Wood County Museum exhibit impacted by cuts in Washington, D.C.
A grant for a special exhibit is no longer being awarded to the museum.
TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) - The government has been making massive cuts to its spending for weeks. Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency want to cut one trillion dollars in federal spending by September, which is the end of the fiscal year.
According to DOGE’s website, the department has cut $150 billion in federal spending so far.
The department is doing this by canceling contracts, ending leases, and pushing federal agencies to reduce their workforces or make cuts to their agencies’ spending. Some of those cuts have already impacted organizations here at home. That includes the Wood County Museum.
The museum has a World War II exhibit opening later this month. Museum leaders said a grant they were counting on to help cover some of the cost of the exhibit has been put on hold.
Every two years, museum leaders put together a large-scale exhibit. Several rooms are being transformed into the exhibit that opens later this month. But cuts in Washington, D.C. are impacting the project.
“Museums should not be made into something political,” Holly Kirkendall, the curator at the museum, said.
Museum leaders said they were awarded a $20,000 grant from the Ohio Humanities Council last fall to help cover the cost of the exhibit. Kirkendall said the money was earmarked for things like construction, design and printing.
“The exhibit is still going to happen, we are still moving forward because we have already invested so much,” Kirkendall said.
Annette Wells is the museum director. She said they learned early this year that the grant was being cut to $16,000 because of uncertainty surrounding the budget in Washington. Ohio Humanities receives federal money through the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Earlier this month, Wells said they learned the grant was being put on hold altogether.
“Just a couple weeks ago, we heard DOGE was cutting funding at the national level for the National Endowment for the Humanities. That affects Ohio Humanities, which then affects our grant,” Wells said.
In the short term, museum leaders are working to see if they can close the gap through donations or if they’ll have to scale the exhibit back a bit. But they’re also concerned about the future of large-scale exhibits moving forward.
“That means we might not be able to do large-scale exhibits every two years and let’s face it, museums that are stagnant don’t do well,” Wells said.
Wells said it can cost $50,000-$60,000 to put on a large-scale exhibit.
It’s important to point out that overall museum operations and staffing are not impacted by the change in the grant
Becoming a museum member or attending events and fundraisers is a way to help the museum. The WW II exhibit opens April 24.
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