DOGE restructuring of NEH hits documentary and archival projects

A forthcoming docuseries on the criminal justice system and three American Masters films are among the public media projects targeted by cuts to National Endowment for the Humanities grants programs, according to a database that compiled grants designated for cancellation by the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency.

The database includes grants that were terminated as of April 8 and notes that some of the funds may have been reinstated or the grantees may have already spent down their funds. The Association for Computers and the Humanities, a professional association for digital humanities, created the database and is advocating for grantees. So far, an estimated 1,400 grants valued at approximately $427 million have been terminated, according to the database.

The at-risk projects include the preservation of three collections of water-damaged photos from the Appalachian region by WMMT in Whitesburg, Ky., and Radio Diaries’s Audio History Project. 

New York Public Radio and KZYX in Philo, Calif., have already spent NEH funds for their projects that are listed in the database, according to station staff. Neither station has received notice that the grants have to be repaid, they said.

The Trump Administration and the DOGE initiative began cost-cutting at NEH in early April by seeking staff cuts and cancellation of previously awarded grants, according to reporting by the New York Times and the Washington Post. Founded in 1965, the Endowment has awarded more than $6 billion to universities, museums and other organizations that support humanities research and education, according to its website. Its recent grants to public media include support for the Division Street Revisited podcast about Studs Terkel and an American Masters film about the author Julia Alvarez that premiered on PBS last year. NEH also provided a matching grant to help WETA in Washington, D.C., upgrade its headquarters and distributed financial relief to independent filmmakers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The WNET Group in New York City, one of PBS’ top producing stations, has five projects with grants valued at $1.6 million listed in the database. Three are for American Masters biographies on the writer Elie Wiesel, poet Mary Oliver and actor Sabu Dastagir. Two additional grants are for WNET projects associated with Mission US, an education gaming initiative that focuses on teaching history. Spokesperson Kellie Castruita Specter said WNET is “currently exploring all our options” in the wake of the funding cut.

The eight-hour docuseries Crime and Punishment in America, directed by Lynn Novick with Ken Burns and Sam Pollard as EPs, is also listed in the database. It was awarded $600,000 from NEH in 2023. The four-part series is a production of Skiff Mountain Films in association with WETA and Florentine Films. Producers declined to comment through a spokesperson. The series is slated to debut on PBS in winter 2026, according to Current’s 2025 Pipeline survey of forthcoming public TV programs.

GBH in Boston, another top producing station, has three NEH grants slated for cuts: $750,000 for a digital infrastructure project, $600,000 for an American Experience film about civil rights leader Walter White that debuted in February, and $349,326 for an unspecified data project. A station spokesperson declined to answer questions about the grants.

The database also identifies a $750,000 grant to a New York Public Radio project to preserve and digitize its archives. Spokesperson Sarah Sgro said in an email, “We already received that grant and the deliverables have been satisfied.” When asked whether the station expects that the money will need be paid back because of the NEH cuts, Sgro said, “We haven’t heard anything to that effect.”

The Audio History Project by New York–based Radio Diaries also faces cancellation of a $550,000 NEH grant, according to the database. “We knew NEH cuts were coming, but we’re still in shock at the sudden gutting of the agency,” said Joe Richman, founder and EP, in a letter to supporters Monday. “The NEH has been our biggest funder for more than a decade. Over the next few months, we’re going to need to find new sources of funding.” Richman ended the memo by asking for support from listeners.

Appalshop, which owns WMMT in Whitesburg, Ky., has two NEH grants at risk: $225,581 to preserve three Appalachian photo collections and $136,500 for a program designed to showcase the experiences of Black people in Central Appalachia. Work on both projects has been halted, said Chad Hunter, an archivist for Appalshop, in an email to Current.

“While many other archives are in the same boat, the critical issue for us is that our collection was flood damaged, so every moment that we aren’t working to preserve them means they are degrading at a higher rate of speed than stable collections,” Hunter said. “We are scrambling to identify other possible funding, but we do not have the resources currently. That unfortunately means we may lose a large portion of our collections because of that.”

The photo preservation project also received a $750,000 grant from Save America’s Treasures that’s administered through the Institute of Museum and Library Services; Hunter said he expects that to be cancelled as well. The IMLS was targeted for elimination in an executive order issued by President Trump in March. The Trump administration has terminated an estimated 1,100 grants.

Mendocino County Public Broadcasting, which holds the license for community radio station KZYX in Philo, Calif., received a $148,312 NEH matching grant last year to establish a production studio for humanities programs. Interim GM Dina Polkinghorne said that the station has already received and spent most of the money.

“When we got the cancellation notice, unless there was a clawback of some kind, I thought, ‘That’s terrible for a lot of grantees, but for us we’re OK because we spent it all already,’” Polkinghorne said. “We received the money upfront.” Like NYPR, her station hasn’t received any communication from the government that the funding needs to be paid back, she said.

Other organizations whose NEH grants are listed as canceled in the database are: 

• Louisiana Public Broadcasting for its $700,343 grant for a documentary about the Colfax Massacre in 1873.
• The Center for Independent Documentary, a fiscal sponsor for NEH grantees, was awarded a $550,000 grant for Eyes on the Prize Reclaimed, a retrospective on the landmark Eyes on the Prize public television series. A $600,000 grant for Diamond Diplomacy, the center’s project on U.S.–Japanese relations centered around professional baseball, is also in the database. 
• KYUK in Bethel, Alaska, which received $338,475 to create a digital archive of Native Alaskan language video and audio recordings for preservation and public access.
• Koahnic Broadcast Corporation in Anchorage, Alaska, which was awarded $29,920 for a project on generational trauma for Native Alaskans.

Got a tip about federal grants targeted for cancellations? Contact news@current.org.