!! @shannonmattern.bsky.social I see your name called in vain.

As the author of a forthcoming book on how Americans remember (and forget) George Washington's legacy, and a public historian who's worked on the 250th anniversary for almost a decade now, I have lots of thoughts about this. For now I'll just say to media friends interested in this story: hit me up.

Oh boy. A real doozy. If you haven't been following the @nehgov.bsky.social fiasco, this gift article will catch up up. If you have been following, prepare to have your rage stoked all over again. As one of the recipients of a cancelled grant, I have some thoughts /1 www.nytimes.com/2026/03/07/a...

Huge NYT article on the back story of those two weeks in March/April 2025 when DOGE illegally terminated hundreds of NEH grants. Gift link!! www.nytimes.com/2026/03/07/a...

These cancellations were so much more horrible for other people than for me personally, as my fellowship was coming to an end. Huge losses to hundreds of people and dozens of long term projects and ongoing relationships. The loss to humanities has been incalculable

This and a ton of additional material from our NEH case is available on our website historians.org/lawsuit-to-restore-the-neh

So wonderful to see my home museum (and the first museum I worked at) in @theartnewspaper.bsky.social. The team there has done an amazing job. ❤️

What I’d like to understand is how much damage from this term could be undone somewhat quickly and easily? Obv. there are long-term effects like broken international relations that will take time to repair, but could the Dems easily stop the camps, bring health and EPA regulations back, etc?

Here for this content.

This is a powerfully moving piece.

removing a symbol of pride from a small park in the middle of the west village is really an enormous fuck you from the worst people on the planet

This is just delightful.

To help illustrate the issue with Rubio's delegation of a political appointee to act as Archivist of the US, and to see what Congress intended, here's a 🧵 on parallels between what some believe about the Federal Vacancies Reform Act and what others believe about the Presidential Records Act.

*BREAKING: Rubio is out as acting Archivist, and has illegally named an ineligble political appointee to "to serve and perform the functions of archivist"—which he did not have the authority to do. My reporting expands on @federalnewsnetwork.com's scoop: 🧵 lastcampaign.substack.com/p/rubio-out-...

I wrote about the Epstein files and what it teaches us about the rot in the art world.

THIRD PRINTING ALERT: This is my first book and @wehere.bsky.social's first book. The response has been overwhelming (two small printing selling out in a matter of days), but also has meant a bit of lead time in-between. If you've read and enjoyed, please share this out so more folks can explore!

Just when we need clear writing about the threats to arts and culture…

In which @tressiemcphd.bsky.social scares the shit out of me. “ICE knows that it cannot shoot us all. But the Department of Homeland Security is close to being able to track us all.” www.nytimes.com/2026/02/03/o...

I wrote in TIME about what happens when a government sets out to reconstruct a nation’s cultural memory.

While the Trump administration is forcing the National Park Service to remove mentions of slavery from George Washington’s house, sites like the Legacy Museum in Montgomery continue to tell the story of enslavement in a direct, uncompromised way, making clear the connection between past and present.

My favorite use of this.

@janaykingsberry.bsky.social @hrag.bsky.social

It’s not so much that Trump & co don’t think slavery was important, they want to remove this history precisely *because* of how important it was. They don’t want people to learn about slavery because then people would understand how it continues to shape the landscape of inequality in America today.

Museums and art spaces in the Twin Cities—including the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Minnesota Museum of American Art, Dreamsong, and others—will be closed tomorrow in support of the general strike against ICE: www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/01/22/m...

Good for them.

"Carol is, in fact, a portrait of deradicalisation; the comfortable dissenter in a position of privilege who must loosen her ethical boundaries to preserve that privilege (like so many of us, our ideals and morals shackled to capitalism even as it devours the world)." 😮‍💨🔥 What a read.

To think, 6 minutes ago, I had the arrogance to think my syllabus was done…

The US just left the Freedom Online Coalition (FOC), which it was a founding member of in 2011 and chaired in 2023. FOC was established to protect free expression and human rights on the Internet in coordination between governments, civil society, academics, and businesses.

Includes International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property; International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies.

Important note with this: Autoplay settings are local to your device. Turning it off on mobile doesn't mean it's off on desktop.

This is some of the best advice for today.

Yesterday I labored over six sentences (feat. around 14 citations) and it felt like a *really* productive day of writing.

I cannot tell you just how *tremendously hard* various volunteers have worked on this massive @unbreaking.org update: sifting through awful, terrible news every single day, identifying connections and themes, all to build a clear picture of the harm the federal government’s caused.

@edyong209.bsky.social ??

Museum folks! I'm running a small, anonymous & unscientific survey about how much museums and other heritage organisations pay writers. If you have a moment, please respond, and share if you can. Thank you! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

“One park service superintendent, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation and losing their job, said the communication they’ve received from higher-ups clarifies that national park staff will not only have to review, but also carry out the removal of content by the deadline.”

I love institutional conscious uncouplings. ““Vanity Fair and Olivia Nuzzi have mutually agreed, in the best interest of the magazine, to let her contract expire at the end of the year,” Condé Nast, the publisher of Vanity Fair, and Ms. Nuzzi said in a joint statement on Friday.”

This is such evocative writing… "But while Pantone tries to invoke the color's connotation as a fresh start or blank canvas, remember that the white of a new sheet of paper is born from the brown-trunked trees that were planted, nurtured, cut, pulverized, bleached, and pressed."

“The only possible explanation for this is the remarkable success of safe-sex campaigns that were spearheaded and designed by activists and supported by state and commonwealth governments, sometimes quietly, that were convinced by the case that moralising about sex would not prevent transmission.”

African leaders push for recognition of colonial crimes and reparations

What a cool event.

That was… fast.

I cannot foresee anything bad that might come from this…

Next semester’s syllabus practically writing itself…

And so it was ordered…

"One in three museums said they had deferred or delayed infrastructure improvements or construction. One in four canceled or reduced specialized programs for students, rural audiences, individuals with disabilities, elderly people, or veterans. One in 10 laid off staff members."

“Blogs are one of the great literary inventions of our time. Coming somewhere between an essay and a diary entry, they are a form of personal journalism that is intimate and immediate... but they also have… a rough-edged informality that breaks down barriers. They are engaging.”

BALTIMORE! A friend of mine who is an art conservator just got grant funding for a project on how to preserve queer stories and objects if anyone is interested please pass this flyer along

!! "This marks the first time that the Museum has resolved an ownership claim for works of art that were wrongfully taken under the conditions of slavery in the 19th-century U.S."