Earlier this month, the Department of Government Efficiency ended operational funding for the country’s 56 humanities organizations -- including Nevada Humanities.
Every year, Nevada Humanities awards hundreds of thousands in grants to local artists, arts organizations, nonprofits, and other groups for their work for the greater community. Now, future grant money may be endangered, and the state's cultural institutions and creatives may see even less money for their work.
It's a substantial hit. Federal funds typically account for about 75 percent of Nevada Humanities' operating budget.
While development is recent and the cuts will be challenged — even Sen. Catherine Cortez-Masto has spoken up for Nevada Humanities and against the grant cancellation — the statewide organization had to nonetheless reassess its focus for 2025.
"Our priorities are to keep pursuing our mission, and to make sure our work is happening," says Christina Barr, executive director of Nevada Humanities. "Even with this deep budget cut, we're organizing together, and banding together, to imagine what we can do for the state at the moment. Some things that have risen to the top, [like] trying to implement as much of the programming we normally do as we can. And we recognize that other nonprofits are struggling in this moment. We are a cultural leader in Nevada, and we feel there's a role for us to help assist in any way we can."
One organization that has received grant money for nearly a decade is Poetry Promises, a nonprofit founded by local poet Bruce Isaacson, who says that money is critical to the group's operations, event programming, and ability to assist in-need artists.
"Everything we do is integrated with this support," says Isaacson. "If the support goes away ... our programs are going to be threatened. Our abilities to serve the public will also be threatened."
Isaacson spoke not just out of concern for his group, but all the other cultural and historical institutions that could feel the sting of any federal grant elimination. "These programs that Nevada Humanities provides, the difference is the quality that they're able to provide to the public," he adds. "[It's] the type that builds communities instead of fostering antagonism. [It's] institutional structure is a building structure, it's a cooperative structure, it's a community structure. It's something we ought to have."
Guests: Christina Barr, executive director, Nevada Humanities; Bruce Isaacson, poet and founder, Poetry Promise.
