“We are cut off”: Trump administration terminates outstanding grants to Colorado cultural groups

The Trump administration has terminated millions of dollars in grant money for humanities organizations across the U.S., including groups that help thousands of Coloradans access cultural programming.

Late Wednesday night, Colorado Humanities, the state humanities council, received an email from the acting director of the National Endowment for the Humanities announcing that grant money that was awarded but not yet collected was immediately canceled. 

The letter said canceling the funds was “an urgent priority for the administration,” and that “due to exceptional circumstances, adherence to the traditional notification process is not possible.”

“We are cut off,” Debra Kalish, board chair for Colorado Humanities, said Friday in an interview with The Colorado Sun. 

The National Endowment for the Humanities was established by Congress together with the National Endowment for the Arts in 1965. The agencies provide federal grants for arts and culture nationwide. The NEH funds research and historical preservation at museums, libraries and universities, as well as operating support for state humanities councils. 

Colorado Humanities is awarded a set amount of money through the federal budget. As of Wednesday night, they said that they were blocked from accessing any of those funds. 

The agency works with more than 120 partner organizations each year, including libraries, museums, local governments and nonprofits to present a wide variety of humanities focused programming. 

Continuation of the NEA and NEH under President Trump has always been in doubt. Trump tried repeatedly to eliminate the agencies during his first term by writing them out of the federal budget, only to be blocked by bipartisan support for the agencies in Congress. The Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank behind Project 2025, has called the endowments “wasteful” and suggested that grants supporting arts and humanities are “better done by private contributions.” 

This time around, the orders are coming from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. On Tuesday morning, managers at the NEH told staff that DOGE was recommending reductions of as much as 70% to 80% of the 180-person staff, and the immediate cancellation of all Biden-era grants that have not been paid out, The New York Times first reported. The future of the agency itself is unclear.

“I hope we are never gone — but if we were to disappear, it would have far-reaching effects. I think every Coloradan would see the effect of the absence of humanities support,” said Maggie Coval, executive director of Colorado Humanities. “Not just from us, but in their museums and libraries and parks and, you know, just all of their favorite places they go to learn and to enjoy the cultural and historical heritage of our state.”

Without the awarded 2025 grants, the agency will have to shut down programs like the “Museum on Main Street,” a traveling Smithsonian exhibit that Colorado Humanities brought to 10 rural communities throughout the state.

“Not only does that give (communities) access to that kind of learning, it also boosts the local economy,” Sarah Olivier, associate director of Colorado Humanities, said of the Museum on Main Street exhibition. “We see small towns really rally around that kind of programming. It also provides resources, both financial and logistical support for those communities to preserve their own histories and gather their own stories.”

Olivier pointed to Trinidad, which developed companion programs for the exhibition that explored the social and economic history of the region.

Support for rural libraries also at risk

Since 1998, the NEH has awarded grants to almost 300 programs in Colorado, ranging from $500 funds for library programming to a more than $600,000 grant to History Colorado for the digitalization of Colorado’s historic newspapers.  

The cancellation is meant to apply to grants covering fiscal years 2021-25, and no remaining grants will be paid out during 2025, according to reporting by NPR. In Colorado, more than $9 million has been awarded to 57 projects in 14 cities and towns since 2021.

Some of the largest grants awarded were to History Colorado for programming at their seven museums and four historical sites, and to install a permanent exhibition about the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre at the organization’s Denver museum. 

Among the grants that could be affected are $200,000 in matching funds for Colorado State University to construct a Center for Engaged Humanities in Fort Collins; a $10,000 grant for the National Mining Museum in Leadville to purchase new equipment; $73,000 for a traveling exhibition developed by the Denver Art Museum; and $30,000 for the Colorado Boarding School oral history project by History Colorado. A number of research grants at the University of Colorado, Fort Lewis College in Durango and the University of Colorado Colorado Springs also will be terminated before their end date.

On Monday, the administration also put the entire staff of the Institute of Museum and Library Services on administrative leave. While the NEH funds mostly projects, initiatives, and humanities councils, the IMLS is the main source of federal support for the country’s libraries and museums.

As The Colorado Sun has reported, libraries, especially those in far-flung rural communities, are more than just a place to check out books. They serve as tech hubs, workforce centers and a place for people to comfortably take telehealth appointments, saving them hours on the road. Colorado receives around $3 million every year from the IMLS for things such as literacy programming for young children, maintaining digital collections and conducting workforce training in rural areas.

“The humanities express who we are. It’s how we tell stories about who we are and where we’re going, they’re how people envision the future that they want to create,” Olivier said. “And so that’s what’s at stake. Those things that we use to come together, develop traditions, form bonds, share and explore ideas, all of the things that humanize us.”

“And learn about other cultures,” Kalish added.