The Smithsonian Institution has faced pressure from President Trump since March when he issued his “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” executive order, which demanded an end to federal funding for exhibitions and programs based on racial themes that “divide Americans.”
Amid Trump’s headline-grabbing gambits to remake the landscape of American arts and culture into a more MAGA-friendly image, another challenge to the Smithsonian flew largely under the radar. In early April, Texas Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz introduced the Bring the Space Shuttle Home Act, which proposed to move the space shuttle Discovery from the National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia to a spot near NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. The act was folded into President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, which Trump signed into law on July 4.
NASA gifted the Discovery to the Smithsonian in 2012 and it has been in Virginia ever since. Discovery launched on its maiden voyage in 1984 and flew 39 Earth-orbital missions — more than any other orbiter. The Smithsonian considers it a key part of its collection and issued a statement to Congress objecting to the proposed move. According to the Hill, the statement noted that “the case against relocating the orbiter Discovery is both philosophical and practical … It would be unprecedented for Congress to remove an object from a Smithsonian collection and send it somewhere else.”
In a statement to The Times, a Smithsonian spokesperson elaborated on the pitfalls of relocation, “Removing Discovery from the Udvar-Hazy Center and transporting it to another location would be very complicated and expensive, and likely result in irreparable damage to the shuttle and its components. The orbiter is a fragile object and must be handled according to the standards and equipment NASA used to move it originally, which exceeds typical museum transport protocols. Given its age and condition, Discovery is at even greater risk today. The Smithsonian employs world-class preservation and conservation methods, and maintaining Discovery’s current conditions is critical to its long-term future.”
In late June, the Houston Business Journal reported that the Smithsonian estimated the cost of moving Discovery to Texas would be between $300 and $400 million, far more than the $85 million cited by Cornyn and Cruz in Trump’s massive reconciliation and spending package.
Since the passage of of the bill, the fight over Discovery has heated up. Earlier this week, Rep. Joe Morelle, a Democrat from New York, introduced an amendment to keep Discovery at the Smithsonian. The Appropriations Committee agreed to the amendment, which now moves to the Rules Committee before going to the House floor for a vote.
“The forced removal and relocation of the Space Shuttle Discovery from the Smithsonian Institution’s Air and Space Museum is inappropriate, wasteful, and wrong. Neither the Smithsonian nor American taxpayers should be forced to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on this misguided effort. I am grateful for the bipartisan support of my colleagues on this amendment and hope we can continue working together throughout the remainder of the Appropriations process to keep a treasured Smithsonian artifact where it belongs,” Morelle said in a statement sent to The Times.
I’m arts and culture writer Jessica Gelt, hoping to orbit a positive news cycle someday soon. Here’s your arts and culture roundup for this week.
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The corpse flower is ready to bloom again at Huntington Garden.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
The Corpse Flower
The infamously stinky plant, formally Titan Arum (Amorphophallus titanum), “produces the largest unbranched inflorescence in the plant kingdom” and is known for its pungent aroma. “Green Boy,” one of 43 corpse flowers in the Huntington’s collection may have already blossomed by the time you read this, so be sure to check it out as the bloom lasts only 24-48 hours. “It smells pretty bad,” Brandon Tam, the Huntington’s associate curator of orchids,” told Times summer intern Aspen Anderson in her story on the event. But for those who prefer to avoid the full olfactory experience, there’s a livestream.
10 a.m.–5 p.m., closed Tuesday. The Huntington, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino. huntington.org
Father John Misty performing in Atlanta in 2023.
(Paul R. Giunta / Invision / AP)
Father John Misty
Josh Tillman, whose Misty persona was described in a 2017 profile by Times pop music critic Mikael Wood as “a convivial (if polarizing) chronicler of society’s growing absurdity,” is joined by Lucinda Williams and Hamilton Leithauser for an eclectic evening of indie rock and folk.
7 p.m. Friday. Greek Theatre, 2700 N. Vermont Ave. lagreektheatre.com
Phasmagorica: The Room Between Worlds
Limited to nine audiences members at a time, this “experiential paranormal encounter” proudly boasts that it is not a performance and does not use actors. Instead, sacred geometry, occult methodology, immersive light phenomena and 13 speakers of Dolby Atmos sound produce “a fully-contained, tactile installation designed to provoke contact.” Guests are guided through a séance featuring spirit communication via arcane instruments and trigger objects, fortune-telling and psychological thresholds.
7:30 and 9:15 p.m. Friday through Sunday. Heritage Square Museum, 3800 Homer St. twilightdisturbances.com
Heather Graham, left, and Mike Myers star in the 1999 movie “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.”
(New Line Cinema)
Austin Powers triple feature
Yeah, baby! The academy’s “Summer of Camp” series continues with the shagadelic trilogy of “Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery” (1997), “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me” (1999) and “Austin Powers in Goldmember” (2002). Director Jay Roach will be in attendance.
2 p.m. Saturday. Academy Museum, 6067 Wilshire Blvd. academymuseum.org
Billy Woodberry
The MOCA Artist Film Series presents the L.A. Rebellion filmmaker’s 2016 feature, “And when I die, I won’t stay dead,” a documentary on the life of Beat poet Bob Kaufman. Best known for “Bless Their Little Hearts” (1983), Woodberry assembled archival footage and photos, interviews with Kaufman’s contemporaries, and readings from Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis and others, plus a jazz soundtrack featuring Billie Holiday and Ornette Coleman.
3 p.m. Saturday. Museum of Contemporary Art, 250 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. moca.org
Queens of Soul
The peacocks and peahens will not be the only ones strutting and preening at the L.A. County Arboretum when the Pasadena Pops performs this salute to such divas as Aretha Franklin, Tina Turner, Whitney Houston, Alicia Keys, Adele and others, featuring hit songs such as “Respect,” “Proud Mary, “I’m Every Woman” and “Rolling in the Deep.”
7:30 p.m. Saturday. L.A. County Arboretum, 301 N. Baldwin Ave., Arcadia. pasadenasymphony-pops.org
Black Pasifika: Deep Sea Protocols
Writer, relational architect and guerrilla theorist Neema Githere hosts this program exploring the links between climate crisis and technology across Melanesia. Githere will provide context and discuss deep-sea protocols and the consequences of technological accelerationism on sea-stewarding peoples from the Swahili coast to Melanesia with their grandfather, Dr. Gilbert Githere, founder of the Mombasa-Honolulu Sister City society. The filmic essay “AI: African Intelligence” by Manthia Diawara searches for a more humane and spiritual control of algorithms. Ahead of the program, from 10 a.m.–6 p.m., the time-based somatic works “Oceanic Refractions” and “Cries From the Moana” will be shown on monitors in LACMA’s Smidt Welcome Plaza.
6 p.m. Sunday. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd. lacma.org
L.A. Phil at the Hollywood Bowl
In a week of debuts, Italian conductor Daniele Rustioni, recently appointed principal guest conductor of the Metropolitan Opera, makes his Los Angeles Philharmonic bow leading the orchestra through Mendelssohn’s “Violin Concerto” (with soloist Veronika Eberle), selections from Berlioz and Liszt, and Respighi’s “Pines of Rome.” Two nights later, former Dudamel Fellow and current Boston Symphony Orchestra assistant conductor Anna Handler makes her first Bowl appearance, leading the Phil in the world premiere of Eunike Tanzil’s “Ode to the City of Dreams,” Mozart’s “Concerto for Flute and Harp” and Richard Strauss’ “Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30.” Mendelssohn, 8 p.m. Tuesday; Tanzil, Mozart and Strauss, 8 p.m. Thursday. Hollywood Bowl, 2301 N. Highland Ave. hollywoodbowl.com
— Kevin Crust
The SoCal scene
“Buddha Shakyamuni,” Burma (Myanmar), circa 13th century; lacquered wood
(Christopher Knight / Los Angeles Times)
Times art critic Christopher Knight was thrilled to see the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s exhibit “Realms of the Dharma: Buddhist Art Across Asia.” Currently installed in the temporary exhibition spaces of the Resnick Pavilion, the show consists of roughly 180 objects that have been in storage for years after being boxed up in preparation for the demolition of the museum’s original campus and the debut of the new David Geffen Galleries. Catch the exhibit now, before it gets stowed away again, writes Knight, adding that it “includes some of the most splendid sculptures and paintings” in the museum’s permanent collection.
Times classical music critic Mark Swed hopped a plane to Austria and headed for the small town of Bregenz, where a major arts festival that attracts more than 250,000 visitors in July and August and boasts a $31-million budget is hosted. The biggest draw at the bustling festival is opera, and the biggest show is a production staged each year on the Seebühne — a massive stage built directly on Lake Constance with bleachers to accommodate an audience of 7,000. “This year’s ‘Die Freischütz,’ Carl Maria von Weber’s early 19th century opera about a huntsman who makes a very bad deal with the devil for a magic bullet, opened last week and runs through Aug. 17,” writes Swed. “All 27 performances are expected to sell out as usual for the kind of spectacle that exists nowhere else.” Read all about the world-famous technical and artistic extravaganza, here.
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Culture news
Johanna Burton was named the new Executive Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art.
(Photo: Erin Leland)
Johanna Burton is leaving the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, to become the new director of the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania, ICA Philadelphia announced Thursday. Burton became MOCA’s first female director in 2021 after its recently named Artistic Director Klaus Biesenbach unceremoniously left his position for a job in Berlin. Burton’s departure makes her the fifth director to leave MOCA since 2008. Burton will fill the role at ICA Philadelphia left vacant by Zoë Ryan who exited the museum to take over leadership at the UCLA Hammer Museum in Westwood after its longtime director Ann Philbin retired. MOCA did not respond to a request for comment about Burton’s departure.
Architect Paul R. Williams’ L.A. building, Founders Church of Religious Science, is among five structures across the country picked to receive funding through the Getty Foundation’s Conserving Black Modernism Initiative. Announced earlier this week by the foundation and the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, the money will support preservation plans for the buildings and further train caretakers in maintenance best practices. Another overarching goal is to increase public awareness of the architects’ legacies and the buildings they created. The other four buildings receiving Getty funds are the ITC Administration Building in Atlanta, designed by Edward C. Miller; First Church of Deliverance in Chicago, an adaptive reuse project redesigned by Walter T. Bailey; McKenzie Hall in Eugene, Ore., designed by DeNorval Unthank Jr.; and Vassar College’s 2500 New Hackensack building in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., by Jeh Vincent Johnson.
Contemporary artist Amy Sherald with her painting “As American as apple pie” in 2021.
(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
Artist Amy Sherald has canceled her upcoming solo show, “American Sublime,” at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, citing censorship after she was told the museum wanted to exclude a painting featuring a transgender woman holding a torch in a pose meant to evoke the Statue of Liberty. Sherald was told that the museum did not want to provoke a reaction from President Trump, who has brought anti-trans ideals into the federal government. In a statement to the New York Times, Sherald wrote, “It’s clear that institutional fear shaped by a broader climate of political hostility toward trans lives played a role.”
The Ebell of Los Angeles has named Camille Schenkkan its chief operating officer. The nonprofit organization, which dedicates itself to “inspiring women and fostering community through arts, culture and education,” was founded in 1894 and occupies one of the city’s most storied historic buildings — a campus and theater designed in 1927 by architect Sumner Hunt. Schenkkan arrives at the Ebell from Center Theatre Group, where she served as deputy managing director.
Republican members of the House Appropriations Committee introduced a proposal earlier this week to rename the Opera House at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington after the first lady, Melania Trump.
— Jessica Gelt
And last but not least
Marlee Matlin shared her favorite Sunday activities with The Times — including a stop for pizza in Eagle Rock (hint: it’s a classic). See you there!