Ohio Humanities get stopgap funding, but more needed after federal cuts and unclear future

After National Endowment of Humanities canceled tens of millions of grants to arts and culture institutions around the country April 1, including $2 million in Ohio , disproportionately affecting smaller and rural institutions, officials called the cuts "heartbreaking."

Now, humanities funds around the country could breathe a small sigh of relief after the Mellon Foundation announced in late April that it would send each state council a grant to help each of them stay afloat, but that is a fraction of the once-reliable federal funding.

Each state humanities council got $200,000 in unrestricted funding to continue operating and up to $50,000 in additional matching funds.

The stopgap in funding is helpful, but the organizations need more stable funding to continue their work, Ohio Humanities Executive Director Rebecca Asmo said in an email to The Dispatch.

“The grant from the Mellon Foundation is an important bridge in funding that will help us respond to this crisis in the short term, but it in no way can replace the consistency and amount of federal funding that has been available to support communities throughout Ohio for the past 50+ years,” Asmo said.

Ohio Humanities moved up its annual fundraising campaign to help make the match and is about halfway to the goal a month after the initial grant announcement, Asmo said. But more funding is needed.

“The NEH contract termination abruptly eliminated $900,000 worth of funding that was anticipated between March 14 and Sept. 30, 2025, so while the Mellon funds are an important bridge, there is still much that is lost and much more we need to work to raise beyond the match,” Asmo said.

Although discourse about President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” has focused on proposed cuts to Medicaid and boosting national debt by $2.8 trillion over the next decade , it also omits future funding for cultural institutions, including the NEH and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Asmo said the organization is working to advocate for NEH funding in the federal budget, which barely passed the House and has an uphill battle in the Senate .

The NEH distributes funding around the country through state humanities councils, which were established in the early 1970s to facilitate more even distribution of grants around the country.

The Federation of State Humanities Councils and Oregon’s council also sued the Trump administration in mid-May. Although Ohio is not part of the lawsuit, Asmo said Ohio Humanities is paying close attention to the proceedings.

And although the National Endowment for the Humanities announced several new projects , including $260,000 to three in Ohio, this does not restore funding for the other projects with canceled funding.

"While we are encouraged to see NEH distributing grant funding, we are confused as to why these grants are being distributed when funds to state humanities councils were terminated. Over half of these grants are going to just six states — California, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York and Washington, D.C.," Asmo said.

The NEH did not respond to a request for comment June 6.

The organization posted a statement April 23 , weeks after the initial funding cuts were announced, that said the NEH cancelled awards “at variance with agency priorities, including but not limited to those on diversity, equity, and inclusion (or DEI) and environmental justice, as well as awards that may not inspire public confidence in the use of taxpayer funds.”

Ohio Humanities distributed 19 grants totaling nearly $148,000 to organizations around central Ohio in 2024, including a local history walking tour, an oral history project documenting women in prison and a documentary series about the Hopewell Earthworks.

Anna Lynn Winfrey covers the western suburbs for The Columbus Dispatch. She can be reached at awinfrey@dispatch.com .

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio Humanities get stopgap funding, but more needed after federal cuts and unclear future