{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,5]],"date-time":"2026-08-05T17:45:39Z","timestamp":1785951939284,"version":"3.56.0"},"reference-count":0,"publisher":"MIT Press","issue":"197","content-domain":{"domain":["direct.mit.edu"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,1]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:p>This essay examines the phenomenon of \u201csoft censorship\u201d in American museums during the second Trump administration, drawing on the author's firsthand experience as dean of the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art. Nelson defines soft censorship\u2014a concept long familiar to librarians\u2014as indirect suppression through relocation, reduced visibility, relabeling, or \u201ccontextualization\u201d of controversial content, rather than outright removal or cancellation.<\/jats:p>\n                  <jats:p>The essay centers on the case of \u201cColor Lines Across the United States and Mexico,\u201d a Wyeth Foundation symposium on race in American and Mexican art, scheduled at the National Gallery for May 2025. Following a visit from DOGE representatives and mounting institutional anxiety, National Gallery leadership ordered the symposium moved off-site rather than canceled outright, resulting in its removal from the museum's website, relocation to a smaller venue, and loss of virtual access\u2014despite ultimately taking place as planned via an emergency partnership with Dumbarton Oaks.<\/jats:p>\n                  <jats:p>Nelson situates this episode alongside other instances of institutional response to political pressure, including Amy Sherald's withdrawal of her exhibition American Sublime from the National Portrait Gallery, the Smithsonian's handling of The Shape of Power, and Philadelphia's successful legal fight to reinstate a slavery exhibit at the President's House Site. He argues that unlike outright refusal or legal resistance, the National Gallery's and the Smithsonian's strategies of anticipatory compliance\u2014reducing access while claiming to preserve content\u2014constitute a distinct and insidious form of censorship enabled by executive orders targeting DEI initiatives and reframing American history. Nelson concludes that such preemptive self-restriction, rather than protecting institutions, normalizes self-censorship and transforms museums into complicit agents of authoritarian control, undermining their stated commitments to diversity, academic freedom, and the free exchange of ideas.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1162\/octo.a.558","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,5]],"date-time":"2026-08-05T16:46:29Z","timestamp":1785948389000},"page":"195-200","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1162\/mitpressjournals.corrections.policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Soft Censorship"],"prefix":"10.1162","author":[{"given":"Steven","family":"Nelson","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"281","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,1]]},"container-title":["October"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/direct.mit.edu\/octo\/article-pdf\/doi\/10.1162\/OCTO.a.558\/2619263\/octo.a.558.pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"syndication"},{"URL":"https:\/\/direct.mit.edu\/octo\/article-pdf\/doi\/10.1162\/OCTO.a.558\/2619263\/octo.a.558.pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,5]],"date-time":"2026-08-05T16:46:29Z","timestamp":1785948389000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/direct.mit.edu\/octo\/article\/doi\/10.1162\/OCTO.a.558\/138039\/Soft-Censorship"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026]]},"references-count":0,"journal-issue":{"issue":"197","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,1]]},"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,1]]}},"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1162\/octo.a.558","relation":{},"ISSN":["0162-2870","1536-013X"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0162-2870","type":"print"},{"value":"1536-013X","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published-other":{"date-parts":[[2026]]},"published":{"date-parts":[[2026]]}}}