Mellon Foundation Announces $15 Million for Humanities Councils
The Mellon Foundation on Tuesday announced $15 million in emergency funding for state humanities councils across the country, throwing what advocates say is a crucial lifeline after the cancellation of federal support had left some in danger of collapse.
The new funding, which will support humanities councils in all 50 states and six jurisdictions, comes a month after the National Endowment for the Humanities abruptly cut off federal funding for the councils, as well as most of its existing grants. The endowment, which had a budget of $207 million last fiscal year, is the nation's largest public funder of the humanities, providing crucial support to museums, historical sites, cultural festivals and community projects.
The $15 million from the Mellon Foundation will offset only a portion of the $65 million the state councils were set to receive this year from the humanities endowment, as appropriated by Congress. But Elizabeth Alexander, the foundation's president, said it would help preserve humanities programs, particularly in rural states without a robust base of private philanthropy.
'The projects that fall under the rubric of the humanities are of an extraordinary range,' she said. 'It would be terrible if countless people across the country lost access to all the things that help us understand what it is to be human, in history and in a contemporary community.'
The money from the Mellon Foundation, the nation's largest funder of arts and humanities projects overall, with an annual grant-making budget of about $550 million, is a one-time infusion. Every council will get $200,000 in immediate operational support. Most of the remainder will come in the form of $50,000 challenge grants, which must be matched by other sources.
When the humanities endowment canceled virtually all of its existing grants earlier this month, after a review by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, it told recipients that it was redirecting its funding toward 'the President's priorities.' Last week, the agency announced it was committing $17 million to support the National Garden of American Heroes, a patriotic sculpture park that President Trump first called for during his first term. (Another $17 million will come from the National Endowment of the Arts.)
The agency also laid off nearly two thirds of its staff of about 180. And it announced a new grant program, 'Celebrate America!,' which will provide up to $6.25 million in grants for projects timed to the 250th anniversary of American independence in 2026.
For the humanities councils, the end of federal funding is an existential threat. Phoebe Stein, the president of the Federation of State Humanities Councils, which will administer the Mellon Foundation funding, said that 40 percent of councils had reported having less than six months of reserve funds.
'This is an absolute lifeline to restabilize the councils,' Stein said. They 'are really looking at this as a moment to take a breath as they find long-term solutions.'
While humanities councils may have a low profile, they support book festivals, literary events, local history projects and historical sites. They are also drivers of local economies, including tourism; according to the federation, every $1 of federal support results in $2 in private investment.
The Mellon Foundation, whose assets totaled about $7.9 billion at the end of 2023, has taken emergency action before. In 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic threatened the survival of many cultural organizations, it increased its annual grant making, to $500 million from about $300 million. In June of that year, it also announced a 'major strategic evolution' that would prioritize social justice.
Alexander, a poet and literary scholar who has led the foundation since 2018, said that recent cuts across the federal government, not just at the humanities endowment, had inflicted devastating impacts on many of its grant recipients. The foundation was considering other emergency aid, she said, but it could not replace all lost federal support.
'Philanthropy itself is not able to plug all of those holes,' Alexander said. 'For the humanities in particular, we thought this was someplace we had a responsibility to do what we could.'
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