The Biden administration on Monday reversed a Trump-era rule dictating what kind of art can be commissioned for federal buildings as part of an effort to have public art better reflect America's diversity.
The new rule removes content and style restrictions that Biden administration officials say excluded many artists from consideration for the Art in Architecture program, which commissions visual art in federal buildings.
— CNN
The rule is a holdover from the Trump administration, which enacted the measure late in 2020 with the vague but distinct guideline that commissions must depict “historically significant Americans or events.” Critics immediately saw the mandate as a racist attempt to whitewash public art in the aftermath of protests that swept the nation following the death of George Floyd.
Biden’s move echoes a previous decision to reverse another controversial order regulating the architectural styles allowed on large-scale federal projects. Trump was notorious for his assault on varying federal arts and humanities programs, most notably the National Endowment of the Arts, which he made repeated and ultimately empty threats about eliminating before leaving office. The General Services Administration (GSA) says its hope is that the reversal will increase the amount of diversity and representation in Federal projects across the country.
“Art looks different in different parts of the country and in different communities,” Krystal Brumfield, an administrator with the GSA told CNN. “And so now this allows us when we go into a federal building to potentially see art that reflects that local community and/or the individuals within the community and across the country.”
4 Comments
Nice.
Here I was worried about little things like runaway inflation, open borders, no end in sight for the pandemic, botched military pullouts and increasing social division.
Naw, it's just cuckservatives assholes that can't walk and chew gum.
Open borders? Why do you hate white people so much?
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