Last year, the Trump administration cancelled millions of dollars in federal grants intended for arts and cultural institutions nationwide.
The move left organizations like Ohio Humanities in a tough spot, without previously promised money to fund projects like documentary films and museum exhibits.
“It's not just the loss of a single set of funds, it's the rolling impact of that to us and to our community partners,” described Jason Crabill, executive director of the Decorative Arts Center of Ohio in Lancaster, at the time. “It has a real detrimental effect on what we can do for the community.”
Now, over a year later, Ohio Humanities has announced an organizational shift. It’s moving forward as Ohio Humanities Alliance.
The membership-based organization will operate similarly to chambers of commerce. By paying annual dues, member organizations can share resources like HR support and advocacy tools.
“A lot of folks have very small teams,” said Rebecca Asmo, executive director of Ohio Humanities Alliance. “So they wanted to look at, how could we come together across regions and across the state to share collections, to talk about how could exhibitions happen together and how could funders be engaged to support those so that everybody wasn't just working on their own in this time of declining resources.”
‘Stronger together’
Among the people eager to join the new alliance is Brian Koscho, director and producer of Invisible Ground. The Athens-based multimedia project uses augmented reality to create immersive historical markers around southeast Ohio.
Koscho said Ohio Humanities provided the initial funding for the project to get off the ground, and he was in the process of receiving another grant through them when the federal cuts were announced.
“Especially for a smaller organization that operates project to project, it's really hard to all of a sudden cease to have funding,” he said.
He’s since been able to secure more money, but says doing so was more challenging than it had been in the past.
“There's more competition among really awesome projects and organizations for everything else that's out there. So it just becomes harder and you end up having to focus on those things and worry about that stuff instead of the work, which is never what you want to be doing,” he explained.
He’s hopeful joining Ohio Humanities Alliance will make it easier to form connections and collaborate with similar organizations. He also supports their advocacy work.
Other humanities organizations across Ohio feel similarly.
Sarah Spinner is the director of the Kent State University Museum. She says it’s been doing well in recent years, with packed programs and lots of local support. Like Koscho, she sees value in networking with humanities groups across the state.
“It was actually the Ohio Humanities Alliance and Rebecca Asmo who introduced us to the museum team at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus. And that introduction led to a wonderful installation up now at the state house called 'Ohioans in Space,'” she said. “So we really feel that a very large benefit of the alliance is this incredible network. The truth is, we’re stronger together.”
Moving forward
For now, Asmo says Ohio Humanities Alliance is distributing some money from the National Endowment for the Humanities, though it’s a fraction of the amount they used to work with.
“That's hopeful,” she said. “It's not what the sector needs, but it's a little bit.”
She hopes funding will someday be fully restored, but regardless, she said the federal cuts pointed to a need within the humanities sector to diversify funding sources and cement connections across the state.
Moving forward as Ohio Humanities Alliance and connecting organizations across size and scope, she believes, will benefit the entire sector.
“We are really putting a stake in the ground and saying, our history, Ohio's history, America's History and our civic fabric, our civic infrastructure, we really want it to be strong.”
