. “These pressures can create a chilling effect across the entire museum sector. Freedom of thought and expression are foundational American values, and museums uphold them by creating spaces where people can engage with history, science, art, and culture in ways that are honest, fact-based, and thought-provoking.”
In New York, the Whitney Museum paused its well-known Independent Study Program for the 2025-2026 year, after canceling a planned performance that talked about the war and humanitarian crisis in Gaza, reports The Art Newspaper. The artists said in a letter that the museum claimed the piece was “inflammatory.” The letter puts the decision in the context of a “broader political climate of fear and intimidation in the United States,” following recent “crackdowns on free expression, protest, and speech by artists and scholars supporting Palestine,” according to The Art Newspaper. Trump is creating this kind of fear for artists and is making them fear that they won’t be able to express themselves. This is a tactic of intimidation.
For museums as established as the Whitney and the Smithsonian to shut down exhibitions because they are “controversial” sends a much bigger message. It says that certain viewpoints, especially those that challenge political power, are being treated as off-limits. And the impact doesn’t stop at one canceled performance—it spreads, making other artists think twice about speaking out or pushing creative boundaries. This is exactly how cultural spaces lose their freedom bit by bit. When major museums withdraw or shut down politically charged work, it signals that some viewpoints are institutionally unacceptable, and discourages similar work in the future.
Artists have rights just like every other person who lives in America, and those rights shouldn’t just disappear because someone in power doesn’t like what they’re saying. If we don’t stand up for free speech now, things could slide in a seriously scary direction. It could get to the point where you can’t share any opinion unless it matches whatever the president wants to hear, and once we let it get that far, getting our voices back won’t be easy. That’s why speaking up now matters so much.
