According to a press release from Oklahoma Humanities, which is Oklahoma’s state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, all 56 humanities councils across the country received notices that they would no longer be receiving general operating support grants from the federal agency at the direction of DOGE.
Caroline Lowery, the executive director of Oklahoma Humanities, said these funds account for about 75% of its annual operating budget, and the cuts will essentially close the headquarters for the National Endowment for the Humanities in Oklahoma.
"It will result in loss of programming to veteran centers, rural libraries, centers of incarceration, K-12 public schools," said Lowery. "It will be a devastating loss to the preservation of Oklahoma’s stories and culture."
Oklahoma was one of the six states that participated in the National Endowment for the Humanities pilot program in 1971, according to the news release. Since then, Oklahoma Humanities has distributed over $42 million in federal funding to all 77 counties in the state.
CORRECTION: An earlier edition of this story referred to the National Endowment for the Arts, when it should be the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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