After abrupt layoffs at a small federal agency threaten essential funding, and humanities and culture groups nationwide see their funding terminated overnight, two San Antonio museums are speaking out.
On Monday, the staff who process grant funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) were put on administrative leave following President Donald Trump’s executive order shrinking seven federal agencies.
Days later, state cultural groups across the U.S. were reeling after another major defunding announcement.
In a late-night email, groups like Humanities Texas learned that grants already appropriated through the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) had been terminated.
The sweeping cuts at IMLS and Humanities Texas threaten the future of established museum and library programs from student field trips and classes for seniors to digital services, civic engagement and workforce development.
Termination email
Eric Lupfer, executive director of Humanities Texas, received the funding termination notice from a Microsoft.com email account late Wednesday evening.
“It came to us outside of the channels through which we typically communicate with through the Office of Management and Budget,” Lupfer said.
The letter signed by Michael McDonald, acting chairman of NEH, said its grant no longer “effectuates the agency’s needs and priorities.”
The letter states: “NEH has reasonable cause to terminate your grant in light of the fact that the NEH is repurposing its funding allocations in a new direction in furtherance of the President’s agenda.”
About 60% of Humanities Texas’ $5 million annual budget comes from the NEH and is used to support operations at small museums and libraries and for teacher professional development programs. The NEH had been funding Humanities Texas on a reimbursement basis for more than five decades.
Lupfer has been reaching out to the Texas congressional delegation ever since receiving the email and has plans to inform the governor.
“These are congressionally appropriated funds that are meant to come to Texas,” he said.
Humanities Texas has awarded grants to numerous organizations in San Antonio, among them the Witte Museum, the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, the San Antonio African American Community Archive and Museum and Trinity University.
“We’ve worked with hundreds of teachers from school districts in the San Antonio area, providing them with opportunities for ongoing professional development in U.S. history and Texas history and language arts topics,” Lupfer said.
He said he’s committed to retaining this summer’s programs despite losing funding. “The landscape is very fluid right now,” he said.
Museums and library funding
In its latest round of funding for San Antonio institutions, the IMLS awarded matching grants to local museums that annually serve thousands in the region.
They include the Witte Museum, a nature, science and culture museum at 3801 Broadway St., and the DoSeum, a children’s play and discovery museum at 2800 Broadway St.
Only one of the two has received full funding of the grant.
And the status of pending funds is unclear, according to AFGE Local 3403, the federal employee union that represents IMLS workers. Without staff to administer grant programs, funding will likely remain in limbo.
Authorized by Congress in 1996, the IMLS supports museums and libraries through grantmaking, research and policy development. It has a staff of about 70 people and receives its funding through the annual appropriations process.
In 2024, the IMLS awarded almost $267 million in grants to a wide range of museums, libraries and related organizations in the U.S.
The IMLS has funded several San Antonio organizations, in addition to the DoSeum and Witte, totaling over $2 million since 2020.
Recipients include the University of Texas at San Antonio Libraries and Museum, Artpace San Antonio, Esperanza Peace and Justice Center (Museo del Westside), Bexar County’s Bibliotech and the Army Medical Department Museum Foundation.
At Museo del Westside, a 2022 grant of $50,000 from the IMLS was used to improve the care and management of its collection of over 3,000 photos, oral histories and artifacts documenting Westside neighborhoods, and making the collection publicly searchable online.
The largest of the recent IMLS grants, $480,000, went to the Army Medical Department Museum Foundation at Fort Sam Houston for a new museum entrance that improves access and protects museum collections from humidity and other environmental fluctuations.
A Joint Base San Antonio spokesman said the museum closed in January 2024 for major renovations and is expected to reopen in June.
‘Closes a gap’
In 2024, the DoSeum received $250,000 for its traveling version of the exhibit, “Uniquely Us: Understanding Race and Building Unity.” The funds were fully disbursed just weeks ago, on Feb. 7, said DoSeum CEO Dan Menelly.
The nonprofit has no other pending requests with the IMLS.
“Our project’s planning and fabrication phases were complete before the onset of these recent developments,” he said. “Our team filed our documents related to the costs covered by our IMLS grant in a timely way.”
But like other institutions, the DoSeum is concerned about cuts to IMLS, as made clear from the DoSeum’s LinkedIn profile which asked others to join it in advocating for the IMLS and urging Congress to recognize its importance.
“‘Uniquely Us’ … is proudly supported by an IMLS grant and stands as a testament to the innovative and inclusive programming that such funding enables,” it stated.
“IMLS is the only federal agency dedicated to providing critical resources to libraries and museums in all 50 states and territories and is the subject of a recent Executive Order.
“This federal agency, which accounts for a mere 0.0046% of the national budget, is not just a source of financial support but closes a gap that local governments struggle to fill, particularly in states that do not heavily invest in museums and libraries.”
Behind the scenes
The IMLS also awarded the Witte Museum $250,000 in matching grant funds last year.
The grant was made for improving the care of 50,000 artifacts from the Texas History collection through cataloging, rehousing and enhancing collections management, according to the IMLS database of awarded projects.
The Witte project included the purchase of a metal shelving system and training volunteers so that museum staff can better plan exhibitions and rotate a wider variety of artifacts in the galleries.
An amount of $10,000 from the grant remains outstanding, said newly named CEO Michelle Cueller Everidge, but it’s unknown if that will be paid out. “We learned [Thursday] that some IMLS grantees are receiving cancellation notices about their grants,” she said. Witte staff have not received such a notice, “and are unsure about the future of our current grant.”
Over the past 25 years, the museum has received nearly $1.2 million in IMLS grants, and recently completed a multi-year project funded by the IMLS, which organized, inventoried and safely stored the museum’s paleontology and geology collections.
Such grant requests aren’t a simple process, in fact ranking as the most difficult, complex and time-consuming grants the Witte seeks, Everidge said. Writing the grant request and responding to reviews can take months, and extensive financial and program reporting is required after receiving funds.
While federal grants are not a regular source of funding for the Witte, eliminating IMLS grants could impact the care of the Witte’s 350,000 artifacts that tell the stories of Texas from millions of years ago to the present, Everidge said. The same is true for many institutions.
“Cuts to IMLS would severely impact museums nationwide, limiting their capacity to serve their communities, preserve cultural memories, and inspire visitors — especially children — in fields such as art, history, and science,” said a statement from the Witte.
The museum also regularly receives project funding from Humanities Texas, which distributes NEH dollars, and only learned of its defunding on Thursday.
A disappointed Lupfer said Thursday he’s “had better days,” but in the wake of federal cuts, has been touched by the support and gratitude for the work they do at Humanities Texas.
“A woman who served as faculty in a number of our teacher programs sent our staff a box of tiny pies [and a note] saying, ‘hang in there’.”
