The National Endowment for the Humanities notified Oklahoma Humanities Wednesday evening it would terminate its general operating grant for councils nationwide at the direction of the Department of Government Efficiency.
Oklahoma Humanities is a nonprofit grant-making organization that partners with the National Endowment for the Humanities. The organization was established in 1971, joining five states in a pilot program working to ensure grant funding reaches communities most in need. There are now 56 councils across the U.S.
According to a Thursday press release, Oklahoma Humanities distributes over $250,000 of federal grant money each year to fund projects supporting public humanities, preservation and education. The organization also offers free programs aimed toward expanding resources in rural communities including a traveling exhibit in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution, an educational magazine and a reading discussion group tailored to rural libraries, incarceration facilities and veterans centers.
Since its establishment, Oklahoma Humanities has distributed over $42 million in federal funds to all 77 Oklahoma counties and 5 Congressional districts, the release reads.
Caroline Lowery, Oklahoma Humanities executive director, told OU Daily on Tuesday she received a termination notice late Wednesday night via email from an unfamiliar source. She said the email did not state why her grant was being terminated.
“I received no supporting evidence or pathway for mediation or correction or any kind of performance review. I received no supporting information,” Lowery said. “My first thought was, ‘Is this legitimate?’ because it was not through an official grant communication system like my other messages about my federal grant are.”
Lowery said she didn’t know if the message was legitimate until news started breaking nationwide that all general operating grants for humanities councils were being terminated.
“I was immediately just struck with surprise and kind of a sense of ‘what a devastating loss,’" Lowery said. “(This) would be an immediate loss of jobs in the state and immediate loss of federal funds that are locally controlled and locally leveraged.”
In August, the National Endowment of Humanities released its list of grant recipients including three Oklahoma projects, all of which were granted to OU. The university received a total of $767,536 in federal funding, but those grants will be canceled.
Individual grants include a $219,407 grant for a project titled “The Visual West,” a four-week residential institute for 25 university or college faculty on aspects of the American West in Norman, directed by OU professor Kathleen Brosnan; a $498,129 grant for the establishment of a generative AI research center at OU, directed by OU professor Hunter Heyck; and a $50,000 grant for a three-day conference for tribal leaders and Native American scholars for collaborative research on traditions that emerged from Native prisoners of war at Fort Marion from 1875-78, directed by OU professor Dolores Subia BigFoot.
Heyck and BigFoot confirmed the termination of their project grants in an email to the Daily on Monday. Brosnan also received a termination notice, as first reported by The Oklahoman.
Lowery said federal funding is Oklahoma Humanities’ primary income source and the annual general operating grant is essential to providing quality education resources for small communities.
“Our work is quiet and usually behind the scenes, but we support a lot of small programs and communities,” Lowery said. “There is no other source of funding or resources in the state. We’re not a well resourced state. We don’t have that kind of infrastructure.”
Lowery said the termination will prevent Oklahoma Humanities from awarding grants that allow communities to develop their own programs, work to preserve historical materials and provide vital learning resources for students.
Oklahoma Humanities supports the Greenwood Cultural Center, which works to preserve and showcase materials and stories from the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, the deadliest act of racial violence in U.S. history. The center provides educational resources and exhibits and amplifies the untold stories of those who lived through the attack. The Greenwood Cultural Center is one of many organizations Oklahoma Humanities supports through federal grants.
“We’re talking about the preservation of the original materials from the 1995 (Oklahoma City) bombing, we’re talking about Greenwood Rising and Greenwood Cultural Center that have preserved the oral histories of Tulsa Race Massacre survivors,” Lowery said. “These are vital stories to the history and culture of Oklahoma that we are really the stopgap organization providing funding to support these projects.”
Lowery said because the funds are already congressionally mandated, all she can do is ask questions. She said she is in contact with many elected officials who have been working to find a way forward but all parties are struggling to find answers.
“I’m trying not to be reactionary. I’m just trying to kind of push pause and wait to see in the immediate future,” Lowery said. “It means we are not accepting any funding applicants for any projects. I do not have access to my federal funds.”
This story was edited by Anusha Fathepure and Ana Barboza. Kylie Caldwell and Mary Ann Livingood copy edited this story.
