There are more immediate fears from the coming rightwing tyranny, but I’ve been thinking about how the arts have been treated in 20th century authoritarian states. Arguably the Soviet Union was the worst of all but maybe that’s because it persisted for 74 years while the Nazis only ruled Germany for 12.
They both banned any form of modernity in the arts, persecuted and/or imprisoned and/or exiled most of their leading composers, painters, writers, and actors.
Wassily Kandinsky (watercolor above) was a double exile, first from the Soviet Union and then from Nazi Germany. He did OK in Paris but I imagine absent the Nazis he would have preferred to stay at the Bauhaus.
Fascist Italy was an exception, maybe because the Futurist artists were very influential in its founding. The Fascist-era train stations in Venice and Florence are spectacular (Rome from the 1950s not). The EUR neighborhood of Rome, which was supposed to be site of an international exposition, is a modernist masterpiece.
But I suspect our leaders will be more like the Nazis. The National Endowment for the Arts has always been a rightwing target since its founding by LBJ in 1965. What will happen to it now?
We already spend less than any other wealthy western nation on the arts. Art and music education in public schools is in decline.
What sorts of censorship might we see? We already have rightwing zealots removing books from school and public libraries. I think they will only be emboldened now.