Groups Are Told That Federal Humanities Grants Are Canceled

Cultural groups across the country have received letters informing them that their grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities were canceled, stirring fears of great harm to museums, historical sites and community projects of many kinds.

Starting late Wednesday night, state humanities councils and other grant recipients began receiving emails telling them their funding was ended immediately. Instead, they were told, the agency would be “repurposing its funding allocations in a new direction in furtherance of the president’s agenda.”

“Your grant’s immediate termination is necessary to safeguard the interests of the federal government, including its fiscal priorities,” the letters said. “The termination of your grant represents an urgent priority for the administration, and due to exceptional circumstances, adherence to the traditional notification process is not possible.”

The letters, more than a half dozen of which were viewed by The New York Times, were on agency letterhead and bore the signature of Michael McDonald, a longtime N.E.H. official who became acting director of the agency last month, after the previous leader, a Biden appointee, was pressed to resign.

A spokesman for the agency did not respond to a request for comment. The White House referred inquiries to a spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget, which declined to comment.

The letters came days after The Times reported that agency employees had been informed by supervisors that the Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk’s cost-cutting group, was seeking cuts of as much of 80 percent of the roughly 180-person staff. Employees were also told that all grants approved during the Biden administration that had not been fully paid out would be canceled.