Museums that receive the lion’s share of their funding from the US federal government will not immediately be impacted by the government shutdown that began one minute after midnight on Wednesday morning (1 October), but they will be forced to close if the shutdown lasts into next week.
The Smithsonian Institution, which oversees 21 museums in and around Washington, DC, and in New York City, as well as the National Zoo, will use remaining funds from previous fiscal years to remain open until “at least” 6 October, according to a statement on the institution’s website. The Smithsonian group includes many of the most-visited institutions in the US capital, including the National Air and Space Museum (which receives more than 8 million visitors annually) and the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which had 1.6 million visitors last year according to The Art Newspaper’s most recent global survey of museum attendance. The Smithsonian receives around 53% of its overall funding (which totaled $1.09bn in fiscal year 2024) via appropriations determined by the US Congress.
The National Gallery of Art (NGA)—the seventh-most-visited art institution in the world according to The Art Newspaper’s survey, with nearly 4 million visitors in 2024—”will be open during our normal hours through this Saturday, 4 October”, according to a spokesperson. However, if the government shutdown lasts into next week, the museum will likely be forced to close. The NGA receives the bulk of its funding from the federal government; in its congressional-funding request for fiscal year 2025, it sought over $215m in government funds.
The Smithsonian in particular and the NGA to a lesser degree have come under the scrutiny of the second administration of President Donald Trump. Early in his term, both institutions shuttered their diversity offices in response to an executive order Trump signed on the day of his inauguration. Subsequently, Trump has attacked the Smithsonian and its programming, calling for the removal of “divisive, race-centered ideology” and claiming that the institution is “out of control, everything discussed is how horrible our country is”. He has mandated an extensive review of programming, planning and management at eight Smithsonian museums; the institution has said it will continue with its own internal review of its programmes and exhibitions.
In addition to the Smithsonian and NGA, federal arts-funding agencies whose funding Trump has sought to slash and whose staff the Department of Government Efficiency drastically reduced will also be forced to cease operations due to the government shutdown. The National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities have not released plans or statements regarding the shutdown.
The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), which Trump sought to eliminate entirely early on in his second term, released a detailed plan whereby all 35 of its remaining employees will work on the morning of the first day of the shutdown (today). After noon today, only one IMLS employee will remain on duty to perform “activities expressly authorised by law” until the shutdown is resolved.
There are no signs that Democrats and Republicans in Congress will change their positions and resolve the shutdown anytime soon. The previous US government shutdown was the longest in the country’s history, lasting 35 days from 22 December 2018 to 25 January 2019. (Almost exactly two years ago, a possible government shutdown was averted at the last moment with the passage of a 45-day stopgap spending bill.)