Losing federal funding for emergency heritage conservation in the US is a disaster

Cultural institutions in the US provide essential community resources and are responsible for the care of more than 13.2 billion items. As the climate crisis worsens impacts from emergencies, we are seeing the destructive capabilities of storms, wildfires and other phenomena increase exponentially. Defunding these services now, when climate change and disaster frequency are accelerating, doesn’t just undercut readiness—it ensures loss. Federal agencies like the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and Institute of Museum of Library Services (IMLS) were a key part of the recovery for cultural organisations across the country when disaster struck. With these agencies’ staffing gutted, funding cut and grants cancelled, what will we lose to the next disaster? What are we losing now?

At the Foundation for Advancement in Conservation (FAIC), our mission is to protect cultural heritage, including ensuring conservation and preservation expertise is available where it’s needed. To support communities and collecting institutions during emergencies and disasters, FAIC created the National Heritage Responders (NHR), which helps coordinate efforts with first responders, state agencies, vendors and the public, providing support needed to help recover cultural heritage. We’re currently engaged with disaster recovery in Los Angeles and communities in Kentucky, Georgia and Florida. This work is only possible through collaboration, including with key federal partners, whose support we’ve relied on. Roughly 75% of FAIC’s operating budget was supplied by federal grants, all of which have now been cancelled or are not being reimbursed.

FAIC continues to seek basic operational support to maintain its day-to-day activities of the NHR, including hosting our 24/7 hotline and public email helpline. All of its conservation work is made possible by dedicated, highly trained preservation expert volunteers. This model is typically sustainable for FAIC, but not now and when we need to provide assistance on the ground, like after the Maui wildfires in 2023 and the flooding in Kentucky in 2022.

Following those emergencies, we worked with organisations in impacted areas and deployed National Heritage Responders to provide on-the-ground support. The deployments helped those communities recover invaluable records and objects of cultural, artistic and historical significance. But they were only possible through grants from the chair’s office at the NEH.

Without access to immediate support, FAIC cannot get responders on the ground, which can cost as much as $25,000 per deployment and take up to a year to fund. With significant uncertainty around the future of federal funding through agencies like NEH and IMLS, the time needed to secure funding to deploy our responders may be significantly greater and lead to greater damage to collections and potential loss of meaningful and beloved objects. Our experts may also be facing their own funding shortfalls in their day jobs that will make taking the time to participate or deploy more difficult.

We also know that as we face the impacts of lost federal funding, our community is facing many of the same challenges. Recovery from emergencies is not simply salvaging materials—it takes years of dedicated support and funding to fully recover. The colleagues we worked with in Hawaii and Kentucky have lost the funding they received to take on the next step of that recovery. The Jodo Mission in Lahaina lost $45,000 in funding for conservation treatment for an Amida Buddha statue and bronze temple bell. Appalshop in Whitesburg lost $975,500 in funding to clean and salvage flood-damaged photographs and audio-visual materials. Hundreds of collecting institutions are facing similar shortfalls, and many of the items recovered from these emergencies are in unstable condition and the delay caused by these lost grants will cause irreversible damage and loss.

We anticipate that reduced federal funding will also mean there will be less funding available to respond to emergencies at the state level, including reduced funding to arts councils and historical commissions. Several state humanities councils are in critical financial straits, including Hawaii and Louisiana. It is heartening to see organisations like the Mellon Foundation stepping in to provide support, but with fewer resources for local response and no federal resources, there will be an even greater need for FAIC’s National Heritage Responders.

We don’t know what will happen in terms of our funding, or that of our colleagues. What we do know is that emergencies will continue to happen and they will continue to impact cultural heritage. We urge US President Donald Trump’s administration and federal agencies to reconsider the termination of these vital grant programmes and our Congressional representatives to advocate for restored funding. We call on private philanthropists to step forward and help sustain this work in the interim. The next disaster is already here. The National Heritage Responders and FAIC will do what we can and ask you to do what you can: use your voice to demonstrate your support for federal funding of preservation of cultural heritage, including emergency response and recovery.

• Lissa Rosenthal-Yoffe is the executive director of the American Institute for Conservation and the Foundation for Advancement in Conservation.
• You can learn more about and directly support FAIC’s National Heritage Responders on our website.