School Choice Ohio celebrates 20 years, addresses voucher concerns
School Choice Ohio celebrated 20 years of fighting for school choice, or expanded educational opportunities that emphasize parental control. In Ohio, this is closely linked with Ohio's five voucher programs, which provide state scholarships for students to attend private schools. Of them, EdChoice and EdChoice Expansion have the largest participation by far and allow at least partial scholarships for all students, regardless of financial need.
NBC4 spoke with School Choice Ohio leadership before its anniversary party at the Columbus Athletic Club. President Eric 'Yitz' Frank said the organization is proud of the work it has done to increase options for parents.
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'We've spent the past 20 years communicating with hundreds of thousands of parents around the state and helping place them in better educational environments for their children and concurrently working with the legislature and governor to pass policies that help empower them,' Frank said.
EdChoice has made headlines lately as public school districts speak out against Ohio's proposed biennial budget. In its current version, which passed the Ohio House, the budget does not implement the third phase of a school funding formula. School districts say the decision would cost public schools millions in state funding while expanding budgets for voucher programs.
NBC4 asked Frank about the budget issues, and he said School Choice Ohio vouches for all education options. He said legislators have access to data that the general public may not have. Contrary to public district and educational nonprofits' impact estimates, he said some lawmakers believe districts are overinflating their need, although Frank neither agreed nor disagreed with this idea.
'I think that the state has proven that they can fund public schools adequately and school choice programs, they will do it again this budget and they will do it again in the future,' Frank said.
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Walter Banks Jr., national spokesperson for the American Federation for Children, said his life was changed — if not saved — by Ohio's EdChoice scholarship program. Banks said his mother went to his public school, which told her they would turn around the middle and high schools within five years.
'My mom knew I didn't have that much time to wait when it came to my education, so much so that she said, 'In five years, Walter will either be in jail or in a bodybag,'' Banks said. 'Because of the EdChoice scholarship program, I quickly found myself in an environment where I wasn't bullied every single day.'
Banks also attended the 20th anniversary party, representing the American Federation for Children (AFC), founded by former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. NBC News found it helped fuel a rapid influx of public funding for private Christian schools.
A national nonprofit challenged Ohio's allotment of tax dollars to private Christian schools, and it is a common criticism of the voucher system. However, state Republicans said it is constitutional because parents are able to choose where the money goes. A Utah court recently ruled voucher programs are unconstitutional, and Ohio's voucher system is currently being challenged in court. See previous coverage of the lawsuit in the video player above.
In fiscal year 2024, Ohio allocated just under $1 billion to voucher programs, more than $667.6 million of which went to EdChoice and EdChoice-Exp scholarships. NBC4 analyzed data for all 91 EdChoice and 139 EdChoice-Exp schools that received more than $1 million from the state and found all of them were religiously affiliated.
'We support putting dollars in the hands of families,' Frank said. 'If they want to take those dollars and take it to a religious school, or a satanic school or a secular school, we support all of that. These are private decisions made by private families.'
Banks said having choices expanded opportunities immensely, especially for low-income or minority students. He pointed to a new study by the Urban Institute, a nonprofit research organization, which found students were more likely to graduate college when they participated in EdChoice. Banks said the significant differences for low-income and Black students stood out to him, as he connected with them personally.
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'When primarily lower income, minority families are given the option to pick the best educational environment for them, it has lifelong impacts, not just in K-12 but even beyond that when it comes to graduating college or actually going out into society to contribute and I'm living proof of that,' Banks said. 'The life that I live now is because of school choice.'
According to state data, 89% of participants in both EdChoice and EdChoice-Exp programs in the 2024-2025 school year were not low-income qualified. However, Frank said that data only accounts for students who specifically declared their income status, which he alleged skews the data. Frank estimates about 50% of students have economic need for voucher programs, an area he has expertise in but NBC4 is unable to independently verify.
Attorneys representing the six public school districts suing the state over voucher programs argued vouchers increase racial segregation, among other things. Franklin County Common Pleas Court heard oral arguments from both sides last week, and Judge Jaiza Page will now make a ruling or refer the case to trial.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NBC4 WCMH-TV.
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Yahoo
21 hours ago
- Yahoo
Can you mount an art exhibition about race in the age of Trump?
It is one of the most evocative works from the American Civil War: A sculpture of a Black man who had escaped from slavery helping an injured White Union soldier lost in hostile territory. When it was unveiled in 1864, John Rogers' 'The Wounded Scout, a Friend in the Swamp,' was celebrated for its anti-slavery message and patriotic tone. But in 2025, a Smithsonian exhibition, 'The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture,' asked visitors to reconsider the message behind the piece. On display, the sculpture is paired with a description that prompts viewers to consider how the work, and others by Rogers 'reinforced the long-standing racist social order,' despite its pro-Union and emancipation sentiment. The exhibition's efforts to challenge enduring ideas about race and American sculpture became a subject of President Donald Trump's ire earlier this year. In an executive order, he condemned the exhibition for stating that 'sculpture has been a powerful tool in promoting scientific racism,' that 'race is a human invention' and that the United States has used race 'to establish and maintain systems of power, privilege, and disenfranchisement.' 'Museums in our Nation's capital should be places where individuals go to learn — not to be subjected to divisive narratives,' the executive order said. Trump has championed a cultural agenda built around celebrating, as the executive order put it, 'shared American values' and 'unmatched record of advancing liberty, prosperity, and human flourishing,' and he has put Vice President JD Vance, who serves on the Smithsonian's Board of Regents, in charge of stopping government spending on exhibits that don't align with that agenda. That has forced the Smithsonian into an awkward position. In June, the Smithsonian began a review of content in its museums. The institution has repeatedly said it is committed to being 'free from political or partisan influence' – but the review has raised serious questions over whether the world's largest museum complex will curb candid discussions about the country's past, beginning with exhibits like 'The Shape of Power.' Sasa Aakil, a young artist who helped with 'The Shape of Power,' said that it would be 'catastrophic' if the Smithsonian were to change many of its exhibits. 'America has never been good at truth. That's why so many people are doing the work that they're doing. That's why this exhibition exists.' Humbler displays, notable reactions For the amount of attention it garnered from the president, the exhibition at the Smithsonian's American Art Museum has a surprisingly humble, intimate feel. Tucked away on the third floor of a sprawling neo-classical building shared with the National Portrait Gallery in downtown Washington, the exhibit holds 82 sculptures dating from 1792 to 2023. The pieces are arranged according to a series of topics with prompts asking visitors to consider how they encounter the pieces. A large passage of text on the wall at the exhibition entrance says: 'Stories anchor this exhibition,' and that through it, visitors can discover how artists used sculpture to 'tell fuller stories about how race and racism shape the ways we understand ourselves.' The stated goal of for the exhibit is 'to encourage visitors to feel invited into a transparent and honest dialogue about the histories of race, racism, and the role of sculpture, art history and museums in shaping these stories,' its curators have written. Ferdinand Pettrich's 'The Dying Tecumseh,' for example, portrays a Shawnee warrior's death during the War of 1812. Completed in 1856, he is shown in a relaxed pose, reclining as if asleep. In reality, he died in battle and his body was mutilated by American soldiers. Pettrich, according to the exhibit, made the sculpture as political propaganda for Vice President Richard Mentor Johnson, who had claimed he killed Tecumseh and made the alleged act part of his campaign slogan. It also reinforced racist ideas about Native Americans during a time when the United States was rapidly expanding westward, the exhibit said. Yards away from Hiram Powers' 'Greek Slave,' a famous 19th century sculpture, is Julia Kwon's 'Fetishization,' a 2016 work featuring a hollow, female torso wrapped with a vibrant patchwork of silk bojagi, Korean object-wrapping cloth. The intention, Kwon told CNN, is to comment 'on the gravity and absurdity of the objectification of Asian female bodies.' Asked about its objections to the exhibit, Lindsey Halligan, a White House official who Trump has tasked with helping to root out 'improper ideology' at the Smithsonian, told CNN in a statement: 'The Shape of Power exhibit claims that 'sculpture has been a powerful tool in promoting scientific racism,' a statement that ultimately serves to create division rather than unity.' 'While it's important to confront history with honesty, framing an entire medium of art through such a narrow and accusatory lens overshadows its broader cultural, aesthetic, and educational value,' Halligan said in a statement. 'Instead of fostering dialogue or deeper understanding, the Shape of Power exhibit's approach alienates audiences and reduces complex artistic legacies to a single, controversial narrative. After all, it's hard to imagine Michelangelo thinking about racism as he chiseled David's abs – he was in the relentless pursuit of artistic perfection, not pushing a political agenda.' (Michelangelo's work is not part of the exhibit.) Some see value in the president's push to reshape the museums. Mike Gonzalez, a fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, expressed optimism about the Smithsonian's review, arguing that the institution should not mount exhibitions that examine the US through 'a prism of the oppressed and the oppressor.' 'I think, you know, you have to tell the whole story, not a small part of the story that is designed to make people feel grievances against their own country,' he said. But critics say the administration's review has the potential to undermine the nation's ability to understand its complicated history through art. Examining art from the past has the potential to hit at the core of how Americans understand their country, Northwestern University art history professor Rebecca Zorach told CNN, and that's the value of exhibitions like 'The Shape of Power.' 'Art provides ways to process these issues. I think some people are afraid of what it means to kind of have that opportunity,' Zorach said. The administration's claims of a 'divisive, race-centered ideology' are a 'real caricature' of what museums and other cultural institutions are trying to do, she said. It was also 'astonishing' that the administration would dispute a scientifically accepted view that race is a construct, she added. Probing questions Sasa Aakil, a 22-year-old artist who was a student collaborator on 'The Shape of Power', told CNN the exhibition was not designed to make people feel resentment towards their country, but to consider the broader context of the art. She recalled the first time she saw 'The Dying Tecumseh.' It unnerved her, she said, especially as she learned more about the distorted version of the history the artwork relayed. For Aakil, the statue is a reminder that museums have always made some people uncomfortable. 'Many of these sculptures were always problematic, were always painful and were always very violent. And this exhibition is forcing people to see that, as opposed to allowing people to live in a fantasy,' she said. Another piece, 'DNA Study Revisited' by Philadelphia artist Roberto Lugo, is intended to push back against the ways sculpture has been used to bolster ideas about racial classifications. In a self-portrait, Lugo uses different patterns that correspond to parts of his ancestry, drawing from Spanish, African, Portuguese and indigenous peoples of the Caribbean. Lugo told CNN that he believes art is 'a way for us to understand the world through someone else's experiences.' 'Through exhibitions like this, I hope we can begin to normalize storytelling from diverse communities,' he added. 'Every story matters, and art gives us a voice in a world where we have too often been silenced.' While it's unclear what changes, if any, the Smithsonian will make to 'The Shape of Power,' the institution has changed exhibits that have drawn controversy in the past. In 1978, religious groups sued over an evolution exhibition that they alleged violated the First Amendment, but a court sided with the Smithsonian, and the National Museum of Natural History kept the exhibit up. But in 1995, the Smithsonian reduced the size and scope of an exhibit on Enola Gay, the B-29 bomber that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, after veterans' groups and lawmakers complained about what it said about World War II. And in 2011, the National Portrait Gallery, which shares the same building as the American Art Museum, debuted 'Hide/Seek,' the first major museum exhibition on gender and sexual identity at the Smithsonian. The show featured the video 'A Fire in My Belly' by the late artist David Wojnarowicz, which includes a scene where ants crawl over a crucifix, prompting uproar from the Catholic League and conservative members of the House of Representatives. It was quickly removed, but not without criticism from those that argued that the Smithsonian was capitulating to homophobic censorship. The planned run for the 'The Shape of Power' exhibition began November 8, 2024, and is to continue through September 14. The Smithsonian did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story. Solve the daily Crossword
Washington Post
a day ago
- Washington Post
As U.S. hails Syria ceasefire, Sweida residents say fighting rages on
Syria's president on Saturday declared a 'comprehensive and immediate ceasefire' after nearly a week of sectarian bloodshed in the country's Druze-majority south, saying government security forces would be dispatched to the region, but street battles raged on. The fighting, which started with clashes between Druze and Bedouin militias in the city of Sweida, and drew in government forces, Sunni tribesmen and Israel, is among the deadliest since the fall of former dictator Bashar al-Assad in December. The fast-spreading violence has laid bare the challenges facing new President Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former Islamist rebel leader who is trying to rebuild a fractured Syria after a long civil war. Sharaa's ceasefire demand came shortly after the Trump administration's Syria envoy made a similar appeal — for 'Druze, Bedouins, and Sunnis to put down their weapons' and 'build a new and united Syrian identity.' The envoy, Tom Barrack, also said a 'breakthrough' had been reached between Sharaa and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after days of Israeli airstrikes on the country. Syria's interior ministry posted photographs Saturday afternoon showing what it said were government security forces outside Sweida, the epicenter of the violence, but attacks on civilians were 'still ongoing,' said a 52-year old teacher who spoke on the condition he be identified by his first name, Hossam, for safety reasons. Residents and human rights groups described a catastrophic situation in the city, where hundreds have been killed in clashes or summarily executed, and where armed men have looted and burned homes and stores. The Syrian Network for Human Rights on Friday said it had confirmed the deaths of at least 321 people. 'Whole families are without blankets, without food, without clothes, without medicine, without electricity, without water,' Hossam said. Government troops were sent to Sweida earlier this week to quell fighting between local Druze militias and Bedouin fighters, but the presence of state forces — who locals accused of abuses, some of which were filmed and went viral online — did little to calm the situation. The government began withdrawing after Israel, Syria's neighbor, carried out bombing raids on military convoys and state buildings in Damascus, the capital, saying its strikes were aimed at protecting the Druze. In the days that followed, the fighting grew more deadly as reprisal attacks intensified and large numbers of armed Sunni Arab tribesmen from across Syria headed to the region to support local Bedouins. In a speech Saturday, Sharaa said the events in Sweida were a 'dangerous turning point' in the country's development. He condemned Israel's intervention as well as the 'separatist' ambitions of some in Sweida, an apparent reference to leading Druze figures, including Hikmat al-Hijri, a spiritual leader who has opposed Sharaa's government and is seen as close to Israel. Sharaa praised the Sunni tribesmen for mobilizing but called on them to abide by the ceasefire. The president's praise for the tribes was 'deeply troubling,' Hiba Zayadin, a senior Middle East researcher for Human Rights Watch, wrote in a post on X. 'Syria needs a professional, accountable security sector — not new loyalist factions,' she said. It was far from clear Saturday if the agreement would hold. Druze and other minority communities in Syria have remained wary of Sharaa's government, doubting its commitment to inclusivity given its Sunni Islamist character. Their doubts extend to the forces the government commands, drawn from rebels that opposed Assad, among them militias long implicated in human rights violations, as well as foreign Islamist militants. The fighting in Sweida has spurred impassioned appeals that transcended borders. From sandy berms where they were sought refuge from the violence, Bedouin women called on the Sunni governments of Saudi Arabia and Jordan for help. Druze citizens of Israel gathered at the fence with Syria, demanding to be let in to help friends and family across the border. Long-standing communal tensions between Druze and Bedouin communities in Sweida have prompted previous interventions by Syria's central government, including under Assad. Israel, which has opposed Sharaa's government, in word and deed, from the moment it took power, remains a wild card in the conflict. Israeli officials have likened Sharaa and his allies to the Islamic State militant group, demanded a portion of the country, south of Damascus, be demilitarized, and carried out repeated airstrikes, many of them targeting Syrian military sites. In a post on X Saturday, Gideon Saar, Israel's foreign minister, accused Sharaa of peddling 'conspiracy theories' about Israel in his speech Saturday and said the 'international community' had a duty to ensure the protection of minorities in Syria. Even if the violence in Sweida were to stop, a difficult reckoning awaits. Among some in the government security services, there was a feeling that Sweida's Bedouin residents had suffered most. The Druze had carried out 'kidnappings and arrests of women and children,' said a military officer in the region, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media. Rabie Murshid, a Druze resident, said it was the Bedouins and their allies who had instigated the violence. 'They are burning the empty houses,' he said Friday. 'They killed the ones who stayed at home.' Mouthana Hanawie, 45, from Sahwet Blatah, south of Sweida, said on Friday that 20 of his family members had been killed. He alleged the perpetrators were government security forces and masquerading as tribesmen who entered the village Monday. Those killed included his 21-year-old son, Anas. Other victims in his village 'were buried in mass graves,' he said, and 'many of them were unidentified.' As the chaos continued Saturday, relatives of Sweida residents spent desperate hours trying to get news. Shatha, a 45-year-old woman who was outside the city, spoke to her parents at 5 a.m., when they were sleeping outside, among the trees, afraid that Bedouin gangs would attack their home. When she spoke to them later in the day, they told her their house had been burned. 'The situation is disastrous,' Shatha said. 'I imagine that there are still many missing people, and no one knows anything about their fate.'
CNN
a day ago
- CNN
Can you mount an art exhibition about race in the age of Trump?
It is one of the most evocative works from the American Civil War: A sculpture of a Black man who had escaped from slavery helping an injured White Union soldier lost in hostile territory. When it was unveiled in 1864, John Rogers' 'The Wounded Scout, a Friend in the Swamp,' was celebrated for its anti-slavery message and patriotic tone. But in 2025, a Smithsonian exhibition, 'The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture,' asked visitors to reconsider the message behind the piece. On display, the sculpture is paired with a description that prompts viewers to consider how the work, and others by Rogers 'reinforced the long-standing racist social order,' despite its pro-Union and emancipation sentiment. The exhibition's efforts to challenge enduring ideas about race and American sculpture became a subject of President Donald Trump's ire earlier this year. In an executive order, he condemned the exhibition for stating that 'sculpture has been a powerful tool in promoting scientific racism,' that 'race is a human invention' and that the United States has used race 'to establish and maintain systems of power, privilege, and disenfranchisement.' 'Museums in our Nation's capital should be places where individuals go to learn — not to be subjected to divisive narratives,' the executive order said. Trump has championed a cultural agenda built around celebrating, as the executive order put it, 'shared American values' and 'unmatched record of advancing liberty, prosperity, and human flourishing,' and he has put Vice President JD Vance, who serves on the Smithsonian's Board of Regents, in charge of stopping government spending on exhibits that don't align with that agenda. That has forced the Smithsonian into an awkward position. In June, the Smithsonian began a review of content in its museums. The institution has repeatedly said it is committed to being 'free from political or partisan influence' – but the review has raised serious questions over whether the world's largest museum complex will curb candid discussions about the country's past, beginning with exhibits like 'The Shape of Power.' Sasa Aakil, a young artist who helped with 'The Shape of Power,' said that it would be 'catastrophic' if the Smithsonian were to change many of its exhibits. 'America has never been good at truth. That's why so many people are doing the work that they're doing. That's why this exhibition exists.' For the amount of attention it garnered from the president, the exhibition at the Smithsonian's American Art Museum has a surprisingly humble, intimate feel. Tucked away on the third floor of a sprawling neo-classical building shared with the National Portrait Gallery in downtown Washington, the exhibit holds 82 sculptures dating from 1792 to 2023. The pieces are arranged according to a series of topics with prompts asking visitors to consider how they encounter the pieces. A large passage of text on the wall at the exhibition entrance says: 'Stories anchor this exhibition,' and that through it, visitors can discover how artists used sculpture to 'tell fuller stories about how race and racism shape the ways we understand ourselves.' The stated goal of for the exhibit is 'to encourage visitors to feel invited into a transparent and honest dialogue about the histories of race, racism, and the role of sculpture, art history and museums in shaping these stories,' its curators have written. Ferdinand Pettrich's 'The Dying Tecumseh,' for example, portrays a Shawnee warrior's death during the War of 1812. Completed in 1856, he is shown in a relaxed pose, reclining as if asleep. In reality, he died in battle and his body was mutilated by American soldiers. Pettrich, according to the exhibit, made the sculpture as political propaganda for Vice President Richard Mentor Johnson, who had claimed he killed Tecumseh and made the alleged act part of his campaign slogan. It also reinforced racist ideas about Native Americans during a time when the United States was rapidly expanding westward, the exhibit said. Yards away from Hiram Powers' 'Greek Slave,' a famous 19th century sculpture, is Julia Kwon's 'Fetishization,' a 2016 work featuring a hollow, female torso wrapped with a vibrant patchwork of silk bojagi, Korean object-wrapping cloth. The intention, Kwon told CNN, is to comment 'on the gravity and absurdity of the objectification of Asian female bodies.' Asked about its objections to the exhibit, Lindsey Halligan, a White House official who Trump has tasked with helping to root out 'improper ideology' at the Smithsonian, told CNN in a statement: 'The Shape of Power exhibit claims that 'sculpture has been a powerful tool in promoting scientific racism,' a statement that ultimately serves to create division rather than unity.' 'While it's important to confront history with honesty, framing an entire medium of art through such a narrow and accusatory lens overshadows its broader cultural, aesthetic, and educational value,' Halligan said in a statement. 'Instead of fostering dialogue or deeper understanding, the Shape of Power exhibit's approach alienates audiences and reduces complex artistic legacies to a single, controversial narrative. After all, it's hard to imagine Michelangelo thinking about racism as he chiseled David's abs – he was in the relentless pursuit of artistic perfection, not pushing a political agenda.' (Michelangelo's work is not part of the exhibit.) Some see value in the president's push to reshape the museums. Mike Gonzalez, a fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, expressed optimism about the Smithsonian's review, arguing that the institution should not mount exhibitions that examine the US through 'a prism of the oppressed and the oppressor.' 'I think, you know, you have to tell the whole story, not a small part of the story that is designed to make people feel grievances against their own country,' he said. But critics say the administration's review has the potential to undermine the nation's ability to understand its complicated history through art. Examining art from the past has the potential to hit at the core of how Americans understand their country, Northwestern University art history professor Rebecca Zorach told CNN, and that's the value of exhibitions like 'The Shape of Power.' 'Art provides ways to process these issues. I think some people are afraid of what it means to kind of have that opportunity,' Zorach said. The administration's claims of a 'divisive, race-centered ideology' are a 'real caricature' of what museums and other cultural institutions are trying to do, she said. It was also 'astonishing' that the administration would dispute a scientifically accepted view that race is a construct, she added. Sasa Aakil, a 22-year-old artist who was a student collaborator on 'The Shape of Power', told CNN the exhibition was not designed to make people feel resentment towards their country, but to consider the broader context of the art. She recalled the first time she saw 'The Dying Tecumseh.' It unnerved her, she said, especially as she learned more about the distorted version of the history the artwork relayed. For Aakil, the statue is a reminder that museums have always made some people uncomfortable. 'Many of these sculptures were always problematic, were always painful and were always very violent. And this exhibition is forcing people to see that, as opposed to allowing people to live in a fantasy,' she said. Another piece, 'DNA Study Revisited' by Philadelphia artist Roberto Lugo, is intended to push back against the ways sculpture has been used to bolster ideas about racial classifications. In a self-portrait, Lugo uses different patterns that correspond to parts of his ancestry, drawing from Spanish, African, Portuguese and indigenous peoples of the Caribbean. Lugo told CNN that he believes art is 'a way for us to understand the world through someone else's experiences.' 'Through exhibitions like this, I hope we can begin to normalize storytelling from diverse communities,' he added. 'Every story matters, and art gives us a voice in a world where we have too often been silenced.' While it's unclear what changes, if any, the Smithsonian will make to 'The Shape of Power,' the institution has changed exhibits that have drawn controversy in the past. In 1978, religious groups sued over an evolution exhibition that they alleged violated the First Amendment, but a court sided with the Smithsonian, and the National Museum of Natural History kept the exhibit up. But in 1995, the Smithsonian reduced the size and scope of an exhibit on Enola Gay, the B-29 bomber that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, after veterans' groups and lawmakers complained about what it said about World War II. And in 2011, the National Portrait Gallery, which shares the same building as the American Art Museum, debuted 'Hide/Seek,' the first major museum exhibition on gender and sexual identity at the Smithsonian. The show featured the video 'A Fire in My Belly' by the late artist David Wojnarowicz, which includes a scene where ants crawl over a crucifix, prompting uproar from the Catholic League and conservative members of the House of Representatives. It was quickly removed, but not without criticism from those that argued that the Smithsonian was capitulating to homophobic censorship. The planned run for the 'The Shape of Power' exhibition began November 8, 2024, and is to continue through September 14. The Smithsonian did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story.
