In December, the Weston History & Culture Center was given a $25,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The funds were to support a permanent exhibition in the Coley Barn, called “Weston at Work.”
Last week, the grant was canceled.
On Wedneday, the WHCC received an email about the grant’s termination, effective that day. The email did not come from an official government address, but instead from a generic email domain.
Executive director Samantha Fargione thought it was a phishing scheme.
An attachment on the Endowment’s letterhead said, “NEH has reasonable cause to terminate your grant in light of the fact that the NEH is repurposing its funding allocations in a new direction in furtherance of the President’s agenda.”
A phone call Thursday morning determined that the email was sent not from the NEH, but by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
The Weston History & Culture Center says, “The termination of the NEH grant award and the loss of $25,000 are devastating for the WHCC – a small, independent, 501c3 non-profit cultural organization.
“WHCC does not receive town funding and is not a line item in the state of Connecticut’s budget. It is funded by grants, donations, membership, business sponsorships, and programs.
“WHCC has been planning and developing ‘Weston at Work’ for over 2 years. We still hope that ‘Weston at Work’ will open in October, but that’s now in doubt.”
Weston History & Culture Center, and Coley Barn.
The exhibit was planned to include interactive experiences for all ages. It will highlight the people behind the tools; explore stories of struggle, experience, and success, and weave voices of underrepresented groups into each section.
Without the grant, WHCC now needs to raise $75,000 to bring this first phase of “Weston at Work” to life for the community. They ask for donations via their website, or at PO Box 1092 Weston, CT 06883,
(“06880” covers 06883 too. If you appreciate our stories about Westport — and, occasionally, Weston — please click here to support our work. Thank you!)
No comments?
America deserves everything it voted for.
America deserves what it vires for.
I don’t know. I use a lot of the best quality grout I can buy. Look up laticrete epoxy grout part a part b and part c. I am more concerned about the impact on my family and friends retirement savings. education needs. health care needs. Why do you make it so personal?
It coming closer and closer. The HANDS OFF protest on the bridge today was heartening. My guess is over 2,500 people. It won’t stop until we stop it.
As the federal funding gets cut off for all manner of cultural, educational, humanitarian, ecological organizations, there comes a call to the community to step up and replace this support. However….
The community is going broke, thanks to Trump’s roll of the dice that is roiling the global economy.
How much wealth do you lose this week?
I don’t know if this anecdote about the WHCC is true, but I do know from the years that I lived there, that Weston has a proud history and culture. It should be able to afford to subsidize its own museum, after all it is an affluent community in one of the most affluent counties in America. It should also be considered that the country is spending more than a trillion dollars a year than it takes in.
How was liberation day Eric? How did you celebrate your new economic freedom in Cincinnati? Those tarriffs are more hot than beautiful!
Stephanie, remember back in the day when I suggested to you that Westport could teach you lessons about anti-semitism that you never learned when you lived in Cincinnati? How’s that going? I would love to hear your commentary on what the current learning environment is like for Jewish people at Columbia?
DoD budget = $850 billion/year
F47 = $200 billion
When’s DOGE getting around to that waste, fraud and abuse?
Psst: Jeff and Tom, start typing “TDS’ now. Tom, don’t forget your emojis.
Thanks for the reminder ‼️👍🏼
TDS TDS TDS
you should really seek help the negativity you harbor has bad long lasting consequences 🙏
Tom, Remember who said “I AM YOUR RETRIBUTION.” Who kept repeating that, Tom?
This right here. I would love to see cost-cutting hit the Pentagon, which gets an effective blank check every year. DJT seems to want to be an isolationist (outside of Canada, Greenland, Panama, and Gaza, I suppose) so it should be easy to find savings, no?
Of course, he also promised a $500 billion slush fund for tech bros that he needs to pay for, so I’m confident the middle-class taxpayer is NEVER going to see the savings.
The fealty that Republicans express for the TV show host and his unelected sugar daddy is absolutely disgraceful/crazy/hypocrisy – there aren’t enough words. Congress is happily handing over control of the purse strings to a seditionist. This isn’t normal.
And the people who say TDS are the ones acting like sheep. Suddenly the haphazard, arbitrary, and inflationary tariffs are “retaliatory tariffs?” At least they have been saying something other than “woke” this week. The global economy isn’t a board game. The idea that countries that sell us things are taking advantage of us is preposterous. We have the strongest economy (and strongest currency) in the world, so we buy stuff. Even Ronald Reagan knew that free trade created growth. But trust the guy who, had he not been born with a silver spoon in his mouth, would be lucky to be working in… I can’t even tell you who would hire this guy.
I’m not saying whether this is or isn’t a good grant, but collectively, projects like this are what bring the nation together. And many of them are now under attack. And you could pay for 160 of these grants with what we are spending on this weekends DJT $4 million golf junket. But, yeah, TDS! Give me a break. It is time for good Americans to go scorched-earth on idiocy.
I wish this was an April Fools Day joke too.
Bucky- the government runs a massive deficit when the
rich don’t pay their fair share. These latest taxes (tariffs) will
be another regressive blow to the lower and middle class families to subsidize the insane tax cuts for the top 1%. Anyhow, we’re just back from the “Hands Off” rally in Bryant Park, NYC and at least it was good to be with others who are as concerned and disgusted as we are!
Marc, I’m not sure how to define “fair share” but I think the salient point that both sides are missing is that you have to have a budget and the budget might want to be based at least tangentially on what you have coming into the coffers. But I remember you from our childhood as a nice compassionate guy so I have no doubt that you’re paying your fair share and probably much, much more.
I’m sure there are many in Weston who are very disappointed, but it’s really hard to rationalize that type of government support when it really should be best left to the private sector to raise funds for those memorials and honors that are suited for a town. Very, very hard to rationalize why federal tax revenue should be distributed to such investments
if this is so important to locals, fund it yourself. why should the US treasury fund it w taxpayer dollars. finally someone is putting a stop to wasteful federal spending. “hands off” my hard earned money to fund every pet project.
25K here 100k there … it adds up VERY quickly….everyone is screaming keep the feds out of local .. so …..
This and so many other cultural elements…Libraries, museums and more that count on grants to function programs that benefit many that are now just cut off
A key issue is compliance with law. Did the withdrawal of this grant violate the law and/or the legal language that underlies the grant. My guess is the withdrawal does violate the law. Pres. Trump and his people are running roughshod over our system of laws and funding. It is scary.
Don’t be afraid Don. Things will be OK. Adults are in charge.
Painful, I agree in the short term. If the county fails because of its debt … it will be far worse for the next generation and/or even us.
Jeffrey, In 1944, the top one percent of earners paid 94% Federal Income Taxes. From 1945 to 1960, they paid 90%. The highest earners paid 90% for sixteen years, and most of this was done under Eisenhower. The answer to the debt is very simple. By the way, some factory production can come back to the United States, but when it does, the price of manufacturing will skyrocket because you won’t be paying $3.75 an hour to workers; you’ll be paying $35,00 an hour plus medical insurance to workers. The price of the product will rise so either the consumer pays more and inflation increases, or the company eats the price increases and their earnings plummet. If their earnings fall, the stock price of their company shares fall. The dilemma is a lose- lose situation! Trump will fall. He only has 19 months to keep his promise and it’s impossible!
I have a question that’s a little bit off topic. Republican election deniers now control the FBI and DOJ. How about giving us the solid proof that the 2020 election was stolen! Can we have the proof of the 865 million votes that were stolen? Shouldn’t take more than a few weeks to deliver the proof!
This is another example of outright stupidity and repression in America’s treatment of education.
Boo hoo, why were my tax dollars going to some one percenter whatever.
Democrats are so hopelessly out of touch, wait until we talk about the emergency Covid funds that went to build pickle ball courts.
But you are okay with the weekend golf junkets that cost taxpayers about $4 million?
I’m not. We need a tax cut. I know!!! Maybe Trump can buy a McMansion and move to Westport. Then he could golf for free at Longshore. But his son in law JK might have to play at Birchwood.