Illinois organizations dedicated to the humanities and the arts are asking state lawmakers for help as they scramble to make up for federal funding cuts.
The Trump administration has started canceling National Endowment for the Arts [NEA] grants. Much of it was already committed to organizations when it was suddenly cut. The president's proposed budget would eliminate both the NEA and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Lawmakers on the Illinois House's Museum, Arts, Culture, and Entertainment Committee held a special hearing Thursday to address funding concerns facing the humanities and the arts. It drew organizations from across the state, including Bloomington.
One of them was the McLean County Museum of History. Executive Director Julie Emig asked the state to provide more funding to replace what was already promised.
The museum attempted to get funding from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources but were told they had no funding and to ask the Institute for Museum and Library Services, Emig told lawmakers.
The museum is funded primarily by private donors and the community, but Emig said it will be “unsustainable” without the funding that the federal government already committed to providing.
Emig said preservation of historical documents, artwork and oral-history work would be jeopardized if money is not found.
“We could no longer ensure the preservation of oral histories that provide primary source material for education about a local asbestos tragedy, the experience of being queer in rural Illinois, the reception of Abraham Lincoln's lost speech, which occurred in downtown Bloomington,” Emig said.
Thursday's hearing in Springfield comes two weeks before state lawmakers face a deadline to pass what's expected to be a tight budget and address a $3 billion deficit.
Republican state Rep. Paul Jacobs, who represents Carbondale, had concerns. Jacobs argued that the federal cuts are just a reorganization of the humanities and funds will be settled later.
“Do you have a problem with the funds being looked at and the ones that are just really not that good?” Jacobs said. “We look at some of these funds and we go, ‘Why would you do that? Why would you do that?’ I think it's a reorganization rather than a complete get rid of, and again I'm just very optimistic that we're going to have better resources once some of the things that I would consider a little bit crazy [are] out.”
One of the organizations that funds the McLean County Museum of History argued against Jacobs' claim.
Executive director of the Illinois Humanities Gabrielle Lyon said her organization, like many others, is providing a key service.
“We say, ‘Thank you, taxpayers’. We are bringing the dollars back to communities. Communities are deciding what they want to do, whether it's a speaker's bureau about the Underground Railroad or State Fair recipes,” Lyon said.
Democrat Rep. Sharon Chung of Bloomington, a member of the Museum, Arts, Culture, and Entertainment Committee, defended the McLean County Museum of History, saying it provides an important service to the community.
“The McLean County Museum of History is vital resource in our communities,” Chung said. “A lot of the exhibits they've done, the programs that they've done, I've participated in some of the summer camps that they've held, just how it really highlights the history of our community and just everything that they've been able to do.”
