West Virginia Humanities Council suspends grantmaking amid federal funding cuts

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WCHS) — Organizations nationwide are dealing with the impacts of funding cuts trickling down from federal DOGE cuts. The West Virginia Humanities Council is now added to that growing list.

"We've been here for 50 years we want to keep going, we want to keep doing this work for West Virginia,” executive director of the West Virginia Humanities Council Eric Waggoner said.

The WVHC announced earlier this month that its grantmaking would be suspended immediately.

"We bring federal dollars to West Virginia to grant out to cultural organizations and community foundations and everything around the state,” he said.

They use funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities to pay out the grants they reward. These federal funds have been relied upon since 1974.

"It's important we know the story of where we come from and what our communities are all about," he said. "It's important we preserve that for future generations of West Virginians."

Most of that funding goes to keeping the history of the Mountain State alive, especially in rural counties.

The West Virginia Mine Wars Museum in Mingo County is just one example of a historically significant location with an unknown road ahead without these federal funds.

"We are a grassroots organization that was really people-founded," executive director of the Mine Wars Museum, Mackenzie Waggoner, said. "We were able to open doors because of the support from a lot of individual people who donated from all across the country, but also from the support of organizations like the West Virginia Humanities Council."

She said events and upgrades are put on a pause for the museum, leaving them in a waiting period much like similar institutions nationwide.

"One thing about West Virginians is we're really proud about where we're from and who we're from and arts and culture play a really huge role in that,” she said.

She said through this grey area, the most important thing people can do is come out and support their local museums and historical places.

“We get a lot of people that come into the state for tourism, and they're interested to learn more about West Virginia's history and our heritage and that is really at risk with what we're seeing happening just in the past couple weeks,” she said.

The West Virginia Humanities Council said they have funding to last for a short period for a circumstance like this but grantmaking will be suspended until further notice.