Smithsonian watchdog questions $36,500 spent on Cooper Hewitt weapons exhibit

A Smithsonian inspector general report questioned $36,500 in federal money set aside for American women's history that the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum used for an installation about homes destroyed by U.S.-made weapons.

The findings were published in a June 30 evaluation report by the Smithsonian's Office of Inspector General that examined how the New York museum reviewed an installation titled "Patterns of Life."

The installation ran from November 2024 to August 2025 as part of the "Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial." It presented architectural models of homes in Iraq, Syria and Palestine destroyed by weapons made in the United States, a work by data journalist Mona Chalabi and SITU Research.

"Cooper Hewitt used federal funds from the American Women's History Initiative pool without notifying fund administrators that the exhibit no longer had the nexus to American women's history as initially proposed," the report said.

The installation drew more than 2,600 complaints through an email campaign, the report said.

The work began in June 2023 as an untitled series of dioramas about how physical structures shape lives, the report said. By early 2024, it became "Patterns of Life," featuring models of homes destroyed in airstrikes in Iraq in 2015, Syria in 2016 and Palestine in 2023.

The exhibition took its name from a term used in drone warfare. Its introductory text said militaries increasingly rely on remote surveillance to identify targets and can mistake the routines of civilian life for threats.

Cooper Hewitt flagged the installation for a formal review under Smithsonian Directive 603, which governs sensitive content, and presented it twice to a committee of senior officials before the show opened, the report said.

The committee raised concerns about the focus on U.S.-manufactured weapons. The museum revised its label text to describe the United States as both the world's largest arms producer and the leading financial contributor to United Nations peacekeeping.

Kevin Gover, the Smithsonian's undersecretary for museums and culture, approved the labels in October 2024. The same framing appeared in the installation's wall text.

After the show opened, museum director Maria Nicanor elevated a visitor complaint that the installation was biased against the United States and Israel, and officials added a trigger warning, the report said.

Investigators said the warning was a small placard they had trouble locating, placed one floor below the exhibit.

The report found that the museum did not violate the directive. It also said Gover told investigators the committee "should have required that Cooper Hewitt spend time consulting with others who have different points of view about the war in Gaza."

The inspector general made seven recommendations to tighten the review process. Management agreed with six and rejected one that would have required periodic training for staff who develop content and tracking of who completed it.

Federal money covers 35% of Cooper Hewitt's operating budget, the report said.

The exhibit also drew organized opposition from outside the government. In May 2025, the Israeli legal advocacy group Shurat HaDin urged Vice President JD Vance and other officials to cancel it, calling the installation "emotionally manipulative storytelling" that pushed an "anti-American, and anti-Israel agenda."

The group's president, Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, said the show omitted Hamas's October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

The audit ran alongside separate pressure on the Smithsonian's content.

In March 2025, President Donald Trump ordered a review of exhibit content the administration deemed "ideological indoctrination or divisive narratives," and the Smithsonian Board of Regents called for its own study in June 2025.

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