The Trump administration has again proposed to eliminate funding for the National Endowments for the Arts (NEA) and Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). In its fiscal year 2019 budget unveiled on Tuesday (12th February) the administration proposes reducing funding to the NEA by 80% and the IMLS by 90% next year and ultimately shut the institutions altogether.

The budget also describes plans "to begin shutting down NEH in 2019, given there are non-federal sources of funding for humanities and the administration does not consider the activities within this agency to be core Federal responsibilities".

The funding for ILMS, which provides funding to museums and libraries across the country through formula and competitive grant awards, will be slashed from $231m last year to $23m in 2019. The Trump administration ultimately “proposes to eliminate” it but according to the document, it is “elimination of IMLS would result in the closure of a significant number of libraries and museums”.

The document also includes a plan to reduce funding to the NEA, which offers grants to writers amongst other activities, from $150m to $29 next year and shut it down because the “administration does not consider NEA activities to be core federal responsibilities”.

The NEA was established in 1965 and uses partnerships with state arts agencies, other federal agencies, and the philanthropic sector, to support arts learning, cultural heritage, and increasing access to the arts across the country. There have been attempts to shut the body down for 35 years according to Quartz.

Read the full article about decreasing funding for the arts by Heloise Wood at The Bookseller.