Three weeks ago, the Trump government ordered the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to cancel all the funding to the fifty State Humanities Councils, which until now played a vital role in stimulating cultural production and education across the land, including in the most remote and impoverished communities. This is only the latest chapter in the administration’s repeated attacks on the liberal and progressive cultural industries and media targeting agents of change who often promoted cultural inclusion. The already marginalized deep red rural America will be deeply affected.
The arts and humanities organizations, led by visionary change agents, do much more than organizing cultural events: they play a crucial role in fostering social bonds, as well as community and local identity and pride. As such, they are vital to social resilience, especially in areas that lack in local resources, as a growing number of communities see essential organizations, such as banking institutions and grocery stores disappear, as indicated by the growing number of “banking deserts” and “food deserts” across the south.
