Vermont Humanities director tells Senate the program weathered NEH cuts, asks for 10% state boost

Christopher Kaufman Illustrup, executive director of Vermont Humanities, told the Senate Institutions committee on Feb. 17 that the organization lost a significant chunk of funding when federal grants were cut in April 2025 and asked lawmakers for a modest state increase to help sustain programming.

"Bottom line for us is that $630,000 of lawfully appropriated funding vanished overnight," Illustrup said, describing staff reductions and canceled programs after the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grants to state humanities councils were eliminated. He said Vermont Humanities went from 13 full-time staff to about 10 and had to suspend or curtail some initiatives, though the Vermont Reads shared-reading program has continued.

The Vermont Reads program pairs one book each year with community projects and author events; Illustrup highlighted recent successes, including widespread community projects around last year’s selection and distribution of thousands of copies. He said The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks Dalton became the program’s second-most popular selection, with hundreds of associated projects and thousands of distributed copies. "We gave away 4,850 books over the last six months," he said.

Illustrup described how Vermont Reads is designed to spur local action around a book’s themes, citing prior examples where selections prompted volunteer initiatives, youth leadership programs and library climate-resilience programming. He also noted the program’s reach into institutional settings: "We’ve been reading the book in both Newport and Springfield" correctional facilities, he said, and described interest in expanding corrections programming if logistical barriers can be resolved.

Committee members asked about logistics for getting books into prison libraries. Illustrup said corrections has in the past required books to come directly from publishers — a rule the department has cited as a safety measure to ensure copies have not been altered — which has made donations more complicated. He added that a Vermont Humanities staffer, Morgan Irons, has been able to bring inspected copies into facilities (he cited an example of bringing 15 copies of The Light Pirate), but said relying on ad hoc arrangements is imperfect.

On finances, Illustrup said the organization relied on a mix of federal, state and private funding before the cuts. "About 40% of our budget was federal, and about 17% of our budget was our state appropriation," he said, adding that the remainder was raised privately. He described emergency private fundraising and a one-off grant from Phoenix Books that allowed a particularly large distribution of a prior title, but cautioned those stopgap funds are not a sustainable substitute for steadier government support.

Illustrup said the group is asking the legislature for a symbolic 10% increase in its base state appropriation — about $32,000 by his estimate — to signal support for the cultural sector while broader federal uncertainties play out. He described ongoing litigation seeking to restore NEH funding and said the organization obtained a federal injunction that prevented reallocation of the disputed funds but did not immediately return the money.

The committee thanked Illustrup; he said he would follow up with more detailed information about corrections programming and other specifics for appropriations staff. Illustrup also noted Vermont Humanities will announce the next Vermont Reads selection in two weeks and that author events and school programming tied to the program are scheduled for the spring.

Next steps: Illustrup said he would meet with appropriations committees and provide additional documentation; the committee moved on to the rest of its agenda.