“The Ultimate Fight ring had not yet been erected on the White House lawn.”
The first line of the survey I did for Art in America of museums’ America 250 shows already locks it into a slightly less bleak past, April, when this stupid UFC thing did not yet stand. And reading the piece for the first time in over a month, I gotta say, it goes downhill from there.
The headline is, “As the Country Turns 250, Why Won’t Its Museums Meet The Moment?” My editor’s working title for the piece was “Picturing Independence”; mine was “Museums Will Not Save Us.” It started bleak, and it got bleaker, but I am grateful for the opportunity and the insights and all the folks who helped along the way.
For reasons beyond me that perhaps relate to the article appearing first in print, the links I used for reference do not appear in the Art in America published version. So I’ve gathered them here, like bonus content for a DVD. [Ask your parents.]
“As the Country Turns 250, Why Won’t Its Museums Meet The Moment?” [art in america, summer 2026]
A YouTube video of the bonkers CG history of America projected on the Washington Monument beginning on New Years, 2026:
A Radio World report about Pledge America, a campaign by the FCC chairman Brendan Carr for media to “voluntarily” air more patriotic content, like John Philip Sousa marches. [This ended up getting cut]
The NYT report on the recuperation and reinstallation of slaveholder Caesar Rodney’s statue, deinstalled from Delaware, on Pennsylvania Avenue.
The Wired report of MAGA campaign event organizers who also organized J6 taking over all the contracts for America 250 from the non-/bi-partisan organizers.
The Handbasket report of the Trump 250 gold coin being pushed through the USMint, “as big as possible.” [This also got cut.]
Folk Nation at the Folk Art Museum
Gateways at the Rockwell Museum
MFA Boston’s Revolution Reimagined series of essays, objects, and reinstallations
Heather Cox Richardson’s speech about the Midnight Ride of Paul Revere and the unsung contributions of his fellow resistors.
Titus Kaphar and Junius Brutus Stearns two-artist show at the VMFA, and the VMFA’s Artmobile object tour
West to East, a video/online series at the National Gallery of Art
The Smithsonian American Art Museum survey of NEA photography surveys from the 1976 Bicentennial
Sonya Clark’s 2024 project at Declaration House, organized by Monument Lab
The Menil’s John Akomfrah show
The Barnes’s six Black American video artists show
NY Historical’s Democracy Matters [The OG No Kings at the NY Historical post is a look at artifacts of the 250th Anniversary, a narrative path not taken, but which I definitely endorse. Shoutout Sons of Liberty Bowl-meets-David Drake’s pot.]
Monuments at The Brick