Consequences of the Trump administration's tariffs and funding cuts are converging at cultural organizations such as the Virginia Quilt Museum as they prepare to celebrate America's 250th birthday. WMRA's Meredith McCool reports.
In an executive order issued on January 29, President Trump set forth his intention to “provide a grand celebration worthy of the momentous occasion of the 250th anniversary of American Independence on July 4, 2026,” and “take other actions to honor the history of our great nation.” Section two of that executive order established the White House Task Force on "Celebrating America’s 250th Birthday," which includes the chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities, or NEH.
Virginia Humanities is the state humanities council, created by Congress with money and support from the NEH. As a member of the American Revolution 250 Commission established by the Virginia General Assembly in 2020, Virginia Humanities is a key funder for content development, exhibit design, and other programs to commemorate the American Revolution. Matthew Gibson is the executive director of Virginia Humanities. As WMRA previously reported, he was surprised to learn on April 3 that Virginia Humanities had lost $1.7M of previously appropriated and approved funding from the NEH.
MATTHEW GIBSON: I think in this environment, nobody really knows what's next, right? And I think we didn't assume that we were next. We should have assumed … knowing that they were going to come to NEH at some point. At the same time, we also saw that NEH and NEA were both a part of the White House's America 250, its sort of future vision. And actually, the work that Virginia Humanities does as a member of that esteemed Virginia commission for the VA250, I think, puts us in the right sort of wheelhouse for trying to push forward real stories about America's greatness.
Since April, Virginia Humanities has been working to minimize that cut’s impact both on the cultural programs and services they provide to all Virginians and to their staff’s livelihoods. Some changes include reducing the amount of grants offered by $200,000 and fellowships by $45,000 for fiscal year 2026.
GIBSON: We know we're all going to have to make sacrifices, and it's going to hurt. We're not going to come to this unscathed, but it's really going to hit Virginians, and especially as we enter into a period of the VA250 when we're trying to celebrate and commemorate an incredible story about the nation's birth and independence and struggle for continued independence and freedom and justice.
Virginia Humanities will continue awarding grants from the VA250 commission. One of the projects that has previously received VA250 funding is "Stitching Together History" at the Virginia Quilt Museum in Rockingham County. Alicia Thomas is the executive director of the Virginia Quilt Museum.
ALICIA THOMAS: We are in the midst of a three-year project for the 250th that we're calling “Stitching Together History: 250 Quilts Commemorating the Commonwealth of Virginia.” … We asked people from around Virginia or across the country, really, to make small quilts that depict a person, place, event, or thing from Virginia history. So all the quilts are 20 by 20 inches square, and our goal was to get 250 of them. … Some people took very serious routes. We have a really lovely quilt about the enslaved people at Mount Vernon. Other people did some things that were just really pretty. We have a beautiful landscape of Seneca Rocks over in West Virginia. Some people did some really silly things. One of the quilts you've probably seen is a really angry looking raccoon, and it's because at one point there was this absolutely bizarre law on the books in Virginia that all animals deserved a day of rest, and so you could not hunt on Sundays, except for raccoons, like they were fair game.
In addition to the quilts, which will debut in July 2026, the museum is compiling a book to accompany the exhibition. They also plan to do a smaller traveling version of the exhibit, making it available to other museums around the commonwealth and even outside of Virginia.
THOMAS: There are still some things we're looking to fund because it's so many quilts of the same size, we need to buy some supplies that we don't have 250 of, so we are hoping to get another round of funding through the VA250 grant.
Thomas is not particularly concerned about funding for their VA250 project. Both Virginia Humanities and NEH have committed to funding projects related to the nation’s semiquincentennial. What does concern her, however, is funding for other projects they’re trying to get off the ground.
THOMAS: One is in our new location, there are two silos that are attached to our building, and we want to make those into usable space and move our library and our sewing machine collection out there. But it's about $50,000 worth of work that we need to do to do that. … The other is we were really looking to start an artist-in-residence and a scholar-in-residence program. … Startup costs are about $30,000 for it, and then ongoing expenses for that. … So it's more pausing things at the moment than outright canceling anything. We're not ready to give up on either of those projects.
NEH and Virginia Humanities funding is not the only challenge that small organizations like the Virginia Quilt Museum are facing.
THOMAS: The uncertainty is what is the most troubling at this point, is we don't know what's going to happen. And we don't know what's going to happen with tariffs, which would have a huge impact on the quilting community as a whole, because there are not sewing machines or fabric being manufactured in the United States. So that then affects quilt shops, which are a big supporter of the museum, and it affects the businesses who donate things for me to give away. … This is happening at all small history museums and small cultural institutions.
Thomas encourages individuals to show support to historic sites and cultural institutions through this time of uncertainty.
