Art Museum of the Americas, Image: Ajay Suresh/Wikimedia Commons.

Art Museum of the Americas Cancels Two Exhibitions Following Trump’s Crackdown on DEI Initiatives

By Elysia Lior, 04 Mar 2025

The Art Museum of the Americas (AMA) in Washington, D.C. has scrapped two planned exhibitions focusing on Black and queer artists after Donald Trump’s latest executive order declared Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives illegal. The move reflects the immediate impact of the Republican administration’s renewed efforts to restrict publicly funded cultural programming, sparking outcry from the arts community.

The first cancellation was "Before the Americas," a group exhibition curated by Cheryl D. Edwards, which aimed to explore the transatlantic slave trade and its lasting impact on African diaspora communities across the Americas. The show was due to open on 21 March and had been in development for four years, featuring contemporary and modern works by Black artists from Latin America, the Caribbean, and the United States. However, Edwards was informed by museum officials that federal funding had been withdrawn, as the project was deemed a DEI initiative and therefore in violation of Trump’s 20 January executive order.

Shortly after, the museum also pulled "Nature’s Wild with Andil Gosine," another exhibition originally scheduled for 21 March. The show was inspired by Gosine’s 2021 book Nature’s Wild: Love, Sex and Law in the Caribbean, which examines queer identity, human rights, ecology, and colonial law in the Caribbean. Speaking to The Washington Post, Gosine described it as a "collaborative solo project", featuring contributions from more than a dozen LGBTQ+ and racially diverse artists.

The museum has not issued an official explanation for the decision, but Gosine told The Guardian that he suspects it is linked to another Trump directive issued on 4 February, which instructed Secretary of State Marco Rubio to review all U.S. funding for international organisations. The Organization of American States (OAS), which manages AMA, is financially dependent on U.S. contributions, leaving it particularly vulnerable to political interference from Washington.

The cancellations have intensified concerns that Trump’s hardline stance against DEI policies could lead to wider censorship of politically sensitive exhibitions, particularly those centring on marginalised communities. The art world is now watching closely to see whether other publicly funded institutions follow suit or push back against the administration’s restrictions.

Neither the Art Museum of the Americas nor the Organization of American States has commented publicly on the matter.