History Under Siege!
A Town Hall on Saving America's Story
Bunker Fridays: Museum Edition
Hosted by: Phyllis Hecht
Friday, July 24th, 4:00 - 5:00 PM ET
ABOUT THE EVENT
Zakros InterArts presents a special Bunker Fridays: Museum Edition in response to the White House report Saving America’s Story: How Ideological Capture at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History Erases Our Heritage.
The report takes aim at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, raising urgent questions for museums, historians, educators, students, cultural workers, trustees, citizen historians, and the public. Who gets to tell America’s story? What happens when historical complexity is framed as ideology? How should museums respond when public trust, scholarship, interpretation, and institutional independence come under political pressure?
For those who work in, care about, visit, teach with, support, or learn from museums, this is about much more than one institution. It is about the public trust museums hold. It is about whether American history can be told as a full, unfinished, contested, artifact-rich story — or whether national museums will be pressured to offer a narrower, simpler, more politically convenient version of the past.
Hosted by Phyllis Hecht, this informal online town hall will bring together leading museum, cultural, and history voices: Elaine Heumann Gurian, Gretchen Jennings, Chandra Manning and Max van Balgooy.
This will not be a formal panel, but a participatory conversation about what is at stake for museums, public history, students, professionals, communities, and citizens. The discussion will consider what national museums owe to history, communities, visitors, and democracy — and how museum workers, educators, citizen historians, and concerned members of the public can speak up for a fuller, more honest public history.
ABOUT Phyllis Hecht
Phyllis Hecht is a recognized leader in museums, technology, and education, passionate about using digital innovation to build dynamic communities. A pioneer in museum technology, she helped shape the National Gallery of Art’s first website, transforming how audiences connect with art. As Founding Director of the Museum Studies M.A. program at Johns Hopkins University, she created an influential online learning community. Her work explores the interplay of emerging technologies and the power of storytelling in fostering inclusive creative communities.
ABOUT Elaine Heumann Gurian
Elaine Heumann Gurian is an internationally recognized museum consultant, writer, lecturer, and advisor whose work has influenced museums and museum studies programs worldwide. She has held senior leadership roles at the Smithsonian Institution, the National Museum of the American Indian, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and has advised major museums including the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the National Museum of American History. Her writings, including Civilizing the Museum, have helped shape thinking about museums as civic, public, and ethical institutions.
ABOUT Gretchen Jennings
Gretchen Jennings has worked in and with museums for more than 40 years as an educator, editor, exhibition project leader, and advocate for museums as sites of social engagement. She served as Director of Education for Interpretation and Visitor Experience at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and directed award-winning traveling exhibitions. She is a founder of the Empathetic Museum project, a contributor to MASSAction, and co-creator of the Substack Museums Act Together. She also participates in the Citizen Historians for the Smithsonian initiative.
ABOUT Chandra Manning
Chandra Manning is professor of history and director of the Georgetown Institute for Global History at Georgetown University. She teaches U.S. history, with a focus on the 19th century, including the Civil War, slavery and emancipation, citizenship, Lincoln, and the American Revolution. She is the award-winning author of What This Cruel War Was Over and Troubled Refuge. A former National Park Service Ranger, she has advised historic sites, museums, historical societies, and community groups. She is also co-founder of Citizen Historians for the Smithsonian.
ABOUT Max van Balgooy
Max van Balgooy is Assistant Professor and Graduate Advisor in Museum Studies at the George Washington University Corcoran School of Arts and Design, where he teaches museum management, community engagement, project management, sustainability, and the interpretation of historic sites. A nationally recognized scholar-practitioner, he has more than 35 years of experience in museums, historic preservation, heritage tourism, and historic sites. Through Engaging Places, LLC, he works with museums, historic sites, public agencies, and cultural organizations on interpretation, governance, strategic planning, community engagement, and sustainability.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Smithsonian National Museum of American History Director Defends Work Amid White House Criticism
Smithsonian National Museum of American History Director Dr. Anthea Hartig testifies before the House Oversight Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency amid White House criticism of the museum.
White House Report: Saving America’s Story
The July 2026 White House report on the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.
Citizen Historians for the Smithsonian: Response to the White House Report
A July 10 newsletter offering a public-history response to the report and encouraging citizens to contact elected representatives and Smithsonian Regents.
Museums Act Together — Gretchen Jennings on Substack
A Substack focused on museums, civic responsibility, and collective action in the field.
ABOUT BUNKER FRIDAYS
Bunker Fridays is a live online discussion series from Zakros InterArts that brings artists, scholars, cultural workers, journalists, technologists, and public thinkers together to examine democracy, media, power, civic life, and the cultural institutions that help shape public imagination.
Bunker Fridays: Museum Edition focuses on museums as civic spaces — places where history, evidence, memory, interpretation, community, and public trust come together.