IMLS terminated the Vermont Historical Society’s Activating 21st Century Local History Training Program 

The Institute of Museums and Library Services (IMLS) has informed the Vermont Historical Society that it has terminated its grant for the Activating 21st Century Local History Program (Grant Application No. 21MP-256386-OMS-24), effective April 8th. The letter, signed by acting IMLS director Keith Sonderling, states that “IMLS has determined that your grant is unfortunately no longer consistent with the agency’s priorities and no longer serves the interest of the United States and the IMLS Program.” You can read the full termination letter here.

This termination was expected after President Donald Trump issued an executive order “Continuing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy” on March 14th, which called for the immediate defunding of seven governmental entities, including the Institute of Museum and Library Services.  

The Activating 21st Century Local History Training Program was designed to assist Vermont’s numerous – and often volunteer-run – local historical societies develop advanced skills toward helping them establish their collections priorities, right-size their collections, and energize their communities to help ensure the continuing preservation of local history. The program included the development and deployment of an Online Resource Center, workshops, and intensive work with a cohort of local historical societies (the Bixby Memorial Library in Vergennes, and the historical societies of Brookfield, Sharon, Thetford, and Waterbury) to provide training, resources, and direct assistance on their projects. The program began in the summer of 2024 and was slated to run through 2027.

The termination leaves $140,000 of the award left outstanding and VHS has been unable to secure funding from other sources to continue this project. This will result in the layoff of the VHS staff member responsible for the program. Tragically, this move deprives Vermont’s local historical societies of the resources and programming designed to support their operations as the nation prepares for the 250th anniversary of the founding of the country.  

Despite this outcome, VHS is committed to our mission to preserve and tell Vermont’s story through our collections, exhibits, programming, and state-wide outreach and will continue to advance scholarship, offer resources to our state’s educators and to support the work of our local historical societies and museums.