How Ideologues Infiltrated the Arts

[Valin]

The Free Press

Artists nationwide say they’re being put to an ideological litmus test. ‘It felt like somebody holding a gun to my head saying: your integrity or your life’s work.’

By Rikki Schlott

February 1, 2023

Last month, we brought you John Sailer’s investigation into how diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives are supplanting the core mission of our nation’s universities—putting social justice ahead of the search for the truth. Today, The Free Press brings you our second story in this series, showing how these same DEI demands are transforming fine arts institutions and foundations across the country. 

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The trouble began for Lincoln Jones, as it did for so many in the summer of 2020, with the black square.

Jones, 47, is a longtime and celebrated Los Angeles–based choreographer. For 11 years he has run the American Contemporary Ballet company. His work has been featured regularly in The New York Times and Los Angeles Magazine, which called his 2012 ballet Serenade in A “a multifaceted snapshot of beautiful choreography crisply integrated with music.”

By any measure, his career has been hugely successful.

But Jones noticed things starting to change after May 2020, when George Floyd was murdered by Minnesota police. “All of a sudden, it felt like you had to make your practices, discussion, everything, not only about race but about diversity, equity, and inclusion.”

He became increasingly unsettled by what he saw as coercive demands on speech and behavior. “I specifically don’t make art political, but the arts were becoming a tool of an ideology,” Jones, who is white, recalled. “It felt like something sacred was being violated by crossing politics and art—almost like crossing church and state.”

Suddenly, in the summer of 2020, questions swirled over whether his company ought to post the black square, which signified support for Black Lives Matter, on their company’s official Instagram. 

(Snip)