Two Jackson Hole museums can no longer pursue federal funds for certain projects aimed at non-white artists and subjects. That’s after the Trump administration slashed grants and redirected objectives for national arts and humanities funds toward projects it says are more “patriotic."
The National Museum of Wildlife Art just north of Jackson had plans to apply for a federal grant that sought to amplify “diverse voices,” according to Chief Advancement Officer Ponteir Sackrey.
Sackrey said the funds, together with private donations, would have helped host a glasswork exhibit by Native Alaskan Tlingit artist Preston Singletary. Now, the museum said it no longer qualifies, as the grant criteria was revised to focus on the country's upcoming 250th anniversary instead.
“We don't have anything right now in our sights to celebrate that particular anniversary at the museum so we just [took] ourselves out of the running for that,” Sackrey said.
In downtown Jackson, History Jackson Hole Executive Director Morgan Jaouen said her organization was also changing course after three grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) disappeared from federal funding websites altogether.
Jaouen said the museum relied on a $750,000 grant from the NEH to construct its new campus on Broadway. Not being able to apply for any future grants is concerning, she said.
“We have to plan and prepare for these projects years out so with everything changing so quickly, it just feels like we're taking it day by day and seeing how all of this shakes out,” Jaouen said.
The local swerves are byproducts of sweeping federal cuts and reflective of a federal shift away from non-white artists.
In February, the National Endowment for the Arts announced that it would no longer support programs that support “diversity, equity and inclusion.” By April, the NEH announced the funds it had previously allocated toward museum programming like History Jackson Hole’s would now go toward Pres. Donald Trump’s patriotic sculpture garden.
On top of the cuts, the Trump administration put all employees at the Institute for Museum and Library Services on “administrative leave” in March.
More than half of employees at the NEH got the same message, with official layoffs just two weeks later. Then in April, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) froze funds that make up 80% of Wyoming Humanities budget.
The history museum had planned to use the money, if they got it, to document Jackson’s Latino history. Funds also could have gone toward the museum’s rotation of muralists and digitization of its oral history collection.
Jaouen said that one grant would have made more accessible over 500 interviews spanning the last 60 years.
The wildlife art museum still intends to show Singletary’s work but will now pursue other funding sources. Most of the organization’s funding comes from private donors and the museum doesn’t often apply for federal grants, according to Sackrey.
The history museum is funded in part by Teton County and the Town of Jackson, while also relying on private donations and state grants. Jaouen said she would still pursue the project for Latino history.
“We are really trying to rely on and support our state institutions that we engage with most,” Jaouen said.
Wyoming Humanities was another part of Jaouen’s grant portfolio. Because of those additional cuts, she said, the museum expects grant funding will be far less reliable than in the past.
