A taxidermied snow leopard that once lived at the Denver Zoo and now is part of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science’s collection. March 1, 2023.
Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
The entire staff of a federal agency that awards grants to museums and libraries across the nation has been put on administrative leave.
The decision, which jeopardizes the future of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), is the latest in a pattern of government workforce and funding cuts initiated by President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
The cuts have targeted a wide range of government agencies, including ones that oversee agriculture, the environment, and other arts.
What does the IMLS do for Denver?
The IMLS provides hundreds of millions of dollars to museums and libraries across the country. Last year, it awarded $266 million in grants.
Denver institutions have received about $6.2 million in grants from IMLS since 2020. Last year, four different museums received a total of about $888,000, funding programs at organizations like the Denver Botanic Gardens and History Colorado.
Grants are competitive, so the list of Denver organizations that receives them varies year by year. For example, the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and the Denver Public Library’s Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library all received grants in recent years, but weren’t on the list of grantees in 2024.
It isn’t clear what will happen to grants available in 2025. Application deadlines for some have already passed, while others are quickly approaching.
What are Denver institutions saying?
In 2024, the Denver Art Museum applied for a grant that would help fund the design of exhibits and programs for people living with disabilities.
But the way that IMLS grants work, that money isn’t in their pocket quite yet.
“We have to incur those costs first and then request funding from the grant award,” said Chiara Robinson, the museum’s director of institutional giving and development.
Robinson said while the Art Museum isn’t propped up by IMLS funding, the grants help them fund mission-critical projects.
“I do think that without IMLS funding, we have to look closely at how we plan and how we implement those projects,” she said.
The Molly Brown House Museum said this will impact efforts to archive digital assets, a move that many museums across the nation are struggling to accomplish.
“They provide the vital funding to museums across the country to do this archival work and to do this storytelling,” said Andrea Malcomb, the director of the Molly Brown House Museum.
The threat to the IMLS’ future won’t just impact Denver institutions. The agency has also given money to organizations like the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and the Pueblo Zoo.
