NEH Grants Terminated

On 2 April 2025 at 11:30pm ET, the American Musicological Society (AMS) received notice from Michael McDonald, Acting Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), that all four (4) of the American Musicological Society’s active NEH grants had been terminated, effective 1 April 2025. These grants were expected to account for more than $363,000 in AMS income over the next two years. The money would have been used to support the following programs and projects:

1. Many Musics of America
2. Music of the United States (MUSA)
3. Musics of the United States: Telling Our Stories
4. Music Means: A Digital Platform for Exploring Music and Meaning in America

Moreover, recent press reports have warned that further cuts in staff and funding are coming for the NEH — that as much as 80 percent of the staff of that roughly 180-person agency will be fired. If true, this means that not only current funding, but all pending and future grant awards are imperiled. (The AMS has several pending grant proposals under consideration by the NEH for a combined total of $1.35 million dollars, and in recent years has received at least 10% to 15% of its total annual funding from such grants.)

On 3 April 2025, the R. F. Judd Executive Director of the AMS, Siovahn Walker, wrote a public letter to all AMS members and constituents announcing these grant terminations. Read her letter here.

Click on the thumbnail below to read the Executive Director’s public letter on the termination of the Society’s NEH grants.