17-04-2025
West Virginia Humanities Council cancels grants due to federal cuts
CHARLESTON, (WBOY) — Amid federal funding cuts, the West Virginia Humanities Council has announced that it has had to cancel commitments to grants used to help fund things like local history and cultural enrichment programs at schools, museums and libraries throughout the state.
The Humanities Council awards about $350,000 in grants each year and has argued that these grants are a small and worthwhile investment that helps West Virginians understand themselves and their communities.
'We bring people together, we celebrate West Virginia's history and culture,' said the Council's Executive Director, Eric Waggoner.
Waggoner said that on April 3, he received a form email without warning that the federal money for the Humanities Council would no longer be available. Waggoner described having to inform the grantees as 'terrible.'
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'We work with local historical societies, we work with small communities, we make sure that money goes into projects in communities around the state that West Virginians in their home communities want,' Waggoner said.
Waggoner told 12 News that the West Virginia Humanities Council's total budget is about $1.8 million, and that they spend 75% of that on grants and programming. The council receives half of its funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), which was founded in 1965 and recently experienced cuts from the Trump Administration. The council has to raise the other half of the funds on its own to qualify for the federal money.
Waggoner told 12 News that funding the NEH in total costs less than one dollar per taxpayer.
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