After ordering the effective dismantling of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) last week, President Donald Trump sworn in a new director for the agency that has promised to restore the focus on patriotism, “alarming interest groups that are afraid of a reduction in critical cultural services and restrictions on free expression.
Keith E. Sendeling, who was also sworn as a deputy secretary of the US Department of Labor, took on the role of acting director of the IMLS, the office announced on Thursday 20 March.
In a statement, sondraning said that he was planning to maintain the vision of the Trump government to “preserve the core values of our country, to promote American exceptionalness and to cultivate the love for the country in future generations.”
Sound, a work and disability lawyer without known experience in cultural institutions, replaces Cyndee Landrum, an experienced officer who worked for two decades throughout the country and held the position at IMLS since March 2024.
Made in 1996 by the Museum And Library Services Act, the agency awarded $ 266 million to institutions nationwide last year. It once offered countless museum fair programs, including the American Latino Museum Internship and Fellowship Initiative, Museum Grants for African American History and Culture, and Native American and Native Hawaiian museum services. The fate of those programs are unclear.
The IMLS has not yet responded to one Request for comments.
Elizabeth Larison, director of the Arts and Culture Advocacy Program for the National Coalition Against Censorship, an alliance of non -profit organizations that argue for first amendment rights, said Hyperallergic The promise of that person to promote the American exceptionality inhibits freedom of expression – including the freedom to criticize the government.
“It now seems that the IML’s education and culture will be employed by nationalist propaganda, rather than employed by the American people,” Lalison said. “As a result, we will probably dry up federal financing for libraries and museums that present materials that are contrary to the beliefs and priorities of the current president, who suffocate the free exchange of ideas and cultural diversity in the US.”
Last week Trump ordered the IMLs to eliminate all “functions and components”, except those that are legally required, a similar tactic that the President used this week to dismantle the Ministry of Education without approval of the congress entitled in an executive order “Continue the reduction of federal bureaucracy. ”
The dedication of sondrial to use the IMLs to promote ‘patriotism’ is in line with actions related to Trump’s plan for a ‘Golden Age in Art and Culture’, announced on his social media platform Truth Social last month, who killed the elimination of Draghows in the Kennedy Center for Podium. Trump replaced the board of the center last month by allies and installed himself as chairman, so that artists retreat of the upcoming programming.
Earlier this week, Trump drove the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) First Native American Chairman, Shelly C. Lowe, pending a confirmation of the Senate of a replacement appointed by Trump. Later this month, a federal court will hear the case of the American Civil Liberties Union against the NEA, which, according to the civil rights organization, violates the rights of the first amendment by enforcing Trump’s anti-transmandate as a condition for the subsidy.
The relocation was quickly sentenced to National Cultural Organizations, including the American Alliance of Museums (AAM), the American Historical Association (AHA) and the American Library Association (ALA), and who underlines the important financing contributions of the Bureau and Bibliotheken in the entire country.
“By eliminating the only federal agency that focuses on the financing of library services, the executive order of the Trump administration on their knees cuts the most loved and trusted of American institutions and the staff and services they offer,” the ALA said in a rack.
The IMLS was one of the seven that was effectively extracted by the executive order, including the United States Agency for Global Media (resulting in the closure of international temporary employment agency Voice of America), Woodrow Wilson International Center Business Business Deropment and the Minority Argenson. The Trump administration gave the agencies seven days to report their compliance to the Office of Management and Budget, the entity behind the Financing Memorandum that sent chills in the network of organizations that are dependent on federal financing in January.
“This should be for everyone in the US, regardless of their political tendencies,” Larison said. “In a democracy, the role of libraries and museums is to serve the public by gaining access to information and culture in all its eclectic forms.”
