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 IMLS cancellation but has since been partially restored; the agency still expects a significant reduction in next-year allocations. Danielle Purcell, director of the California Arts Council, said the NEA has been a critical partner and that the council is conducting a damage assessment to determine which California grants were terminated and which might remain.

Several nonprofit and cultural leaders described programs halted midstream. Leslie Ito, executive director of the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena, said four federal grants — three from IMLS and one from NEA — totaling roughly $440,000 had been terminated for projects that paid teaching artists, funded curricula and underwrote exhibitions. Jacob Kornbluth, a documentary filmmaker, said about $800,000 in planned funding for film projects has evaporated, leaving editors, composers and crew without promised work.

Institutions large and small reported similar disruptions. Anne Burrows, CEO of the Japanese American National Museum, said the organization has seen about $1.5 million in cancelled IMLS and NEH awards and faces uncertainty about an additional $1.6 million in National Park Service funding for confinement-site programming. Edward Tepphorn of the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation said grants totaling roughly $95,000 for exhibit updates and civic programming were terminated; he said those awards represented about 20% of the foundation’s annual operating budget.

Speakers emphasized multiplier effects: federal grants are frequently regranted at the state and local level and leveraged to attract private and philanthropic matching dollars. “Federal dollars are often leveraged by state and local agencies to increase funding, and a loss of federal funding can become multiplied at state and local levels,” Harkey said, noting that California has received more than $70 million in NEA awards since 2020, including more than $8 million to the California Arts Council.

Labor and industry groups also testified. Julie Fisher, national secretary-treasurer for SAG-AFTRA, described the production pipeline and workforce impacts when film and television work shifts out of state or overseas, and she urged lawmakers to back federal tax incentives and other policy tools to keep production and related jobs in the U.S. Adam Fowler, an economist, framed the sector as part of the state’s economic infrastructure, noting arts and culture contribute about $289 billion to California’s economy and support roughly 800,000 jobs.

Lawmakers and agency leaders discussed next steps. California Humanities and other nonprofit partners are pursuing appeals and exploring litigation; regional attorney generals have joined at least one multistate legal challenge on behalf of IMLS funds. Several witnesses urged state action to backfill lost federal support, pointing to options including restoring funding to the California Arts Council, reviving a defunded state museum grant program and considering a dedicated statewide funding mechanism or ballot measure.

“Is the joint committee willing to commit investments to safeguard who we are as Californians?” Rick Noguchi asked in his testimony, urging the Legislature to consider targeted emergency investments and longer-term revenue measures. Committee members signaled interest in exploring state options during budget negotiations and urged arts advocates to mobilize constituent support ahead of the May budget process.

The hearing ended without formal action; lawmakers said they would return to the issue as the May revise and the FY2025–26 budget process proceed.

For now, arts leaders said the sector is improvising: delaying projects, cutting staff or directing organizational reserves to keep programs running. Many speakers warned that the disruptions disproportionately harm rural and smaller community-based organizations that rely more heavily on federal regrants and have less philanthropic backup.

The committee recorded numerous requests for follow-up information, including lists of canceled grants, the downstream economic impacts on local jobs and fiscally realistic options for emergency state support. Several witnesses said they expect additional federal guidance or litigation outcomes in the coming weeks that could change the scope of impacts.

The testimony illustrated how federal decisions on agency budgets and grant guidance can affect a wide range of California institutions — from statewide agencies and major museums to small community arts groups, documentary filmmakers and the gig workforce that supplies film and museum programming.