US President Donald Trump Inauguration Day: Artists and Citizens Protest at Whitney Museum

'The program "Speak Out on Inauguration Day," was organized by Occupy Museums to coincide with the inauguration of President Donald J. Trump. On January 20, artist and activist of Occupy Museums conducted an event in observance of the #J20 Art Strike at the Whitney Museum's third floor.

The aim was to support their values and discussing of plans for acts of creative resistance to the ascendance of President Donald Trump. According to the Hyperallergic report, its event was developed with the help of Whitney's director of public programs and public engagement, Megan Heuer.

After the program is over the participants was encouraged to join the public demonstration beginning in Foley Square at 5 pm together with the Occupy Museums member outside the Whitney to protest the presidential inauguration. As stated in the ARTnews, the artist like Noah Fischer, Megan Heuer: Whitney's director of public programs and public engagement.

Laura Raicovich, Alicia Boyd, Carin Kuoni: director of the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at the New School, Artist-activist Mark Read, Martha Rosler, Jenny Dubnau, Gina Beavers, & Jim Costanzo were the speakers of the event. They talked about insisting that art and political practice can be one and the same, criticized against the events of recent weeks and months, rants about the president, asked their fellow artists to study the mechanisms of government and to look closely at the intentions of politicians. 

The transformation of public spaces and our neighborhoods and homes into speculative instruments increases the already dire state of class anxiety. They were calling on all museums and cultural institutions to stand in solidarity with the artists, art critics, art workers, and the public who will not stand by in silence as power is handed over to Fascists. 

They encourage the reevaluation of the cultural institution's statements of ethics, making amendments, additions, and revisions to address the institution's role and responsibility to treat its workers fairly, and to support the creation of bold and progressive works of art. 

TagsUS Inauguration Day, Whitney Museum, White House Redecoration, US President Donal Trump, Presidential Inauguration, Art and Politics, Artist Rally