National Gallery of Art Ends Diversity Programs
National Gallery of Art Ends Diversity Programs. The museum says it is complying with an executive order signed by President Donald Trump.
The National Gallery of Art (NGA) in Washington, DC, is ending its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs as a result of an executive order (EO) issued by President Donald Trump on Monday, January 20. The executive order terminates such initiatives across all federal agencies and entities, referring to them as “illegal and immoral discrimination programs.”
An NGA spokesperson told Hyperallergic that the museum has closed its Office of Belonging and Inclusion in response to Trump’s mandate.
“The employees of that office have been reassigned to already vacant positions elsewhere in the museum,” the spokesperson said.
In addition, the museum has removed any language referring to DEI from its website. On a page outlining the institution’s mission and values, the words “diversity, equity, access and inclusion” have been replaced with “welcoming and accessible.”
Signed on Trump’s first day in office along with a slew of controversial mandates that range from pushing to redefine birthright citizenship to withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, the United Nations’s climate change body, the EO requires all federal agencies and departments to end their DEI programs, plans, and initiatives within 60 days.
The order also applies to any accessibility-related plans, equity-related grants, and “environmental justice” positions and offices, invoking a commitment to “expending precious taxpayer resources only on making America great.”
Read further: Hyperallergic




