The email arrived at 12:41 a.m. on Thursday, from an unfamiliar email address.
The body simply read, "We regret to inform you that your NEH (National Endowment for Humanities) grant has been terminated. Please see the attached grant termination notice."
Ohio Humanities and other state humanity organizations are the latest to abruptly lose grants as the Trump administration cuts federal funding for schools, libraries, health organizations and more.
"I can't say I'm surprised only because we've heard this kind of stuff happening all along, right?" said Rebecca Asmo, executive director of Ohio Humanities. "But it doesn't feel good."
Asmo said all state humanities councils received the same notice. They were signed by National Endowment for Humanities acting chairman Michael McDonald and tells Ohio Humanities its grant "no longer effectuates the agency's needs and priorities."
"NEH is repurposing its funding allocations in a new direction in furtherance of the President’s agenda. The President’s February 19, 2025, executive order mandates that the NEH eliminate all non-statutorily required activities and functions," it reads.
State humanities councils were established by Congress about 50 years ago to make sure National Endowment for Humanities funds get out of Washington, D.C., and make it to smaller communities and organizations.
Asmo said Congress directly funds state humanities councils. Ohio Humanities gets about $1.8 million a year.
Ohio Humanities redistributes much of that money as smaller grants for museum exhibitions, children's events at historic sites and oral history projects all across the state.
Asmo said that for the foreseeable future, Ohio Humanities won't be able to offer those grants. That potentially leaves projects in limbo and may lead organizations to cancel events, pause construction projects or wait to hire.
"The cultural sector is a huge economic driver in Ohio, and these interruptions will reverberate in many different ways," Asmo said. "I think it's important to think about all of these trickle down implications of this, especially in communities that are, you know, not big cities."
Asmo added that Ohio has been at the "center of so much important history," and has stories to tell.
"We need to invest in saving those stories and sharing those stories for the benefit of our citizens. And it's just gonna be a little bit harder to do that today. A lot harder," Asmo said.
Ohio Humanities recently funded a project that collected stories from Holocaust survivors. Asmo worries about delaying projects like that one, because the people who tell those stories may not be around much longer.
"It's important that we preserve our stories so that future generations can learn from our experiences," Asmo said.
Meanwhile, Amso said staff at the National Endowment for the Humanities aren't exactly exactly which grants are canceled because notices were not sent through the usual channels.
