STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — A Staten Island non-profit organization learned Wednesday that it would have more than $500,000 in federal grants restored, but arts and culture funding around Staten Island remains threatened.
However, the $565,194 restored to the Staten Island Museum in Livingston may again be rescinded as President Donald Trump’s administration appeals a federal judge’s injunction against the cuts from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
“I will take the good news where I can get it,” Staten Island Museum President and CEO Janice Monger wrote in a Thursday email. “Yet the uncertainty and disruption remain.”
Monger and the museum learned of the cuts in a pair of April emails notifying them that they would no longer receive the congressionally-appropriated funds from two programmatic grants.
On April 8, the museum learned it would no longer receive funds from a 3-year $317,137 grant used to help digitize its founders’ papers, and later received a notice April 28 that a $248,057 3-year grant for a program inventorying Staten Island Native American artifacts would be discontinued.
The restoration of those grants resulted from a lawsuit brought by 21 states, including New York, against the Trump administration for its actions against the work of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Minority Business Development Agency, and the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.
In a May 13 statement, New York Attorney General Letitia James, a participant in the lawsuit brought in Rhode Island federal court, said the legal action was aimed at blocking a March 14 presidential executive order that would effectively dismantle the federally-funded agencies along with several others.
“These agencies provide critical support to help minority-owned businesses, protect workers’ rights, and make sure our libraries and museums continue to serve our communities,” James said. “The administration’s attack on these agencies is illegal, and today we put a stop to it. I will continue to fight back against this administration’s chaos and destruction of basic services that New Yorkers depend on.”
Funding losses from that executive order weren’t the only recent cuts impacting arts and culture institutions around the country.
Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden, and IlluminArt Productions in Livingston each lost out on $10,000 programmatic grants from the National Endowment for the Arts following May 2 emails to both organizations.
Jessica Vodoor, president and CEO of Snug Harbor, said their grant was to help fund an art installation looking at America’s role in politicizing the coca plant in Colombia.
Arlene Sorkin, president and CEO of IlluminArt, said their grant would have been the first federal dollars received by the organization, and that they hired a grant writer for $3,000 to help guide the small institution through the arduous federal grant process. Their funds were to be used for a program for emerging playwrights around Staten Island.
Numerous institutions around the country lost out on similar grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
“The NEA is updating its grant making policy priorities to focus funding on projects that reflect the nation’s rich artistic heritage and creativity as prioritized by the president. Consequently, we are terminating awards that fall outside these new priorities,” the email to Snug Harbor read. “Funding is being allocated in a new direction in furtherance of the administration’s agenda.”
That new direction includes a wide variety of topics, including support for the nation’s historically Black colleges and universities; celebrations for the country’s 250th anniversary next year; artificial intelligence competency; support for skilled trade jobs; and support for members of the military and veterans.
Both Snug Harbor and IlluminArt are appealing their grant cancellations, but Staten Island Museum did not have a similar opportunity to appeal their grants.
Vodoor said their grant is being filled by a joint effort from the Andy Warhol Visual Arts Foundation and the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation.
The leaders of all three Staten Island organizations spoke with the Advance/SILive.com Tuesday about how the cuts to the congressionally-appropriated funs will affect the services they offer.
“It’s just a huge destabilizing force and does not allow us to hire,” Monger said. “I’m hoping, certainly to prevent job loss.”
The trio said they’d reached out to Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican representing Staten Island and southern Brooklyn, for possible assistance in getting the federal grants restored, but had yet to set something up with her office.