Colorado Humanities, the state’s only nonprofit dedicated to public humanities education and programming, is sounding the alarm about its imminent closure after losing federal funding.
Free, public programs that the organization says are at risk include the Colorado Book Awards, the state poet laureate, Smithsonian museum exhibits in small towns, educational resources for K-12 students and teachers, and Black History Live, an annual touring portrayal of the accomplishments of Black Americans from Harriet Tubman to Louis Armstrong.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration notified all 56 state and jurisdictional humanities councils — including Colorado’s — that their funding had been eliminated effective immediately, throwing the organizations focused on arts, history and education into calamity.
The cuts come amid the Trump administration’s wide-ranging efforts to shrink the size of the federal bureaucracy and slash the amount of money the government spends.
The National Endowment for the Humanities — a federal agency established in 1965 — brought more than $15 million to Colorado over the past five years, said Maggie Coval, executive director of Colorado Humanities. The NEH reaches 300,000 Coloradans annually and works with more than 120 program partners offering nearly 300 free public humanities programs statewide.
“The humanities are vital to our existence as humans,” Coval said. “They’re about people and stories and culture and ideas. When we share stories of all kinds, we cultivate understanding and belonging and give meaning to our lives and, hopefully, lead to a better society overall.
Colorado Humanities’ $1.5 million annual budget is largely funded by the $1.2 million a year the organization has received from the NEH. The nonprofit has no state funding, but seeks contributions and grants from individuals, foundations and businesses.
Now, with the loss of that NEH funding and federal cuts to the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which funds library and museum services across the nation, arts and culture programs across Colorado and the country are at risk.
“What’s at stake is lots of cultural activities, learning activities and educational resources will not be provided,” Coval said. “People who go to their favorite places to learn or enjoy the culture of Colorado will see some things missing. Maybe they won’t even be able to open the doors at their local library or their museum or historical site.”
Books line the shelves at the Nederland Community Library on Wednesday, April 15, 2025. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)What’s at stake?
Nicki Gonzales, a history professor and vice provost for diversity and inclusion at Regis University, said the private Jesuit school in Denver was awarded a $126,000 grant by the NEH after applying last year to build out a museum archive and gallery studies academic program.
On April 4, the university learned the grant was terminated after the sweeping federal cuts to humanities funding.
“We already had the bones of community-engaged partners, internship placements and museums on board,” Gonzales said.
The terminated grant was earmarked for Hispanic-Serving Institutions, a federal designation for universities serving a large Latino population that meet certain qualifications. The designation opens up federal funding opportunities.
The museum archive and gallery studies program would have featured Indigenous work and Spanish-speaking community partners, Gonzales said.
The funds were supposed to come in May, with work beginning in the fall. Gonzales is now looking for new funding opportunities to keep the program alive.
“It’s a loss,” Gonzales said. “It’s a blow to academic freedom and an opportunity to prepare students for 21st-century museum, gallery and archive work. It’s a real missed opportunity to tie into our Jesuit mission, which is one of standing with the marginalized and including all.”
Sarah Waldorf, left, and Tom Mahowald chat at the Nederland Community Library on Wednesday, April 15, 2025. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)The librarian’s library
The Colorado State Library is like the librarian’s library, said Nicolle Davies, the organization’s assistant commissioner.
Every state has a state library that helps local libraries, schools and museums better access resources and information.
In Colorado, the state library offers continuing education and professional development for all local libraries. It runs the statewide interlibrary loan, which provides access to any book at any library to anyone, and offers online access to historic Colorado newspaper archives.
Rural and small libraries rely on the state library to develop and maintain their websites. Blind and visually impaired people can access audio, braille and large-print books through the state library.
The Colorado State Library receives more than $3 million in federal funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services that supports libraries across the state. The state library’s budget in 2024 was $8.2 million.
In 2024, the IMLS awarded $266.7 million through grantmaking, research and policy development to support the nation’s museums, libraries and related organizations. The funding amounts to 0.003% of the federal budget.
In March, President Donald Trump issued an executive order cutting down IMLS funding, putting millions of dollars that typically support smaller, rural libraries at risk. The impacts in Colorado are still unclear, but librarians across the state are bracing for funding cuts.
Elektra Greer, who self-identifies as the loudest librarian west of the Mississippi in her role as director of the Nederland Community Library in Boulder County, said it’s time for library professionals to speak out about the consequences of dismantling public institutions.
In 2024, the Nederland library welcomed 35,646 in-person visits, she said. About 20% of its $499,000 annual operating budget is IMLS funding allocated through the Colorado State Library.
“I, personally, think it costs more to dismantle the IMLS than it does to keep it,” Greer said. “Libraries are reflections of who we all are.”
Greer has already started thinking about what downsizing would look like at her library. They’d likely have to cut the experience passes libraries offer, like free tickets to the aquarium, art museums and other cultural institutions, which are among the library’s highest-circulating items.
The telehealth services they provide to the community could be at risk.
“I’d be devastated if we couldn’t deliver on that,” she said. “And then if we have to cut hours because we can’t afford to pay, that’s going to be crushing.”
Greer has been preparing for cuts and warning her community that change could be on the horizon, prompting an influx of community donations, she said.
“It’s brought tears to my eyes,” Greer said. “Small, rural libraries will get hit first, and that hits us all. They might be the first, but they won’t be the last.”
‘Crisis for our democracy’
When Boulder-based author Buzzy Jackson was conducting research for her historical novel “To Die Beautiful,” she didn’t expect the events in Nazi-occupied Netherlands in 1940 to feel familiar to present-day American politics.
“I feel really fortunate that I had the opportunity to research and write this book and learn about how it happened, because it’s easy for me to see what’s happening now,” Jackson said. “They came into the Netherlands with shock and awe, blitzkrieg, and then a lot more quietly started taking away certain civil liberties in a very slow, kind of frog-boiling-in-water situation where it was like one small cut at a time so people wouldn’t get too outraged.”
“To Die Beautiful” last year won the Colorado Book Award for historical fiction — a statewide award celebrating Colorado authors, editors, illustrators and photographers. The awards are at risk of termination with the drastic cuts to Colorado Humanities’ federal funding.
“The book that I won the award for is entirely about resistance to this kind of overreaching, punishing economic takeover of a country,” she said. “This is stuff I’ve thought a lot about. I have a background in history. It’s very clear to me the patterns are the same.”
The Colorado Book Awards helped connect Jackson with speaking engagements to share her book across the state, from the San Luis Valley to Fort Morgan to city-dwellers at The Tattered Cover.
“One cool thing about Colorado Humanities is they make an effort to reach not just the Denver metro,” Jackson said. “They bring valuable programming to parts of the state that are typically underserved.”
Esme Ansari, 9, front, plays with other children around a bubble machine at Nederland Community Library on Wednesday, April 15, 2025. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)Related Articles
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“There’s a lot we stand to lose as an individual library, but far more as a library community,” he said.
Durango’s ability to participate in interlibrary loan would be in question. Library research services could be at stake. Access to the talented staff at the state library, who help smaller, more rural libraries, could be hindered.
“I have to reach out once a month to the state library and the incredible professionals over there,” Alvey-Henderson said. “It would take me three to five times as long to get those answers. We are the community center for our whole region. We are going to be OK, but we’re going to feel that strain on other communities, and it’s going to put strain on everyone.”
Coval, the Colorado Humanities executive director, encouraged people to contact their U.S. senators and representatives and urge them to oppose the gutting of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
“This is not just a funding crisis,” Coval said. “It is a crisis for our democracy. The humanities encompass our most cherished traditions, the free exchange of ideas, our shared histories, and our dreams for the future. We hold steadfast to the bipartisan belief that sparked the creation of the NEH, that ‘the humanities are not merely our, but the world’s best hope.’ ”
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