A non-profit that helps Kentuckians recover from hard times and celebrate their unique culture has been hamstrung by DOGE cuts to its federal funding.
How would you feel if someone took your child’s favorite book out of his hands?
What would you think if your local museum wasn’t important enough to keep its doors open?
If someone said, “Sorry we can’t help your community recover from a natural disaster” would you feel sad, outraged, lost? Books and photographs before restoration, Hindman Settlement School.
For more than 53 years, Kentucky Humanities, an independent, nonprofit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities in Washington, D.C., has helped communities across Kentucky celebrate what makes them unique and vital. We have been there for you and with you, connecting you to your neighbors, promoting your unique history, inspiring the next generation, championing what makes your town or city special.
But right now, we can’t. And we are angry about it.
You should be too.
In 2022, we assisted libraries, historical societies, artisan centers, radio stations, community centers and cultural institutions in navigating a disaster like what we are experiencing right now, an historic flood. We requested and received emergency grant funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and poured every dime back into places that were devastated by flood waters because it is our mission to help Kentucky communities thrive.
We wanted then, and want now, to be part of the rebuilding of Kentucky’s communities ravaged by flooding, but we can’t. Why? Because at the federal level, DOGE (the Department of Government Efficiency) has targeted the NEH and terminated Kentucky Humanities’ operating grant and any emergency funding sources that previously allowed us to provide aid in the commonwealth.
We are sorry, but most of all we are angry because you and us — we — are the ones looking out for Kentucky and all Kentuckians.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Together, our voices can make a difference.
Author Bill Goodman is executive director of Kentucky Humanities.
Kentucky Lantern is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kentucky Lantern maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jamie Lucke for questions: [email protected].
