Museums won’t rebuild trust by choosing sides

A recent, provocative Conversation essay argues that museums can help rebuild trust in a divided America. The claim rests on a reassuring premise: museums remain among the nation’s most trusted institutions, uniquely capable of fostering dialogue and civic repair. The problem is not that this vision is misguided in theory. It is that it no longer describes how most elite museums actually behave.

Trust is not a sentiment. It is experienced through tone, framing, and whether visitors feel invited into inquiry or ushered toward conclusions. By that standard, many of America’s most prominent museums are not rebuilding trust. They are narrowing their audience while insisting they still speak for the whole.

Consider the Whitney Museum. In 2017, it mounted An Incomplete History of Protest, an exhibition that explicitly framed