Winter Is Coming: The Art World Responds to Trump

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Caricature of Trump by Illma Gore.
Caricature of Trump by Illma Gore.

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Beth Malone, Executive Director of Dashboard, Atlanta
When he was a boy, Little Donnie Trump got his ass beat by my two uncles.
In the ’50s, my family lived in Staten Island and my grandpa was Fred Trump’s handyman. This meant, on occasion, the blue collar Malones would brush up against the Manhattan elite Trumps. My uncles beat Little Donnie’s ass “because he was a prick.” In turn, my grandpa came home from work that day and beat their asses.
I told this Malone Family lore a lot over the past year. I mean, what are the chances? But as Little Donnie became a viable presidential candidate, the story started sitting heavier in my gut. Donald Trump spews hate and abuse, he’s a bully who instigates violence stemming from his own insecurity and fear. His bigoted, racist, sexist, classist, and xenophobic campaign was proof of that. I have no reason to believe his administration will be different.
I’m sincerely afraid for our planet’s health. The broad refusal by the GOP to acknowledge climate change as scientific fact is similar to the Left’s inability to see Donald Trump as a viable presidential candidate. At this rate, we’ll all continue to learn catastrophic lessons with irreversible consequences for our kids.
Fear, white supremacy, and the American media put Little Donnie in office. Public complacency will keep him there and uphold oppressive rhetoric and policies.
I pray we stop the self-sabotage. I will support my country by maintaining respect for the Office and by practicing my right to protest oppression with my work, my money, my voice, and my body. I’m optimistic my artist friends and colleagues will do the same.

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Joe Peragine, artist, Atlanta
I am still in a state of shock/mourning and don’t know how yet to move forward productively. I have conservative friends and family members who are asking detractors to give Trump a chance. They seem to think the campaign rhetoric was merely a means to victory. He didn’t actually mean all those awful things he said. Now that Trump is elected he will be a stout and steady leader. I want to tell them they are idiots. They helped to elect a man with no previous public experience, questionable moral values and vague political intentions while ignoring mountains of evidence and anti-endorsements that suggest he is not only incompetent, but potentially dangerous. I hate to be hyperbolic. I feel that the intensity of criticism on each side actually made people more entrenched in their point of view and detracted from the necessary discussion of ideas that may have led to a different outcome. However, with the election concluded I am in no rush to be civil.


Louise E. Shaw, curator and arts administrator
The election of Donald Trump to be our next President is a reminder of how we tend to live in self-constructed worlds with little engagement with those who don’t hold similar views to our own. Who would want to live around the alt-right, political fundamentalists, or even mainstream conservatives who don’t share our values and world view? Certainly, not me. Thus, I am as shocked as my fellow liberals when Mr. Trump was elected the 45th President of the United States (although the Brexit vote foreshadowed how this could happen here).
Although Trump is already slightly toning down his rhetoric, we know him to be a philistine, with little interest in the arts, literature, and philosophy. I just saw photographs of his faux French chateau-esque New York City apartment—expensively tacky. We also know that he is not philanthropic, with no track record of supporting cultural organizations. Realistically, we can anticipate arts and humanities policies coming out the Trump administration to move away from any gains made during Obama’s administration.
I have been a cultural worker for 40 years in Atlanta—a blue island in a sea of red. I have worked for arts organizations where every dollar was stretched to have the impact of five.  I am now a United States of America employee, working in the world’s most famous public health agency with a budget in the billions. I am worried about the future of artists and cultural organizations. I am equally worried about the future of federal agencies that address the health of the nation, the environment and consumer protection, among others. But we must maintain hope that the boat will steady itself upon these churning waters.
There has been a lot of talk since the election about the “bubbles” that we live in, a metaphor for how we tend to just talk among ourselves. The human tendency to hang out with like-minded folks has only been intensified by the Internet and social media. To move forward as a country, we need to figure out how to turn these bubbles into bridges, how to listen, and how to engage with those we don’t agree with. Artists can be among those bridge builders.
One bright spot—let’s not forget that historically artists have been amazing effective as catalysts for social change. Today, artists are faced with enormous opportunities and responsibilities as interpreters, commentators, and critics. I truly anticipate a renaissance in political and social justice work in all disciplines. Many a period of stress and uncertainly has stimulated great art. I expect no less in the days ahead.
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