Organizations Lose Pivotal Grants as DOGE Takes Axe to Humanities Agency

A paid undergraduate internship to train the next generation of museum professionals. A program to educate collections care professionals on climate resilience. Archaeological research at two former Native American boarding school sites.

These are just some of the projects that received grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) in January, before the Trump administration enabled Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to take an axe to the cultural funding agency. Now, the fate of these initiatives hangs in the balance as the NEH sends grant termination notices to organizations including libraries, museums, and archives across the United States.

The Museum of the City of New York in Manhattan received one such notice yesterday, April 2, terminating a $100,000 NEH grant for its Changing the Face of Democracy: Shirley Chisholm at 100 exhibition and related programs — including a school curriculum about the first Black woman elected to Congress, developed in conjunction with the show.

“Your grant’s immediate termination is necessary to safeguard the interests of the federal government, including its fiscal priorities,” read the letters NEH sent to museums and institutions, reviewed by Hyperallergic.

It’s unclear at this stage how many organizations received the notices, but a senior NEH official told NPR today that millions of dollars in previously awarded grants covering the 2021–2025 period had been canceled. The official, who is not named by NPR because he is not authorized to speak publicly on internal matters, is quoted as saying that “no upcoming awards” will be made in the 2025 fiscal year.

The West End Museum in Boston was informed yesterday of the termination of its $25,000 NEH grant, announced in January, to pursue explore LGBTQ+ presence and activism in the historic neighborhood. The museum’s origins date back to the displacement of residents from the ethnically diverse West End by so-called “urban renewal” programs of the 1950s.

“Our organization was founded by people whose homes were seized and destroyed using federal funding,” Executive Director Sebastian A. Belfanti told Hyperallergic. “That meant that winning federal support for the first time last year was especially meaningful, and losing it carries meaning beyond its economic impacts.”

The news of the slashing of grants — and of possible NEH staff reductions of 70 to 80 percent, as reported by the New York Times yesterday — comes less than a month after the forced resignation of former NEH Chair Shelly C. Lowe. The first Native American and second woman to lead the agency, Lowe was asked to step down “at the direction of President Trump,” an NEH spokesperson confirmed at the time. The NEH has not yet responded to Hyperallergic‘s most recent request for comment.

The NEH has awarded more than $6 billion in funding since it was founded in 1965 along with its sister agency, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). In the wake of Trump’s anti-trans mandates and crackdown on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives for organizations receiving federal funding, the latter came under scrutiny for updating its grant guidelines to comply with the president’s orders. The NEA dropped the new grant requirement after the American Civil Liberties Union sued the agency in a Rhode Island federal court.