Among dozens of Biden-era policies revoked upon his inauguration, Trump has disbanded the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH).
Established in 1982, the PCAH worked directly with the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to advise the national government’s investments and policy advancements within the art, culture, and humanities sectors.
The announcement comes as the Trump administration dismantles diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) initiatives across federal agencies, including museums. According to its mission statement, PCAH’s work was grounded in “the fundamental belief that creativity, diversity, and democracy are intrinsically bound, and that the arts and the humanities can be a powerful force for social change.”
This is the second time the PCAH has dissolved under Trump’s presidency, as all 17 committee members resigned in 2017 in protest of Trump’s comments regarding the white supremacist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, North Carolina. The committee was only reinstated in September 2022 through President Biden’s Executive Order 14084, and was set to be comprised of the chairpersons of the NEA and NEH, the director of the IMLS, and 25 non-federal members appointed by Biden who have a demonstrated commitment to the arts, humanities, and library services.
Biden had tapped Tsione Wolde-Michael, curator of African American Social Justice History at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History, to become the executive director of the committee in December 2022, and filled out the rest of the member openings with producers, actors, arts patrons, academics, authors, musicians and artists in April 2023.
Lady Gaga and producer Bruce Cohen served as PCAH co-chairs, while visual artist Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya; actors Jennifer Garner, Kerry Washington, and George Clooney; producers Shonda Rhimes and Katie McGrath; and art administrator Nora Halpern were members. National Gallery of Art Director Kaywin Feldman, the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts’s Board Chair Carla Hayden, and Smithsonian Institution Secretary Lonnie Bunch also served on the committee Ex Officio.
Public records indicate that the PCAH had an operating budget of over $345,000 and met three times during the 2024 Fiscal Year. One meeting was devoted to considering a subcommittee proposal “regarding a campaign to combat the epidemic of loneliness and isolation identified by United States Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy.” Per the committee’s Instagram account, collaborations on federal, private, and civic levels outlined PCAH’s involvement in institutional repatriation and shared stewardship, climate disaster preparedness, mobilizing artists to counter all forms of hate, and the developing role of AI in arts and humanities.
Neither the NEA, the NEH, the IMLS, nor any of the committee members Hyperallergic reached out to have responded to a request for comment.
