Ohio Humanities strives to tell and preserve the stories of our culture, but federal funding cuts put that work in jeopardy. Executive Director Rebecca Brown Asmo explains the challenge.
Arts and culture: They are, many would argue, the soul of a community—of a people, even.
Yet they may be disappearing before our eyes. Federal funding for arts and culture has been swiftly decimated. (Important to note: While the arts are also facing challenges, since my role is in culture and humanities—and culture is clearly under attack—we’ll focus on that today.)
What, exactly, is culture? Culture is the humanities—the often overlooked and historically underfunded counterpart to the arts. It’s a restored WWII airplane where children can learn about veterans from the Greatest Generation in a more tangible way. A documentary film that explores the meaning of family—and leads a filmmaker to his birth father in the process. A stop on Ohio’s Underground Railroad that has been restored into a community gathering space that connects people to a proud past, a meaningful present and a hopeful future.
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The arts express the human experience; the humanities ask why that experience matters. The humanities explore how we live, think and connect across time and culture. And when we fail to support them, our civic fabric unravels.
Today, the humanities face an existential crisis.
In April, the Department of Government Efficiency abruptly and illegally canceled most National Endowment for the Humanities grants, including those that fund every state humanities council.
For more than 50 years, state humanities councils have ensured tax dollars reach real people in real communities—not just elite institutions. At Ohio Humanities, we support museums, documentary filmmakers, local historical societies and independent journalists, among others. Now, our grant program is indefinitely paused, leaving projects and organizations unfunded and stories at risk of being lost to history. One example: We planned to fund a project collecting accounts of Ohioans who survived the Holocaust while the survivors are still alive to share their experiences.
In partnership with other state humanities councils, we’re battling back in court, in Congress and in the media, while racing to raise private funds to stay afloat. The Mellon Foundation just announced an incredible $15 million emergency funding commitment to the Federation of State Humanities Councils in response to the cuts. That includes $200,000 to Ohio Humanities that will allow us to respond to this crisis while maintaining financial health—and if we can raise $50,000 by year’s end, The Mellon Foundation will give us another $50,000. This gift is a bridge, but not the f inish line. We have much more work to do to ensure that Ohio’s stories are saved.
Meanwhile, the NEH has signaled its intention to redirect funds toward the National Garden of Heroes, a sculpture park of 250 American figures, from George Washington to Kobe Bryant. In other words, they’re eliminating the ability for communities to tell their own stories and decide for themselves what makes a hero.
“Democracy demands wisdom.” Those are the words the NEH was founded with. Wisdom requires memory, stories and the ability to interrogate the past so that future generations can learn from our experiences. Let’s not allow our collective wisdom to be snuffed out with an email from DOGE that landed in spam folders.
Ohio Humanities is the caretaker of Ohio’s stories. And we know those stories, and our culture, are worth fighting for.
Rebecca Brown Asmo is executive director of Ohio Humanities.
A version of this story appeared in the June 2025 issue of Columbus Monthly. It has been updated to reflect new cuts to the arts. Subscribe to Columbus Monthly here.