Free Republic

Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch III on Tuesday announced that he would retire at the end of the year, the Washington Post reported. His retirement comes amid pressure from the Trump administration, which has worked to revamp many of the Institute's museums and displays. Last year, the administration notified the Smithsonian that it would review museum exhibits ahead of the 250th anniversary of the United States.

The Smithsonian Institution, has stood as an emblem of American knowledge and values since its establishment. Its vast spaces have been used to advance technological progress, social change and, in the realm of the arts, what is good and beautiful.  In 2015, my painting 'Unafraid and Unashamed' was submitted to the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery for inclusion in an exhibit on American political art.  The scoffing response from the museum’s director, Kim Sajet, was that it was “too big”, “too political”, “too pro-Trump” and finally "no good."The abrupt, arbitrary dismissal of an artist’s work may cause hurt feelings. However, the...

So-called “progressives” love moving forward with their reconstructed versions of history. The taxpayer-funded Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery is supposed to be a place that reveres history, not revises it. That hasn’t stopped the institution from presenting to the public a false presentation of the founder of Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger. The bust, prominently and ironically displayed in the NPG’s “Struggle For Justice” exhibit, was provided by the late Cordelia Scaife May. She was a very wealthy population control activist who “supported conservation and Planned Parenthood among other causes” according to her obituary in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. May founded the...