From Reddit user Stoic Eeyore comes the following list of known Trump regime impacts on Upstate New York State museum and nonprofits in the cultural sector:
Several institutions have lost Save America’s Treasures grants, designed to conserve important museum items. The Greater Hudson Heritage Network (GHHN) received $269,038.00 from Save America’s Treasures in August, to conserve objects from 10 small and mid- size museums in New York State.
This grant, established to protect threatened cultural treasures, is from the Historic Preservation Fund administered by the National Park Service in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS).
A Greater Hudson Heritage press release details what works were chosen for conservation from institutions that include the Alice Austen House, Boscobel House & Gardens, Cayuga Museum of History & Art, Dyckman Farmhouse Museum, Taylor Wine Museum, The Heckscher Museum of Art, Historic Cherry Hill, The Iroquois Museum, Lucille Ball Desi Arnaz Museum, and Somers Historical Society.
Auburn’s Cayuga Museum of History and Art had a grant terminated for a permanent exhibit and funding for a curator position. Read more here.
OurStoryBridge’s first National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grant ever, for collecting and sharing online short-form oral histories, has been terminated.
Rochester’s George Eastman Museum received grants from the IMLS for new galleries and digitization. Three projects were underway.
Genesee County Village and Museum’s grant for broadening teaching on the history of enslavement has been terminated.
Rochester Museum and Science Center’s grand for collections storage has been cancelled. The IMLS grants were awarded on the basis of reimbursement and the Livingston County Historical Society already fronted the money for some of this project. An entire building project is now on hold.
Historic Saranac Lake has lost $109,000 of an awarded $250,000 exhibit grant for new exhibits for the yet-to-be-opened former home of Edward Livingston Trudeau.
Tupper Lake’s Wild Center in Tupper Lake’s grant has been terminated, cutting a student summer job program for 10 students.
Ithaca’s Sciencenter has lost a grant for a museum-library partnership and improving their outdoor science park.
Ithaca’s Museum of the Earth has lost its grant for digitizing its Cenozoic coral collections to aid in research.
The Underground Railroad Education Center in Albany has lost its funding for a program designed to share its work with local historic sites and repositories. The $33,454 grant has been terminated without cause by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The grant was to be matched by the education center, which is working with the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Hanford Mills Museum’s grant for management and care of historic objects, and for developing the museum’s future activities, has been terminated.
NY State Library was set to receive $8.1 million from the IMLS through their Grants to States Program. This funding supports: 55 staff positions; administrative support and oversight of 7,000 libraries and 72 systems of all library types, including public, school, and academic; day-to-day operation of the State Library, which includes manuscripts, rare books, and digitized historical documents; programs that serve the public, including Ready to Read at New York Libraries, Summer Reading at New York Libraries, Talking Book and Braille Library.
No News Yet
Fort Ticonderoga gets has been receiving IMLS and National Park Service grants, for rebuilding its walls, holding classes, teacher development, and creating the Northern Department American Revolution 250th anniversary programs. They have not reveled what survives of that fund. Congresswoman Else Stefanik is scheduled to headline a news conference celebrating the 250th anniversary of America’s first victory of the Revolution this Friday, May 9 at 2 pm at Fort Ticonderoga. Joining Representative Stefanik will be Fort Ticonderoga Association President & CEO Beth Hill and America250 Chair Rosie Rios. The news conference will be part of “No Quarter!,” a series of once-in-a-lifetime historic reenactments and events at Fort Ticonderoga on May 9–11. The three-day immersive experience will transport visitors back to the dramatic nighttime capture of the fort in 1775, setting the stage for the ensuing fight for independence.
The Michigan Street African American Heritage Corridor Commission in Buffalo was awarded federal grants for cultural preservation and community engagement. There is no word on the status of that funding from the Commission.
Schenectady County Historical Society and Museum of Innovation and Science got IMLS grants in the past. No current news.
Syracuse University gets multiple IMLS grants yearly including for National Leadership grants and the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian program. No news yet.
Here is a list of organization who received IMLS grants for FY24.
A federal judge has halted President Trump’s attempt to eliminate the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) attorneys general from 21 states sued the president to stop him from dismantling the agency. Read about that here.
There is currently a separate lawsuit against President Trump to stop the dismantling of IMLS, coming from the American Library Association and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the largest union representing museum and library workers.
If you have information to add to this list, please leave a comment below. r/askhistorians recently released a statement yesterday about the grant terminations here.
John Warren contributed to this report.
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