Arts and cultural organizations across Washington learned this week that the National Endowment for the Humanities is cancelling or rescinding upward of $10 million in cultural funding the state was set to receive.
The cuts are part of a broader clawback of federal humanities funding by the Trump Administration and its DOGE initiative. The money was appropriated by Congress and awarded in all 50 states.
The National Endowment for the Humanities is a federal agency that supports state and local museums, historic sites, universities, teachers, libraries, documentary filmmakers and local humanities programming.
Local and state organizations began receiving letters late Wednesday night from the federal agency stating that: “Your grant no longer effectuates the agency’s needs and priorities and conditions of the Grant Agreement and is subject to termination. … Your grant’s immediate termination is necessary to safeguard the interests of the federal government, including its fiscal priorities.”
Humanities Washington is the state humanities council. It uses federal funding to run children’s reading programs in libraries and schools, adult education, the Washington State Poet Laureate program, history and culture speaker series, humanities fellowships and other programming in cities and towns across the state. It also disburses grants for initiatives like cultural history projects about Washington.
“The attack on the NEH is an attack on community-minded people and cultural organizations across the state,” said Julie Ziegler, executive director of Humanities Washington in a news release. "People working to educate themselves and their children, wanting to better understand others in their communities, and looking to live fuller, happier lives will all be affected. The humanities provide all of these things and more.”
Humanities Washington is set to lose $6 million from the cancelled grants. According to Inspire Washington, a statewide cultural advocacy organization, the National Endowment for the Humanities has provided $14 million for cultural programming in the state over the past five years.
