Art Under Attack: A Call to Defend Our Cultural Future
- Linda Chido
- Mar 20
- 7 min read
Updated: Mar 24
Throughout history, artists and cultural institutions have faced suppression, censorship, and even outright attacks. Today, we are witnessing another alarming assault, one that threatens the very institutions that safeguard our history, fuels creativity, and provides essential public resources.
I was prompted to write this article after receiving an email from Americans for the Arts, warning about a new executive order aimed at dismantling the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the federal agency that supports 123,000 libraries and 35,000 museums across the United States.
This move isn’t just about budget cuts, it’s a deliberate dismantling of the institutions that safeguard our history, creativity, and access to knowledge at a time when they are needed more than ever.
If this order proceeds, libraries and museums across the country will be forced to eliminate programs, lay off staff, and reduce public access to the very spaces that serve as cultural lifelines in our communities. This isn’t just about funding; it’s about who gets to control public access to the arts, education, and history.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen art and culture come under attack. History offers us a stark reminder: when the arts are suppressed, societies risk losing their creative soul.
A History of Attacks on the Arts - And How Artists Responded
The Nazi “Degenerate Art” Exhibit (1937)
In Nazi Germany, modern art was labeled “degenerate” and deemed a threat to the fascist ideal. The government confiscated over 16,000 works from public museums and put them on display in the infamous Degenerate Art exhibition in Munich. The show was meant to ridicule artists like:
Wassily Kandinsky – His vibrant abstractions were deemed “too intellectual.”
Max Beckmann – A German Expressionist painter forced to flee to the Netherlands.
Otto Dix – His raw depictions of war horrors led to his dismissal from teaching.
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner – His work was labeled "un-German," and he tragically took his own life.
Despite this persecution, many artists went underground or fled to countries where they continued to paint, write, and resist. Today, their work is revered as some of the most powerful of the 20th century.
🖼 See images from the 1937 Degenerate Art Exhibition: The Art Story
Surrealism & World War II (1930s-1940s)
Surrealists were seen as threats because of their radical views on reality and freedom. When World War II began, many fled Europe or were forced into silence. Among them:
Max Ernst – Arrested twice by the Nazis, he escaped to the U.S. with the help of Peggy Guggenheim.
André Breton – The Surrealist leader fled to the U.S. and continued writing and organizing artists in exile.
Leonora Carrington – Institutionalized in Spain before escaping to Mexico, where she created some of her most profound works.
Their exile helped spread Surrealist ideas across the globe, influencing Abstract Expressionism and the avant-garde movements that followed.
🖼 View Surrealist art and war resistance: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
McCarthyism & The Red Scare (1940s-1950s)
Artists, writers, and filmmakers were blacklisted, accused of communist ties, and pressured into silence. Some notable figures targeted included:
Paul Robeson – A singer, actor, and activist whose passport was revoked for speaking out against racism.
Dorothy Parker – The poet and critic was listed as a communist sympathizer.
Charlie Chaplin – Forced into exile in Switzerland after being labeled “anti-American.”
Mark Rothko – Questioned about his affiliations, though he never openly aligned with any political ideology.
The response? Artists channeled their fears and anxieties into bold, new artistic movements, fueling the rise of Abstract Expressionism and modern performance art.
🖼 See political art of the era: Smithsonian American Art Museum
China’s Cultural Revolution (1966-1976)
In Maoist China, traditional and modern artists were persecuted, and many were sent to labor camps. Some examples include:
Ai Qing – A poet and artist forced into exile; his son Ai Weiwei would later become a leading artist-activist.
Wu Guanzhong – His modernist paintings were criticized, yet he continued creating in secret.
Lin Fengmian – His work was destroyed, but he rebuilt his career post-Cultural Revolution.
Despite extreme oppression, a new wave of contemporary Chinese art emerged in the 1980s as a response to past suppression.
🖼 Explore contemporary Chinese resistance art: UCCA Center for Contemporary Art
The NEA Culture Wars (1980s-1990s)
Government support for the arts in the U.S. came under attack, with funding slashed and artists targeted for controversial work. Among those at the center of these battles were:
Robert Mapplethorpe – His provocative photography led to a national debate on art and public funding.
Andres Serrano – His work Piss Christ became a flashpoint in the battle over artistic freedom.
Karen Finley – One of the NEA Four, whose performance art was deemed too explicit, leading to NEA funding cuts.
These attacks spurred an explosion of independent arts funding and alternative galleries, proving that art finds a way to survive.
🖼 View NEA Culture Wars art: Getty Research Institute
What You Can Do Right Now
📢 Contact Your Representatives in Congress
Call or email your Senators and Representatives and tell them to oppose the executive order that threatens the IMLS. Demand continued support for federal arts and cultural institutions.
Call or email your representatives today. Use this tool to find your local officials and demand continued support for the arts: Find Your Representatives.
📢 Support Arts Advocacy Organizations
In addition to contacting your representatives, you can also help by supporting organizations fighting for museum and library funding:
For Art Advocates & Supporters: How You Can Directly Help Artists
✔ Buy Art – Even Small Prints Help
✔ Commission an Artist
✔ Attend Openings & Exhibitions
✔ Share Artists’ Work on Social Media
✔ Join an Artist’s Newsletter – Stay directly connected to their work.
🎨 I send out a weekly newsletter with exclusive insights into my process, new work, and VIP access to special releases. Join my VIP list at lindachido.com to be part of my journey!
🏛 Donate to Museums & Libraries
A Call to Artists:
🎨 Keep Making Art
🤝 Find Your Community
💡 Support Fellow Artists
🌱 Advocate for the Next Generation
📚 Stay Educated & Engaged
💬 Tell Your Story
Your art matters! Your voice matters!
Artists Cannot Survive on Applause Alone—But We Will Survive
Right now, we are scared. The American economy has already made it difficult for artists to sustain themselves, and with these new attacks, we face an even graver reality. Sales have dried up. Not just for me but for nearly every artist I know. Galleries are closing. Exhibitions are struggling. Collectors are hesitant. The art world is feeling the squeeze, and without real support, many of us will not make it through.
Yet history tells us that art always survives, and the reason it survives is because artists refuse to disappear.
🎨 To the public: Stand with us. Stand with museums. Stand with libraries.
🔥 To my fellow artists: Keep creating. Keep fighting. Keep showing up.
Art is not given to us. We build it. We sustain it. We fight for it.
No matter the challenges, no matter the obstacles placed before us, we will do what artists have always done throughout history—create, speak, and ensure that art endures.
Art is not a luxury. It is essential. It shapes our collective memory, challenges oppression, and inspires new futures. And no matter how many times it is threatened, one truth remains: art and artists are not going anywhere.
A Final Warning: The Silent Erasure of Art
In writing this article, I encountered something deeply unsettling. Many of the historical images I sought, works that should be freely accessible to the public, were missing from online archives. These were not obscure pieces; they were once easily found records of major historical moments, now disappearing from view.
This is not unlike the wave of book bans sweeping across schools and libraries today. When access to stories, knowledge, and creative expression is restricted, whether through legislation, censorship, or digital erasure, we all lose. We lose not only the art itself, but also the conversations it sparks, the perspectives it preserves, and the truths it tells.
At the same time, artists today face another crisis: the fight to maintain control over their own work. Social media platforms and AI companies have publicly acknowledged using publicly available images to train AI models, often without direct consent from creators. The very same digital spaces that once helped artists share their work are now being used to feed AI datasets, raising serious ethical and legal concerns.
But history reminds us: art endures. Whether in underground galleries, whispered through literature, or painted on walls when no one is watching, art finds a way. And so do artists.
So let this be a call not just to defend the arts, but to actively engage with them. Support artists. Buy their work. Visit museums. Support your local library. Advocate! Not just for funding but for access, for preservation, for the right of artists to tell their own stories.
Because in the end, art belongs to all of us. And as long as we remember that, it will never truly be erased.
LINDA CHIDO ART
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