Arts and Humanities Agencies Brace for Familiar Threat of Extinction

The Trump administration’s reported plan for budget cuts prompts anxiety and pushback.

Employees at the National Endowment for the Humanities are worried.

Since word began spreading late last month that the Trump administration’s first draft budget would adopt long-standing conservative proposals for eliminating NEH and similar agencies, people “are living day to day,” said Talana Morton-Smith, vice president of Local 3403, the bargaining unit of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents about half of NEA’s 160-member workforce.

“There’s plenty of potential there for anything to happen,” she told Government Executive. “We have staff members who are new mothers, and some who are putting children through college while I myself was supposed to retire next year. There’s a lot of uncertainty.”

Unlike employees at the National Park Service and the Environmental Protection Agency, few NEH staff are tweeting their discontent over the rumored plan to zero-out their $146 million annual budget. “My staff is very creative and love their jobs in spite of what’s going on, and are moving forward,” she said.

They’re not helped by the hiring freeze, “which puts a burden on the employees, who feel they’re short-staffed already,” she added. Many of them have been around long enough to recall the reductions in force in the mid-1990s under then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich and the Republican Contract with America.

Though reluctant to speak to reporters, Morton-Smith said, her colleagues will be closely watching the Interior Department appropriations bill in the continuing resolution expected this spring, which also funds the equally threatened National Endowment for Arts and the Institute of Museums and Libraries (whose annual budget is $230 million). “We don’t know what’s going to happen.”

The revival of a conservative budget that guns for the endowments—based on reports linking Trump to blueprints from the Heritage Foundation and the House Republican Study Group—may not necessarily reflect the thinking of President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, though demands for deficit reduction and deference to the private marketplace may sway them.

Trump’s own foundation in the past has given money to arts organizations in New York City and West Palm Beach, according to news reports and advocacy groups. When the Washington Post last March asked candidate Trump what role the government should play in funding the endowments, he said Congress would make the determination.

“Knowing Trump’s background, I don’t think he comes out hating the endowments,” Jack Duncan, a longtime Capitol Hill Democratic aide who has served as counsel for arts organizations, told Government Executive. “His philosophy is not in line with some of the more conservative Republicans.”

Another possible mitigating factor may be Karen Pence’s work championing art therapy, some of whose practitioners receive NEA grants. The wife of Vice President Mike Pence has long supported the little-known occupation.

But Richard Ekman, president of the Council of Independent Colleges, whose members receive many NEH grants, said the advocacy groups “think it’s a little more serious than the other times when a conservative administration made a statement about getting rid of the endowments.” He points to the National Humanities Alliance, a coalition that is alarmed enough to begin marshaling arguments about the reach of endowment grants into many rural congressional districts and non-elite programs as grants that help veterans prepare for college.

Indeed, on Friday, 24 senators (including Republicans Shelly Moore Capito of West Virginia and Susan Collins of Maine) joined with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., in writing to Trump to point out that the arts and humanities sector is a $704 billion industry, accounting for 4.2 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product. “The National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities have proven invaluable in the growth of our cultural institutions that our families and children enjoy, learn from, and experience,” they said.

Tactically, Ekman said, “conservatives should favor supporting the endowments as an alternative to the much larger amounts of money that go to support the Education Department. By spending small amounts on a tough competitive [grants] process with prestige attached to it, you have stimulated educational change without the categorical funding Education throws at it.”

Small competitive grants bring “a lot of leverage” and high quality selection, he added, which brings agency matching funds and stimulates gifts from private donors—“assuming you want to do something to help the arts,” he said.

The other issue is whether a “western democracy should be doing something to support cultural advancement,” Ekman added. The endowments are “broad-gauged,” meaning they support a wide range of culture—“and not just in the home country,” he said, citing as examples grants for the traveling exhibits of Egypt’s King Tut exhibit and Ken Burns’ films. The endowments “are able to bring understanding of other parts of the world to vast numbers of Americans.”

Duncan, whose defense of arts, humanities and museum funding goes back to the 1960s, said long-standing resistance among conservatives “is probably amplified now because the arts world is defined by some people as Hollywood.” Referring to the tendency of actors to “spout off” politically at nationally televised awards ceremonies,” he said he wishes those actors “would think for five minutes.” Viewers often react by asking, “Why should the government give money to support those people?” Duncan said, “Those various demonstrations aren’t helping the cause.”

If Trump does take an ax to the endowments, there will be one ironic footnote: Though currently housed at the Constitution Center in Southwest Washington, both endowments until 2014 had their offices in Washington’s Old Post Office Building. When the General Services Administration struggled to find a full array of paying tenants, Congress pressured GSA to lease the building to the private sector. It’s now the Trump International Hotel.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.