Federal arts cuts leave California museums, libraries and creators scrambling, lawmakers told

At a joint informational hearing convened by the California State Assembly’s Joint Committee on the Arts and the Assembly Committee on Arts, Entertainment, Sports and Tourism, state and national arts leaders described immediate and widespread disruptions after federal agencies began rescinding grants and the White House proposed eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).

“The administration's proposed FY 2026 budget goes even further, calling for the entire zeroing out of NEA, NEH and IMLS and the loss of public funding for the corporation for public broadcasting,” Erin Harkey, CEO of Americans for the Arts, told the committees. She added that the cuts and agency staffing changes are producing “human social and economic costs.”

The hearing centered on concrete examples. Rick Noguchi, president and CEO of California Humanities, told lawmakers his nonprofit — a designated state partner of NEH — was notified April 2 that its federal funding had been terminated immediately. Noguchi said California Humanities operates on an annual budget of about $4.5 million, mostly from NEH, and that the termination left nearly $970,000 in expected FY2025 grants unawarded and $2 million at risk for FY2026. “After 50 years of serving California, our funding was cut immediately and without warning,” Noguchi said.

State Librarian Greg Lucas said the California State Library briefly faced a $15 million federal…