Plans to celebrate America's 250th anniversary were underway. Then came the federal funding cuts

Boston Globe

14-04-2025

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'What is it going to mean for small towns and rural communities who were expecting the possibility of having grants to do special exhibits, special commemorations, their own programs, and speakers and performers? All of that is now extremely tenuous. And those are exactly the kinds of things people have been looking forward to.'
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The head of Washington state's humanities council said the NEH funding cuts appeared at odds with Trump's focus on the commemorations. Earlier this year, the president signed an executive order creating a White House task force to plan a 'grand celebration worthy of the momentous occasion of the 250th anniversary of American Independence.'
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'The organization that's positioned to do that for America is the National Endowment for the Humanities,' said Julie Ziegler, chief executive and executive director of Humanities Washington.
The White House and the NEH did not respond to requests for comment.
The humanities funding cuts come as Trump has targeted cultural establishments from the Smithsonian Institution to the Institute of Museum and Library Services in executive orders. The moves are part of his goals to downsize the federal government and end initiatives seen as promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion. The order directed at the Smithsonian, for example, said it has 'come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology.'
To comply with the orders, federal agencies have scrubbed images and information designated as DEI material from websites pertaining to certain parts of American history. That ranges from a webpage highlighting baseball trailblazer Jackie Robinson's military service to the National Park Service removing content about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad. Both were restored after a public outcry.
'I think that what's happening is the administration is trying to shape the history that we're going to tell in a way that's unprecedented,' said James Grossman, executive director of the American Historical Association. 'The expertise of professional historians is being set aside in favor of a narrow, ideologically driven idea of the American past.'
State humanities councils across the country have been discussing how to present the myriad histories that make up the United States for the 250th commemoration events. But leaders of those councils say the loss of money from the National Endowment for the Humanities means some events are now unlikely to take place.
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The NEH is a federal agency that awards money appropriated by Congress to a variety of recipients, including state humanities councils, museums, universities, and historic sites. The money supports educational programs, research, and preservation, among other things.
This month, the Trump administration's Department of Governmental Efficiency, overseen by billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk, placed roughly 80 percent of NEH staff members on administrative leave, according to the Federation of State Humanities Councils.
The NEH also sent letters to state humanities councils across the country saying their federal grants had been terminated. The halt in funding came during the middle of the fiscal year for thousands of organizations and is causing widespread changes in their programs, including planning for the 250th anniversary.
Georgia Humanities, the state's humanities council, has been planning various events for the 250th anniversary, said president Mary McCartin Wearn.
They include a statewide 'digital book club' in partnership with the state's public library service, a program for speakers to travel across the state to give lectures and presentations, and a Smithsonian Institution program known as Museum on Main Street, which brings traveling exhibits to small towns and rural areas.
But the council has now lost $740,000 in federal funding that had been awarded to it, placing those programs in jeopardy, said McCartin Wearn, who has been fielding calls and emails from people asking about the status of their programming for the anniversary events.
'It's really something that is heartbreaking, because it is a moment for reflection about who we are and who we want to be,' she said.
Adam Davis, executive director of Oregon Humanities, said his state had already run trainings at rural libraries and begun conversations about 'freedom, equality, how we remember key events, why we monumentalize or memorialize big things, and how we should do that.'
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'You can celebrate the 250th by having a commercial at the Super Bowl and waving a big flag,' Davis said. 'You could also do things like get community members talking to each other about the core values in the country and what we hope for, and you can build trust and strengthen the fabric of our democracy.'
Without the funding, he said, 'the scale is going to be quite different.'
Miranda Restovic, president and executive director of the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, said the state's role in the nation's history makes the 250th anniversary 'a really wonderful opportunity.' However, the funding cuts, which amount to $600,000 this fiscal year, put her organization in 'contingency planning mode rather than continuing to think creatively about how we celebrate that important moment for our nation and our history.'
In a state that has shaped American history, cuisine, and culture, the group's plan for the 250th anniversary was to 'nudge' people around the state to design programs that would show off the distinct flavors of their communities.
'We were planning to lean into us as a grant maker and support local initiatives that celebrated the 250th so that people can tell their own story,' Restovic said. 'We are likely not going to be able to do that.'
Brenda Thomson, executive director of Arizona Humanities, said she had been imagining dramatic readings of the Bill of Rights, theater productions, parades, book readings, and festivals as activities that communities would be putting on 'with a heightened sense of pride' for the 250th anniversary.
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She said the $1 million cut to her organization will mean curtailing those activities in a way that will not allow the telling of the nation's full story. She lamented what would be lost.
'How do you know what you're doing if you don't know where you came from,' she said.