Iowa museums face potential program cuts, even closure, with loss of federal grants

Staff at the Putnam Museum and Science Center in Davenport are preparing for a busy summer of 24 summer camps for students and spearheading upcoming projects for the institution.

In early April, the museum was moving full speed ahead toward summer preparations after receiving a grant of almost $23,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities toward pop-up exhibits and updating some of its Civil Rights Movement walking tours.

But two days after receiving the grant award, museum president and CEO Cindy Diehl Yang received notice that the funding was terminated.

And with recent news of AmeriCorps cuts leaving the institution with two fewer staff members, the museum still is figuring out how to chart a path forward.

“Our education programs are not, you know, profit centers, per se … How can we keep that education going in the community?” Diehl Yang said. “One of those spokes on the wheel of what keeps our funding whole has just been taken off.”

The wave of federal funding cuts hitting the Putnam Museum and Science Center is not unique. Impacts of the Trump administration’s DOGE, or Department of Government Efficiency-driven staff layoffs and grant cuts at federal institutions that support arts and humanities, including the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, are trickling down to museums across Iowa.

A proposal to zero out the National Endowment for the Arts in President Donald Trump’s recently released budget blueprint could further expand these funding cuts in the state.

The effects are stretching to every corner of Iowa, in rural and urban areas.

In Des Moines, the Science Center of Iowa lost a $196,000 grant for expanding the museum’s accessibility to members of the Latinx communities. In Waterloo, the Grout Museum District lost a $20,000 grant to support its collection of video oral histories in the museum’s Black Stories Collective permanent exhibit.

In Dubuque, the Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium’s $31,000 grant for an interpretive master plan was terminated.

And a joint exhibit between the Des Moines Art Center and the Waterloo Center for the Arts showcasing Haitian art saw a $11,275 NEH grant cut.

Des Moines Art Center Director Kelly Baum said their grant, like many federal grants, was reimbursement-based, meaning the museum has to incur the costs before it receives the funding. Baum added that the museum was able to absorb the expense of the money it had already spent, but that’s not possible for every institution.

“I would just hope that people would understand that these grants are given for the public good and when they disappear, that means that the public good is no longer being served,” Baum said.

These funding cuts could lead to closures for small-town museums in Iowa, said Heather Plucar, executive director of Humanities Iowa. Many federal grants that go to museums and arts organizations in the state pass through Humanities Iowa. Over the last month, Plucar said she has been having tough conversations with smaller museums about filling funding gaps.

“Those places are typically run by a large amount of volunteers who put together grant applications on their own time,” Plucar said. “Not having a federal lifeline for some of those smaller places means immediate closure.”

‘A source for our public and our communities to engage’

Beyond its regular programming, the Grout Museum District in Waterloo has a slate of partnerships with local organizations, including one with the YMCA that promotes STEM education for preteen girls and another with an agency that works with foster families in the community.

Museums across Iowa host educational programs for schools and families that supplement what students learn in classrooms, said Chawne Paige, executive director of the Waterloo Center for the Arts.

“I don't know a museum across the nation that doesn't have a direct connection to public school, and private schools, providing a kind of supplement to the experience that's in a classroom by taking and providing an immersive experience for students,” Paige said. “Oftentimes it's a make-or-break if you have the funds or you have to dial back on the type of training you have for the docents.”

But grant terminations could impact direct funding for specific programs alongside indirect funding for things like research on making museums more accessible or on traveling exhibits.

At the Science Center of Iowa, federal grants have helped underwrite the development of numerous programs at the museum, including a space and astronomy exhibit geared toward students and finding new ways to engage kids in STEM education, according to museum President and CEO Curt Simmons.

“People, schools, teachers, administrators, look to the science centers of the world to enhance their science education, and, frankly, to get students really excited about science,” Simmons said.

‘It's really hard to get in line and be able to survive’

Museums across Iowa are funded by multiple sources, including admissions fees, donations and federal and state grants.

Now that federal funds — a large revenue source for these museums — are being terminated, remaining state and private grants will only become more competitive, Plucar said.

“I'm sure there will be a bottleneck during grant cycles of more applicants than usual for this main piece of pie,” Plucar said. “It's going to be tough. You're always looking for private donations, but there are so many needs right now, it's really hard to get in line and be able to survive the weight, to get to the front to make the ask.”

Diehl Yang, with the Putnam Museum and Science Center, said that with multiple organizations beyond museums, including food pantries and other nonprofits, facing federal funding cuts, private donations across local communities are going to be stretched even thinner.

"We now have a larger number of people reaching out for that same pot of funds," Diehl Yang said. "... But the number of people who will need to be able to pull from that will be greater."

Despite the wave of changes caused by federal funding cuts, Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium President and CEO Kurt Strand said the institution has received an outpouring of support from the local community. He still fears the grant terminations they are experiencing will fall to the wayside amid the other impacts from federal changes that Iowa is facing.

“There's so many other things going on, from tariffs to different cuts here and all these other layoffs and things like that, there's just so much noise out there,” Strand said. “In a quieter world, I believe we would be getting a lot of attention and concern and care on this, but I think given all the other things going on, it's hard to find a path.”