America's artistic ecosystem is collapsing because public Arts funding and cultural institutions have been captured by ideological gatekeepers who reward political signaling over artistic merit. Merit-based has been traded for identity politics, our values have been assaulted, and the American public is rapidly losing interest in the Arts.
Hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars have been funnelled into organizations that almost exclusively support art that is unapologetically anti-American, anti-Western civilization, anti-White, anti-Jewish, and always emphatically Marxist. But if that wasn't bad enough, this new "art" lacks even a basic standard of craftsmanship or artistic merit. It gets much worse when you account for state and local arts budgets, bringing the total money wasted into the billions. All of this only serves to alienate the general museum-going public and has completely turned away the people who should be financing the Arts – private patrons.
What happened to the Thomas Coles, the Hockneys, the Wyeths, and the Whistlers? Led by a Marxist political class of curators and cultural gatekeepers who value ideological conformity over real talent, today's truly great creators stand little chance. What's left is a landscape of a radicalized agenda and an aspiration for mediocrity – the greats of our past would never find any success in their own country, today.
The consequences of this decline are already unravelling, but it's the next generation that will bear the brunt of it without sweeping change. Contrary to popular belief, artists face competition not from artificial intelligence but from TikTok and other social media. Meanwhile, children are being confronted with disgusting, politicized images, often even attacking their own identities. They leave feeling dejected and disinterested as their parents question the art museum as a viable family activity. It's no wonder children are so dependent on social media and the black mirror, as other options dwindle.
If America wants to destroy the Arts and drive its youth away from creative professions, all it needs to do is continue down this path. Audiences are already voting with their feet and their wallets, as museum attendance is below pre-COVID levels, and patrons of the Arts have completely walked away. Disinterest in the Arts from future generations will be catastrophic to American society and its core values.
It seems that these Arts are no longer for everyone, but only the most left-wing, Marxist, anti-American individuals, who don't seem to care about contributing to society, anyway. There is absolutely no value in serving people who seek to destroy the system from the inside. I'm not the only person who questions if grant committees and foundations even look at the work being submitted, or use a checklist of oppressions and minority status points. Our largest art institutions have been co-opted by radical, bigoted, good-for-nothings who wouldn't know a good painting if Dali raised from the dead and dropped it at their doorstep. To make matters worse, we have enlisted the rest of the world to join us in our swift march to the bottom. America needs to lead the charge in the other direction.
How did we arrive here? The answer lies in the shift from a patron-driven, merit-based ecosystem to one dominated by faceless, bureaucratic gatekeepers who prioritize political ideology over skill, mastery, or public appeal. Frederic Bastiat warned 170 years ago in The Law, if you hand the arts and education entirely to the socialist left, those institutions will inevitably reflect their leaders' values…or lack thereof.
How do we climb out of this hole? The answer, in short, is slash-and-burn. The Trump Administration's cuts are a strong first step, and now it's up to the artistic community to take the reins. New organizations must be created to promote the ideals that made our country great in the first place and to ensure that America remains the dominant force in the Arts worldwide for the past 100 years.
The time for rebellion is now.
Adam M. Thompson is a world-renowned abstract painter and the founder/project director of The Great American Art Competition, a non-profit organization partnered with Freedom 250 and the American Principles Project Foundation aimed at restoring greatness to the Arts in America. Learn more at www. TGAAC.org.
