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The new Department of Government Efficiency has severely cut funding to the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the impact, as expected, is hitting Oregon.
An NEH grant which would have funded the independent nonprofit organization Oregon Humanities through 2027 was rescinded via letter on April 2. Oregon Humanities spokesman Ben Waterhouse tells WW that over $500,000 remained of a $2.58 million grant awarded to Oregon Humanities from a three-year award that must be spent over five years. NEH funded just under half of Oregon Humanities’s 2024 budget as one of five Oregon councils to receive funds.
Since 2020, NEH has awarded $16 million to Oregon Humanities and cultural institutions such as Literary Arts in Portland, the High Desert Museum in Bend, and the Oregon Aquarium in Newport.
“These cuts to Oregon Humanities will hit communities and individuals all over Oregon—and the same unnecessary impact will show up across the nation,” Adam Davis, Oregon Humanities’ executive director, said in a statement. “We’ve been working in rural, frontier, and urban communities to create conditions for people to connect and think together even when they disagree. More connecting, listening, and thinking together is what Oregon and the country most need, now more than ever.”
Founded in 1971, Oregon Humanities is one of 56 national councils designed to move federal dollars to local recipients. It also produces media content, including podcasts and a magazine, which Oregon Humanities reports reached a combined 50,000 people across mediums in 2024.
“This is yet another unfortunate thing that’s happening, where the Trump administration is cutting all kinds of vital programs and grants that organizations of all kinds in our state rely on,” says state Rep. Rob Nosse (D-Portland), leader of Oregon’s Arts & Culture Caucus. “Maybe there will be some reaction to this from Congress or the attorneys general that are suing him for making cuts to appropriations that Congress has made, we’ll see. The challenge is, while that plays out, the money’s probably not available, so these organizations do without the resources they need. If people think that the state of Oregon is going to be able to backfill all of these cuts that are coming in federal programs, they are misreading the room.”
Along with grant distribution and journalism efforts, Oregon Humanities’ programs include Humanity in Perspective, which offers university-equivalent courses to people who might not otherwise be able to afford traditional college; community outreach initiatives, including Dear Stranger, which aims to connect strangers as pen pals; and Beyond 250, a campaign to help people go deeper on the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence’s signing than flag print and barbecues.
Waterhouse says the organization’s private donors will help keep programming running through the spring, and as a whole, it takes less federal dollars than similar councils. Oregon Humanities isn’t in imminent danger of closure, he says, but its public grants program has been paused.
“In the long term, we will have to make some tough decisions about our programming,” he tells WW via email.