Abstract
Two texts by Andrea Fraser are reprinted as part of October's ongoing effort to publish contemporary documents of cultural activism that aims to create spaces of progressive resistance to threats of authoritarianism. Written as a speech delivered at the Museum Ludwig Cologne in 2017, Fraser's “Trusteeship in the Age of Trump,” demonstrates how the privatization of social services and the arts through philanthropy is part of a larger withdrawal of government responsibility for the welfare of its citizens. Accompanying the lecture is an open letter, drafted Andreas Fraser and Eric Golo Stone in late 2016 and signed by dozens of art world figures, demanding the resignation of now Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin from the Board of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.