The White House has terminated all members of an independent federal commission established by Congress to advise the president and the government “on matters of design and aesthetics, as they affect the federal interest and preserve the dignity of the nation’s capital.”
The six sitting members of the Commission of Fine Arts were notified in an email sent by White House personnel that their positions were terminated effective immediately “on behalf of Donald J. Trump,” the Washington Post first reported on Tuesday evening. According to the Post, the agency was expected to review Trump’s ballroom and proposed “Independence Arch” projects.
The terminations follow the president’s razing of the historic East Wing of the White House last week for his $300 ballroom project, despite having dubious permission to do so. The move also comes as Democrats officially inquire into the political implications of private donors funding the project.
Hyperallergic reviewed the two-sentence termination email, which was sent by Mary Sprowls from the Presidential Personnel Office, the same individual who fired the National Humanities Council earlier this month.
A White House official told Hyperallergic that the administration would appoint new individuals to the commission.
“We are preparing to appoint a new slate of members to the commission that are more aligned with President Trump’s America First Policies,” the official said in an email statement. The president has vowed, as part of his so-called “America First Priorities,” to build a border wall, axe “government bureaucracy,” implement anti-trans definitions of gender, and rename landmarks to “appropriately honor our Nation’s history.”
Congress established the Commission on Fine Arts in 1910 as a seven-person body of “well-qualified judges of the fine arts” appointed by the president. The commission’s duties, according to the original legislation, include advising on the location and selection of statues, monuments, and public parks in the District of Columbia. A 1910 executive order later expanded the commission’s oversight, according to its website, ordering that no public building would be erected in Washington, DC, without submitting plans to the agency.
The commission’s positions had been filed by architects and planners, including Howard University professor Hazel Ruth Edwards and Mellon Foundation Humanities in Place director Justin Garrett Moore, for four-year terms by the Biden Administration. The commission had been one person short of its seven-person mandate, following the departure of Billie Tsien, reportedly related to her term’s expiration.
According to the agency’s website, the commission had been on hiatus related to the government shutdown.
The firings come in a series of actions testing the limits of presidential control over design decisions in Washington, DC area. Months before he razed the East Wing for his new ballroom, Trump called for new federal buildings to be built in “classical” style, drawing condemnation from architects who argued such ordinances would encroach on creative expression and “mandate official federal design preferences.” He has also proposed an “Independence Arc” to be built in Arlington. When asked by a CBS reporter whom the landmark would be for, he pointed at himself.
Hyperallergic has attempted to contact all six former members affected by the termination.
