President Donald Trump said on his social media platform Truth Social that he ended Kim Sajet from her role as director of the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in Washington, DC. However, it remains unclear whether Trump has the authority to dismiss Sajet, because the Smithsonian Institution supervises the museum as an independent federally supported agency that is not controlled by one of the three government branches.
In his position today, May 30, Trump referred to Sajet as a very partisan person and a strong supporter of Dei [Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion]Which is completely inappropriate for her position, “and noted that her replacement would be announced soon.
Trump’s post comes two months after he had accepted an executive order in which he accused the Smithsonian Institution of promoting “division, race-oriented” views and vice-president JD Vance with “Remov[ing] Incorrect ideology ”from the accompanying museums. Senior level personnel matters at the Smithsonian are determined by secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III, who was appointed by the Council of Regents in 2019. Due to the nature of the Charter, VANCE is an ex-officio member of the Board of Regents.
Sajet became the first woman to send the NPG when she was appointed in 2013 in the position of the director during the Obama government. After six years of serving, she came to the Smithsonian as president and CEO of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Before that she was the senior vice president of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts Museum.
Since its term of office at the NPG, Sajet has given priority to the diversification of the collections and exhibitions of the museum in accordance with the multicultural population of the United States. In an interview of 2015 with the Washington PostThe director said she uses her role to “look at the breaking down of the hierarchies, experimenting and managing.” Consider criticizing the lack of women and black Americans artists and figures representing in the collections, asked: “How are we going to show the presence of absence?”
Sajet has supervised various exhibitions that investigate and fill those gaps on board for 12 years, including but not limited to Unseen. Our history in a new light: Ken Gonzales-Day & Titus Kaphar (2018–19), Black out: Silhouettes then and now (2018–19), and Voices for women: a portrait of perseverance (2019-20). She also introduced the Identify (2013-all long) Performance series at the NPG, whose previous participants Jeffrey Gibson, María Magdalena Campos-Pons and James Luna include, in an attempt to “recognize those who miss in the historical collections of the museum”.
The National Portrait Gallery did not respond immediately HyperallergicThe research and a representative of the Smithsonian Institution refused to comment.
Trump’s announcement comes in the midst of the constant attack of his administration in the field of art and culture financing and diversity efforts in federally supported organizations. Earlier this year, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, said that it ended his Dei programs as a result of an executive order signed by the president. Hundreds of art organizations have lost subsidies of the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Services as a result of Trump’s step to close the agencies.
