Wow.

NEW Economist/YouGov Dec 20-22 % who approve | disapprove of renaming the Kennedy Center the Trump-Kennedy Center U.S. adult citizens 18% | 66% Democrats 2% | 95% Independents 13% | 68% Republicans 40% | 37% Republicans who: Support MAGA 56% | 25% Don't 19% | 59% today.yougov.com/politics/art...

At 10:30 ET, join me on Substack Live with @normeisen.bsky.social, one of the lawyers in a case filed to force Trump to take his name off of the Kennedy Center. Get some law & democracy-strikes-back energy before you check out for the holiday. (Prep involves 🍿 => 🐓 so they’ll be quiet while we chat)

Went to a prayer service tonight at St. Mary of the Lake, where they have cardboard cutouts throughout the church representing parishioners afraid to come to Mass because of ICE.

Big news! Federal judge rules that the regulation the National Endowment for the Arts put in place to comply with the Executive Order prohibiting “promoting gender ideology” violates the First Amendment and the law that created the NEA

@sam-workman.bsky.social what cocktail would you recommend to celebrate getting tenure?🧐

I feel sick about the NPG

Folks Trump has no authority to fire the National Portrait Gallery director and no one need report it as if he does

What exactly does it mean when someone “gets their news from social media”? From media sources sharing their content on social media? From their friends sharing their opinions about current events? Algorithm pushed content? All of the above? They are not all the same.

SUIT UP FOLKS - IT'S GO TIME. President Trump has proposed eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts. He wanted to eliminate the NEA during his first term, too. And he found - like previous Presidents before him - that the NEA is (1 too popular with Congress to eliminate because the funding…

I am proud to join my colleagues in sending a letter to the Smithsonian Office of the Inspector General requesting an investigation into Trump's unlawful Executive Order attacking the Smithsonian

Trump thinks he can dictate what history and culture Americans access by zeroing out funding for arts and humanities and repurposing it for his personal vanity projects—like a bizarre “Garden of Heroes.” We’ll fight this budget—and its assault on culture, history, and speech—every step of the way.

Racial profiling is illegal.

The legal status is: HANDS OFF, DOGE

Last week, the President decided to go after the Smithsonian. His goal? To remove “anti-American ideology” from places like the National Museum of African American History. What he’s really trying to do is whitewash our history. This is why we march. This is why we fight. #HandsOff our museums!

Love this line of truth telling from Tiffany Hsu’s NY Times article today on the Trump Administration’s selective history practices: “The campaign of deletion does more than amplify the administration’s policy priorities…

I’d love to see a team for arts and culture as part of this People’s Cabinet.

Equity Arc, which trains young musicians of color, was set to play with the US Marine Band — until Trump's anti-DEI order canceled the show. But Chicago stepped up, and now the students will perform at @chicagosymphony.bsky.social on 4/6. Grab a free ticket and join me in cheering them on. cso.org

Ok I need someone to explain to me a non-lawyer why it is ethical and legal for law firms to commit in advance to donate hundreds of millions of dollars of legal fees to advance the policies of a specific presidential administration before knowing what they’ll be asked to do. TIA

“God help us all if far-right agitators are allowed to be the arbiters of what museums can exhibit, but that’s only half of what’s alarming about this latest episode of right-wing overreach…

Why am I getting a flood of new followers?

Is this another one of those actions that they don’t really have the authority to do but they’re trying anyway and hoping we all get confused and they get away with it?

The Trump Administration is making us less safe.

I like that social media gives us the opportunity to make and publish our own political cartoons now. 👏

It also leaves a big hole in their schedule. I’m really curious how this whole thing will play out. Will the center just be left as a shell of its former self?

Make no mistake: Hamilton canceling its next Kennedy Center engagement represents a huge blow for trump’s takeover. Hamilton has been one of the center’s biggest earners and an irreplaceable resource for attracting new subscribers.

People are debating what is the simple message that might break through. Here’s my version I posted yesterday: Trump makes us less free, less safe, and less prosperous.

Trump makes us less safe, less free, less prosperous. That’s what needs to be said loud and on repeat to all Americans.

Benjamin Wittes offers a short list of clever protest ideas. I personally would like to see an audience walkout at the Kennedy Center of the first performance that Ric Grenell chose.

This is alarming but it’s essential to look deeper than the averages. The trust in the Trump administration comes heavily from Rs. Basic data literacy.

Theater kids showing up and being brave yet again. Thought you would like this @hesherman.bsky.social

I would really like to see a more strongly worded statement than this from the artists distancing themselves from the Kennedy Center. The President is stepping all over boundaries between govt and civil society with this takeover.

Arts marketing folks: follow @romanpalace.bsky.social today for a great example of fun, engaging content as they do Super Bowl tie-ins and invite others to join in. 👍

A street artist in DC is putting up these posters all over the city. I’d love to get one.

What are the governance rules at the Kennedy Center? Is everyone appointed or removed by the President? If not, the Board should either resign or push back.

A Christmas Carol as an Arts Marketing Parable, my latest post on my blog Row X on ArtsJournal. A bit of fun so you can laugh (or cry, or both) about the state of arts nonprofits as we close out 2024. Enjoy! www.artsjournal.com/rowx/2024/12...

A good thread for anyone looking for a deeper dive into how the nonprofit bill HR 9495 might actually work and what is still unknown about how it would play out.

This immersive theater/escape room/game Great Gold Bird sounds amazing. I wonder if the show is doing well financially. (Sharing an Apple News link in the hopes you can read this LA Times article.) h/t ArtsJournal apple.news/AbLUs5vvvRoq...