DAVENPORT, Iowa (KWQC) – Another round of federal cuts is hitting home in the Quad-Cities.
This time, they’re targeting cultural institutions like the Putnam Museum.
Arts institutions officials across the Quad-Cities are beginning to get the emails from the government saying their funding is being cut.
At the Putnam, a traveling Civil Rights exhibit is now off the table. Also gone are employees who ran summer camps programs, and now the museum is scrambling to figure out how they’re going to staff, not just now but in the future.
“How do you fill that part of the budget?” Putnam CEO Cindy Diehl Yang said. “Or are you having to make cuts in order to do that?”
The cuts are the work of the Department of Government Efficiency. In the past week, DOGE has cut funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
“Crystal ball? Hopefully, things will settle and you won’t see such a huge impact long term, but we are preparing for it.”
KWQC met with the Quad Cities Cultural Trust, which helps fund six institutions: the Putnam, the Quad-City Symphony Orchestra, Common Chord, the Figge Art Museum, Quad-City Arts, and the Quad-Cities Botanical Center.
COMING UP:
Look for additional coverage this week on how these budget reductions are impacting prominent cultural organizations.
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