Precarity and Power: Museums Navigating Crisis and Control

McCardel, Lauren; McCardel, Lauren

Since the 2025 Presidential Inauguration, museums in the United States have experienced ongoing hostility from the federal government. There has been canceled funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and other granting agencies, and demands for anti-DEI rhetoric in exhibitions and programming. Museums are navigating a precarious and rapidly shifting cultural landscape, impacting their daily operations and long-term missions. While museums have managed reduced budgets, conflicting objectives between staff and trustees, and other crises for decades, the current political climate questions the very self-determination of their core operations. Organizing on the institutional and community levels is critical to both addressing systemic inequities within museums and resisting federal hostility.

This session considers museum adaptability amid ongoing social, political, and economic crises. We invite papers addressing both recent events and more perpetual subjects, including but not limited to: implementing social justice in an anti-DEI climate; sharing institutional resources across museums and other educational and civic organizations as a means of countering diminished funding; the impact of funding and institutional stakeholders such as Boards of Trustees on mission statements, exhibitions, or educational programming; the ways in which academic museums and galleries can partner with campus faculty and students to address changing institutional policies and culture; and other topics. Given the ongoing development of federal actions, we welcome projects and initiatives that are incomplete or evolving. We also invite funding organizations to share their perspectives on adaptability and resilience in these uncertain times.

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Precarity and Power: Museums Navigating Crisis and Control