San Antonio humanities grants canceled by Trump administration
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The Trump administration has canceled federal humanities research grants worth millions of dollars — including money for San Antonio-based projects, per interviews and a data analysis by Axios.
Why it matters: Since 1965, grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) have supported scholarship on what the agency calls "the building blocks of American civil society."
Driving the news: The LBJ-era agency has been virtually shuttered.
- The agency's workforce was put on administrative leave this month, per NPR, and the flow of money appears to have been largely frozen, the New York Times reported.
State of play: Seven San Antonio-based organizations have received NEH grants in recent years, supporting projects that range from historical research to digital storytelling and preservation.
- Two were completed and five were ongoing.
- The Esperanza Peace and Justice Center received the largest local NEH grant — $491,666 in 2023 — to preserve and repurpose historic Westside buildings as part of its Rinconcito de Esperanza cultural campus.
- The grant was scheduled to be paid out in February. Esperanza Peace and Justice Center did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Zoom in: The biggest grant is a five-year, $5.9 million award to Humanities Texas, whose mission is to improve classroom teaching and support libraries and museums throughout the state.
- Humanities Texas has awarded grants to San Antonio institutions including the Witte Museum, the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, the San Antonio African American Community Archive and Museum and Trinity University, according to the San Antonio Report.
What they're saying: Humanities Texas leaders this month wrote to supporters that they learned their federal funding was terminated.
- "These cuts will have a devastating effect," the organization wrote.
The latest: The Mellon Foundation on Tuesday announced it's awarding roughly $250,000 to Humanities Texas as part of a nationwide effort to help organizations hit by funding cuts.
The other side: NEH says it's "repurposing its funding allocations in a new direction in furtherance of the president's agenda."
- As much as 85% of the agency's grants will be canceled, and the acting director told senior leaders that the NEH would emphasize patriotic programming, the New York Times reported.