NEH Redirects Funding from Canceled Grants to Trump’s “Garden of Heroes”
146April 29, 2025
TheNational Endowment for the Humanitieson April 24 announced anew grant programsupporting the design and creation of works for the National Garden of American Heroes sculpture park that President Donald Trump has ordered to be established in celebration of the United States’ 250th anniversary of independence. Announced by Trump in 2020, during his first presidency, the garden will feature life-size statues of “250 great individuals from America’s past who have contributed to our cultural, scientific, economic, and political heritage,” according to the NEH. Artists who are American citizens are invited to submit “preliminary concepts” for individual sculptures. A short list of materials—marble, granite, bronze, copper, and brass—may be used in the statues’ making, while along and diverse list of subjects—including Kobe Bryant, Charlton Heston, Steve Jobs, Martin Luther King Jr., Abraham Lincoln, Paul Revere, Shirley Temple, Tecumseh, George Washington, and the Wright brothers—has been approved for representation.
The NEH and theNational Endowment for the Artswill collaborate to spend $34 million on the effort, which moves ahead just weeks after TrumpforcedShelly C. Lowe, the first Native person and the second woman ever to chair the NEH, from her role. Shortly thereafter, following a visit from the Elon Musk–led Department of Govermenent Efficiency, the organization laid off 65 percent of its staff andannounced the cancellationof more than 1,200 grants for cultural and historical projects across the US on the grounds that they were “unpatriotic.” Just before announcing the Garden of American Heroes grants, the NEH in aseparate statementannounced that it would “return to being a responsible steward of taxpayer funds,” offering grants that are “merit-based, awarded to projects that do not promote extreme ideologies based upon race or gender, and that help to instill an understanding of the founding principles and ideals that make America an exceptional country.”