The spate of recent executive orders by President Trump will have a profound and lasting impact on cultural organizations and museums across rural Oklahoma and beyond.

On March 14, President Trump issued an executive order dismantling the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

A few weeks later, the National Endowment for the Humanities was targeted, leading to the cancellation of all federal grants to the 56 state, jurisdictional and territorial humanities councils that provide local grant funding.

Based on the recommendations of DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency), these two federal agencies that primarily support cultural growth and opportunity were quickly gutted.

But it is more than governmental efficiency; it is just the next step in the ongoing culture wars that have plagued us for years.

Cutting support to IMLS and NEH will have catastrophic results, particularly in rural portions of Oklahoma and the United States.

At our rural museum, we place a heavy emphasis on collecting, preserving and sharing the story of farming and ranching heritage across Oklahoma from its historical roots to contemporary issues.

We work diligently to provide our community with public programs and opportunities well beyond a museum of our size and to engage the many visitors who stop as they traverse the state on road trips.

We frequently rely on passthrough grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts to fund educational programs and projects that are normally outside of our institutional capacities.

These funds, often requiring a 1:1 cash match, provide us the chance to offer meaningful and fun educational programs to students and adults, create exhibits, secure collections and provide digital access to our collection.

These grants are often used to leverage private donations and sponsorship, yielding a return far exceeding the initial public investment.

Cutting this funding will dramatically impact the operation of rural museums and cultural organizations.

We have digitized over 10,000 images and documents in the past five years at our museum and made thousands available online. This project began with an improving access grant from the Oklahoma Department of Libraries that allowed us to secure the equipment necessary for digitization and recruit additional assistance through an internship program to organize the collection and create a funding aid.

Since then, we have leveraged more than $50,000 in additional grants and charitable giving to expand that project.

Grants from Oklahoma Humanities and the Oklahoma Arts Council regularly allow us to introduce new programs or extend them, adding additional interpretive elements or arts-related content.

In each case, the launch of a program resulted in additional private funding and grants, allowing us to increase our capacity and engage with new visitors and the public.

They have helped us launch and grow programs like our annual Chuck Wagon Gathering, Summer Sounds Concert Series and more, bringing experiences to our community far beyond the capabilities of our institution alone.

Eliminating these passthrough grants will directly impact our ability to serve visitors and local community members, particularly in rural Oklahoma.

Museums will cut programs and services. The loss will prevent us, and many other rural cultural organizations, from actively engaging our visitors as we approach the 100th anniversary of Route 66 and the 250th anniversary of our country in 2026.

These cuts will result in reductions of force at some institutions, costing valuable professional jobs.

The loss of NEH funds at Oklahoma Humanities will end Museums on Main Street, a long-time collaborative relationship between OH and the Smithsonian that brings traveling exhibits to rural Oklahoma.

It will end Let’s Talk About it Oklahoma, a dynamic book club program encouraging readers to reflect on their experiences and share with others.

It will cut funding to National History Day in Oklahoma, a program that promotes student research, evaluation and interpretation through exhibits, websites, documentaries, historical performances and papers.

It will also rob our small and rural communities of the opportunity to serve their residents.

Most importantly, it will make it increasingly more difficult to engage our youth with our shared experiences and history, helping to inspire the future.