Photo credit: www.publishersweekly.com

Grant Terminations by NEH Impact Arts and Culture Organizations Nationwide

On April 2, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) issued letters to numerous arts and culture organizations across the United States, notifying them of the abrupt termination of their previously awarded grants.

These communications, sent on official NEH letterhead and signed by acting director Michael McDonald, stated that the grants were no longer aligned with the agency’s current needs and priorities. The correspondence emphasized the necessity of immediate termination to protect the interests and fiscal priorities of the federal government. It also indicated that the NEH was redirecting its funding in accordance with the President’s agenda.

Among the multitude of organizations affected are state humanities councils in every state, which typically support initiatives such as book festivals and literacy programs, alongside various libraries and archives. Many grant recipients expressed their dismay on social media platforms and through email appeals.

Oleh Kotsyuba, the director of print and digital publications at the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, shared on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that his organization’s federal grant—its first in over 40 years—had been terminated. Kotsyuba explained that the funding was intended to allow them to engage a part-time editor to produce a bilingual anthology of Ukrainian-Jewish poetry, two plays by Lesia Ukrainka, a significant Ukrainian modernist writer, and a novel by Maik Yohansen, a writer executed in 1937 by the Stalin regime.

Humanities Tennessee, in a recent email communication, reported that all state councils received similar termination notices regarding their NEH grants. The organization highlighted the adverse impact on programs including the Southern Festival of Books, which fosters literacy and connects students with authors through programs like Student Readers Days, as well as history commemorations related to the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

Despite the FY 2025 budget allocating $200.1 million for the NEH, of which $74.4 million was designated for grants, officials have communicated that “no upcoming awards” will be distributed in the next fiscal year.

The timing of these terminations coincided closely with the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) releasing its annual report detailing the economic contributions of the arts and cultural sector to the U.S. economy. According to the report, this sector, which encompasses both commercial and nonprofit entities, generated approximately $1.2 trillion in 2023 and expanded at a rate double that of the overall economy during the previous year. The contributions from the arts represented 4.2% of GDP in 2023.

The NEA’s extensive definition of the arts and cultural sector includes a variety of industries; about 35 different groups are encompassed. In 2023, the largest arts industry was web publishing and streaming, which comprises internet content and broadcasting, music and film archives, as well as comic syndicates and photo distribution services. Other significant contributors to GDP from the arts sector include broadcasting, government-funded arts education, traditional publishing, and the film and video industries.

Notably, the value the arts sector contributed to the U.S. economy in 2023 surpassed that of several other industries, such as agriculture, mining, outdoor recreation, and transportation. Furthermore, the sector’s exports exceeded imports by nearly $37 billion, highlighting its role in international trade.

Employment within the arts and culture sector is also considerable, with nearly 5.4 million people engaged in these fields, according to the NEA report. The findings serve as a crucial reminder of the substantial economic clout of the arts in the U.S. economy, as noted by Sunil Iyengar, the NEA’s director of research and analysis, who emphasized the importance of acknowledging the diverse industries that contribute to this vibrant sector.

Source
www.publishersweekly.com