Some art publications worship the powerful. Here at Hyperallergic, we stand by the powerless. Welcome to the 2025 edition of the 20 Most Powerless People in the Art World, our annual antidote to the asinine lists of wealthy collectors, royals, and so-called tastemakers that pervade the market-driven art media.
To be clear, the people and entities on this list are by no means weak or pitiable. Quite the opposite: They are the most resilient, unbreakable individuals and communities we can think of. This list celebrates their strength and the inspiration they give to all of us. Per tradition, we’ve peppered some of the entries with a bit of humor, another important means of resistance. Here’s to hoping for a new year that finds power in the hands of the many, not the few.
—Hakim Bishara, editor-in-chief
1. International Art Students — They come here seeking a better education, and deplete their savings to pay exorbitant tuition fees, only to be treated as security threats. They may suffer in the short term, but the real loser here is higher education in the United States.
2. Arts Organizations That Get Federal Grants — Thousands of museums and organizations had the rug pulled out from under them when Trump and Elon Musk’s short-lived DOGE axed promised grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, seemingly without rhyme or reason. Some of the latter were reinstated earlier this month, but it was too little, too late, as many recipients had already made crucial programmatic and spending decisions.
3. Undocumented Artists — Historically ignored by the art establishment, they now live under the immediate threat of being torn away from their families and deported to concentration camps in countries they’ve never set foot in. The art community should do more to protect these most vulnerable artists.
4. Smithsonian Institution — The Smithsonian relies on government funding for more than half of its budget. This must be the art world’s most toxic relationship, as the institute has nowhere else to go. The Trump administration is well aware of this and continues to escalate its abusive tactics, even releasing a chilling list of artworks at the institution that it accuses of “divisive narratives.” This has also cost the director of the National Portrait Gallery, Kim Sajet, her job. We won’t be surprised if the institution is renamed the Trumpsonian.
5. Trans Artists — Unfortunately but unsurprisingly back on Hyperallergic’s Powerless List yet again, trans and nonbinary artists suffered an especially cruel year under President Trump, whose administration is not only targeting gender-affirming care for minors but denying the very existence of trans individuals in mandates and official language. You know things are very bad when Amy Sherald, arguably one of the most renowned American painters of our era, cancels a Smithsonian exhibition over fears that her portrait of a trans woman might be censored.
The charred remains of artist Christina Quarles’s Altadena home, which was already undergoing renovations after a house fire in April (photo courtesy Christina Quarles)
6. LA Artists Who Lost Everything — When fires raged through Los Angeles in January, tearing through entire neighborhoods and towns, like historically vibrant Altadena, many artists said they lost their life’s work, not to mention their homes and studios. The cultural community was quick to respond with mutual aid and fundraisers in support of those affected, a glimmer of light amid the trauma and loss of a tragedy whose scale was likely preventable.
7. Palestinian Solidarity Activists — Silenced for speaking the truth, doxxed by shadowy groups, abducted by federal agents, their shows have been canceled, and their livelihoods destroyed. But ultimately, history will be on their side.
8. Creators of No Other Land — In September, the Israeli military raided the home of Basel Adra, co-director of this acclaimed documentary about settler violence in Palestine. Months earlier, Awdah Hathaleen, a beloved Palestinian activist and teacher who worked on the movie, was killed by an Israeli settler in the Occupied West Bank. The saga of No Other Land proves that not even Oscar-winning filmmakers are safe.
9. White House East Wing — It survived 21 administrations and periods of deep political unrest in its 123-year history until one real estate developer with particularly bad taste became a second-term president. Like many other symbols of American democracy, the White House East Wing is no more.
10. The Louvre’s Security System — Imagine being hired to protect some of the world’s most renowned art treasures and having your efforts thwarted by the dumbest security password ever. While we couldn’t independently confirm the tragic reports that the password was, yes, “LOUVRE,” countless other failings likely helped facilitate the heist of the century. Old-money taste, new-money mistakes, right?
President Trump demolished the White House East Wing to build a multimillion-dollar ballroom. (photo by Eric Lee/Getty Images)
11. National Museum of Yemen — The Sana’a museum, best known for its collection of Sabaean artifacts, reopened in 2023 in the “Palace of Happiness” (Dar Al-Sada) after being closed for a decade during the Yemeni revolution, but this past year was less than happy for the institution, which was damaged by Israeli air strikes in September.
12. Ripley’s Believe It or Not! — It must’ve seemed like a cool and wacky idea at first, to become the owners of Maurizio Cattelan’s “America” (2016). But now the company is stuck with a $12 million gold toilet that no one else wanted.
13. Artists Whose Materials Were Hit by Tariffs — Thanks to the US president’s regressive trade policies, all imported goods are more expensive now, including art materials. Makes sense, because there’s nothing Trump hates more than culture.
14. DEI Programs — While Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives at museums and cultural institutions were already extremely flawed, President Trump’s ruthless attacks on even the meekest effort to redress centuries of discrimination put the final nail in the coffin. This is especially true for federally funded organizations fearful of the president’s wrath, but the move also likely emboldened private funders and corporations to embrace his pale, male, and stale vision of culture.
15. Artists and Cultural Workers in Sudan: A report by the African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) released last month identified at least 55 artists killed in the brutal civil war, a toll that attests to “a disturbing escalation from incidental wartime loss to what human rights analysts describe as a campaign of cultural cleansing.” We stand in solidarity with our Sudanese peers and friends.
Online criticism of the Philadelphia Art Museum’s rebranding (screenshot Hyperallergic via @philamuseum on Instagram)
16. SAIC’s Video Data Bank — Video art was not exactly thriving before this happened, but when the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) decided to strip the historic Video Data Bank (VDB), the future of media-based practices began to look even bleaker.
17. The Philadelphia Art Museum’s Brand Identity — We are already nostalgic for the simpler days of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA), which this year became the Philadelphia Art Museum, uncomfortably stylized as … PhAM. That’s not all: The institution decided to rehaul its entire brand, with a new logo that looks like an AI-generated team jersey for a made-up sports team — or, in the words of online commentators, “some kind of Cold War monstrosity.”
18. Isamu Noguchi’s Legacy — The Japanese-American artist spent his entire life as an anti-fascist, while those who head his namesake museum decided to prohibit workers from wearing keffiyehs, Arab headscarves that are seen as a symbol of Palestinian solidarity. Over a year after the Noguchi Museum in New York City first announced the controversial ban, the institution is back to business as usual, but the artist’s legacy is forever stained.
19. US Pavilion at the Venice Biennale — The United States’s Venice Biennale Pavilion has seen some things this year. First Trump changed the curatorial guidelines to suit his creepy patriotic fantasies, and then Andres Serrano proposed a truly terrifying design idea that fortunately did not come to fruition. But the final punch was thrown last month, when the artist selected to represent the nation was finally announced … and he was exactly what we expected.
20. Rainbow Crosswalks — It was a bad year for the multicolored stripes painted on street crossings as a symbol of LGBTQ+ pride and solidarity. Out of the many reports of their erasure at the behest of Republican officials across the country, perhaps no incident was more egregious than Florida’s shameless removal of a rainbow crosswalk memorial honoring the victims of the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting.
Honorable Mentions
• Poorly Positioned Art Fair Booths — We’ve seen it happen: a gallery shells out several grand for a minute piece of real estate on an art fair floor, only to be relegated to a dark corner near the bathrooms — or, worse yet, a new section with an insipid and ambiguous name, like “Neutron” or “Perpetual,” that was obviously thrown together last-minute to lump all the peasants in one place.
• Art Writers Who Love Em Dashes — Many of us love a good em dash — but AI came and ruined that, too. Thank you, AI slop machines — it’s said that they use em dashes profusely — for killing our joy. But you know what — you won’t stop us!
• Beloved Art Material Shops — Having served expert knitters and crafty kindergarten teachers alike for eight decades, Joann, formerly Jo-Ann Fabrics, officially went out of business this year following two bankruptcy filings. Kremer Pigments, a family-run paint store worshipped by artists, closed its New York City location, citing rising rents and tariffs. It’s a bad omen, if you ask us.
