DOGE, National Gallery of Art Representatives Meet to Discuss Museum’s Legal Status
Members of the Department of Government Efficiency, the unofficial, Elon Musk–led cost-cutting branch of the Trump administration, visited the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, last week to talk about the museum’s legal status. According to Bloomberg CityLab, which broke the news, National Gallery director Kaywin Feldman and secretary and general counsel Luis Baquedano spoke with DOGE representatives on April 17. Feldman confirmed the meeting in an email to staff, which CityLab obtained.
“As a public-private partnership, we have worked with every administration since our inception and will continue to work with the Administration and Congress while we remain focused on fulfilling our mission to preserve and share artistic excellence with all Americans,” wrote Feldman.
Established in 1937, the National Gallery of Art is not a part of any branch of government. The museum was built with funds from financier Andrew Mellon, who gifted the nation his collection of paintings and sculptures and provided the institution with an endowment; Congress covers its administrative and maintenance costs, which together account for roughly 80 percent of its operating budget. The National Gallery is overseen by a board of trustees, which is currently led by onetime Ford Foundation president Darren Walker, who was the museum’s first Black trustee. Chief Justice John Roberts, who was nominated to his Supreme Court role by George W. Bush, is a board member.
Despite not being a federal museum, the National Gallery earlier this year scrapped its diversity program in the wake of a January 20 executive order commanding the director of the US Office of Management and Budget to “coordinate the termination of all discriminatory programs, including illegal DEI and ‘diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility’ (DEIA) mandates, policies, programs, preferences, and activities in the Federal Government, under whatever name they appear.”
DOGE’s attempt to insert itself in the institution’s business is the most recent in a number of efforts to expand its reach beyond federal agencies. Among those targeted by the organization are the congressionally funded independent nonprofit US Institute of Peace, which in March accused DOGE of breaking into its headquarters, and the private nonprofit Vera Institute of Justice, which last week issued a press release outlining the Musk-led group’s effort to place a team within its ranks.
