Nearly every major Bay Area museum has funding whacked by feds

Art no longer serves the interests of the United States of America.

That seems to be the message President Donald Trump is sending with his latest round of cuts to programs that support the arts, sciences, and humanities. 

At least nine Bay Area museums had their federal funding cut in April, including SFMOMA and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, which oversees the de Young and Legion of Honor. Smaller organizations, like the GLBT Historical Society and UC Berkeley’s art museum, were also hit. 

Across these organizations, at least $2.6 million in grants were cut. That money was earmarked to support infrastructure maintenance and accessibility, public workshops, and artist programs, among other projects. With millions in future funding at stake, museums are preparing for the worst.

Local museums rely on grants from three federal agencies: the International Museum of Library Services, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

In a budget proposal released May 2, Trump called for eliminating all three organizations. 

Even if that doesn’t happen, the administration has succeeded in hollowing out the organizations — to devastating effect. In early April, approximately 80% of the workforces of both the IMLS and NEH were placed on administrative leave, grinding the mechanisms of funding to a halt.

The hits to Bay Area organizations came fast and hard: $210,000 from SFMOMA, funds intended to improve accessibility; $736,000 from the Museum of the African Diaspora; $367,000 from the California Academy of Sciences.

The Asian Art Museum learned last week that the majority of a $350,000 grant from the NEH to repair the fire suppression system had been terminated.

Even when the numbers involved are small, they can be devastating. The GLBT Historical Society lost a $10,000 NEH grant it had been awarded in October. The organization has among the smallest operating budgets of museums in the Bay Area, at $2.4 million per year, so the loss has a “real impact,” said Roberto Ordeñana, the executive director.

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco was a sub-awardee of a $340,000 NEH grant for conservation workshops, including one planned for the fall of 2026. Now that the Department of Government Efficiency has terminated the grant, the museum is seeking alternative funding options for the event, including courting private donors. The museum did not disclose how much it was set to receive from the grant.

Scientific funding is also in turmoil due to the Trump administration. Specifically, the National Science Foundation, which funds the Exploratorium and California Academy of Sciences, is facing a 55% cut to its $9 billion annual budget in the next fiscal year, as well as the mass layoff of half its 1,700-person staff, according to Ars Technica.

The Exploratorium will lose an estimated $800,000 from one NSF grant and three IMLS grants aimed at youth programming on AI literacy and climate change. The Exploratorium declined to comment on the funding cuts or how they would affect programming. 

While federal funding represents a small fraction of each museum’s operating budget, it is symbolically and strategically significant, helping to kick-start programs and lure donors and other grantors. 

“These grants are like a badge of honor,” said Lori Fogarty, director and CEO of the Oakland Museum of California, which was notified last month that an IMLS grant would be terminated. “They’re peer-reviewed, and they’re super competitive, so when you can tell another funder that a project has received IMLS support, it shows that it has been rigorously reviewed. In terms of day-to-day operations, [federal funding] is a small part of our budget.”

The cuts have also had significant impacts on smaller arts-focused nonprofits around the Bay Area, many of which relied heavily on the NEA for project funding.

In January, San Francisco’s creative reuse center and arts education nonprofit Scrap received its first NEA grant: $25,000 to support a sustainable fashion program for underserved youth. On Friday, Scrap learned that the grant had been withdrawn, due to new funding priorities.

With just seven days to appeal, Scrap likely won’t challenge the decision, its programs director told KQED.

Nearly every museum in the Bay Area is in the midst of completing federal grant applications or has submitted them and is waiting to hear back. Some institutions are scrambling to find ways to fight the Trump administration or find alternate funding sources. 

In a retaliatory salvo, the GLBT Historical Society has joined a bevy of LGBTQ+ groups in suing the Trump administration for defunding “organizations that provide [transgender people] with life-saving services.”

Lambda Legal, a law firm and civil rights organization that advocates for the community and filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California, states that Trump’s executive orders violate the First, Fifth, and 14th amendments, as well as the Administrative Procedure Act, by restricting the organizations’ rights.

The de Young Museum and Legion of Honor, meanwhile, have three pending IMLS and NEH grants that would fund an upcoming exhibition on ancient Italy, assist with documenting Indigenous artifacts, and develop a climate action plan. 

“Even if you can’t be a donor right now, you can support these institutions by going to them, buying a ticket or membership, bringing friends, and posting your experiences online so others can discover the value and magic they gift to us,” said Adam Swig, the executive director and founder of Value Culture, a San Francisco-based nonprofit aimed at boosting access to arts organizations through charity and programming. 

The Contemporary Jewish Museum, citing financial challenges and low attendance, closed in December and plans to remain shuttered through the end of the year. While awaiting a decision on $250,000 in funding from the IMLS, the museum was also counting on support from an American Alliance of Museums program designed to aid struggling institutions. However, last week, AAM notified the museum that the program won’t proceed this year — because it’s entirely funded by the same agency now facing cuts.