US states step up to fund the arts in the wake of federal cuts

One source of worry for state arts agencies is the threat of eliminating the NEA, which currently allocates 40% of its annual budget to state arts councils and commissions. That amount ranges from $1.1m to $1.4m, depending on the state’s population. To receive the money, each state must match the NEA’s contribution and, at present, 14 states only appropriate the amount of the match. The Kansas legislature, for instance, appropriated $1m to the Kansas Arts Commission for the 2025-26 fiscal year [...] On 15 July, the House Interior Appropriations Committee held a mark-up wherein it provided $135m each for the NEA and NEH. This is a 35% decrease from last year’s $207m appropriations. Jay H. Dick, a senior director at Americans for the Arts (a Washington, DC-based nonprofit advocacy group), says that his organisation will work with congress to increase this amount to closer to the previous level of $207m. [...] State humanities councils and other grantees received notices from the NEH and Doge this week that their grants were being cancelled immediately Benjamin Sutton US politicsnews 20 March 2025#### Trump appoints deputy secretary of US Labor Department to lead museum-funding agency marked for elimination Keith Sonderling, the new acting director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, plans to steer the agency to “promote American exceptionalism and cultivate love of country”