Smithsonian Exhibits Need Great Storytelling, Not More Politics

“Where is Toby? Where is Dolly? What about Johnny Cash? Willie? Merle? Loretta Lynn? Darius Rucker? Geez, I’d even take the Dixie Chicks!”

My wife Tanya is a huge country music fan, and those were her questions as we walked through the Smithsonian’s “Entertainment Nation” exhibit at the National Museum of American History on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

The exhibit opened in December 2022 as the woke wave crested in America, and it showcases why President Donald Trump issued an executive order last week promising to “restore truth and sanity to American history.” The order assigned Vice President J.D. Vance, in his role on the Smithsonian’s Board of Regents, to “remove improper ideology” from the museums and other attractions supported by our tax dollars.

And while we eventually saw a brief glimpse of Dolly Parton and the Dixie Chicks appear in a flyover LED video ribbon above the exhibits, the message was not about their music and instead focused on Dolly’s acting role in the movie “9 to 5” about her sexist boss and the Chicks’ nude cover story after being slammed by those evil country music fans who supported our troops in Iraq.

After some in-depth online research after our visit, we uncovered a few minor references to country music in the exhibit and its curators have promised to rotate in artifacts on a regular basis, but the “Entertainment Nation” we saw a few weeks ago eliminated country music from American history. We saw “Crazy Rich Asians”and an immersive media experience in the form of a lecture on how “entertainment has long traded in racist, dehumanizing stereotypes.” It told us we should feel guilty for being entertained by Disney’s “Peter Pan.” As we stood there, we wanted to simply scream: Crazy!

But, of course, we couldn’t find Patsy Cline anywhere.

“How can there be an entertainment exhibit in our official American history museum that doesn’t celebrate a truly red, white, and blue musical genre like country?” my wife asked in frustration.

How can a museum exhibit inside the National Museum of American History spend more time on “A Handmaid’s Tale,” created by a Canadian author, than a “Coal Miner’s Daughter” from Kentucky?

Goal To Create ‘Compassion’

The answer is in the YouTube video promoting the exhibit, where eight curators and museum design professionals from the Smithsonian smugly talk about their goal in the exhibit to “use history to empower people to create a more just and compassionate future.”

On a side note, please send DOGE to the Smithsonian because I have no idea why it would take that many curators to handle a 7,200-square-foot exhibit.

These museum professionals talk of “diversity,” “injustices,” and “entertainment as a force for change” without realizing that country music celebrates all those things in a way that connects with the Americans who travel to our nation’s capital while listening to country songs that embrace the “empowerment” these curators crave so much. 

Celebrating Real Empowerment

Whether it’s Cash singing about “rich folks eatin’ in a fancy dinin’ car” on that train running by Folsom Prison or Lynn singing about how when a true man picks up trash, “he puts it in a garbage can,” country music truly is a nonpartisan celebration of everything these curators say they want, but without the liberal condescension.

And that’s because country music is entertainment.

While Prince’s iconic yellow cloud guitar was on display in the exhibit when we visited, the curators forgot to follow one of the late musicians most important rules: “When you don’t talk down to your audience,” Prince said, “then they can grow with you.” In fact, one of the reasons why Cash’s songs had so much impact was because he too believed in putting the audience first. “You’ve got to make them think that you’re one of them sitting out there with them too.”

Wouldn’t it be nice if Prince and the Man in Black are singing duets in heaven?

And wouldn’t it be nice if when you visited one of the Smithsonian’s museums in our nation’s capital, you felt something other than the shame curators want you to feel for enjoying “Breakfast at Tiffany’s?” What President Trump’s executive order got right, is that the very best museum exhibits and experiences, “ignite the imagination of young minds, honor the richness of American history and innovation and instill pride in the hearts of all Americans.”

How to Improve Museums and Visitor Centers

President Trump’s executive order focuses on our nation’s “unparalleled legacy of advancing liberty, individual rights and human happiness.” If I were to edit the order, I would add something about requiring all curators, interpretive planners, and experience designers working on taxpayer-funded exhibits in museums and visitor centers to focus on stories that connect us and emotionally move us rather than divide us. “Entertainment Nation” should have emphasized that.

That’s really the greatest tragedy of our nation’s many woke exhibits. They fail to connect us or move us because the ideology is getting in the way of great storytelling. No one should leave “Entertainment Nation” without tears in their eyes, a laugh in their bellies, and smiles on their faces.

While the government is helpless to keep Disney from destroying its brand further through woke bombs like “Snow White,” Trump and Vance do have both the responsibility and the right to demand that institutions such as the Smithsonian focus first on telling authentic and inspiring stories that their guests will love. At the very least, they should tell both sides of the story.

Geoff Thatcher is the Founder & Chief Creative Officer at Creative Principals, and is the author of “The CEO’s Time Machine.”