DEERFIELD — Staff at the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association (PVMA) were checking their inboxes on April 2 and found a strange email in the spam folder.

Along with the email, which came from an account without a .gov address, was a letter with National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) letterhead declaring the museum’s recently awarded $300,000 grant had been terminated, effective immediately, because NEH is “repurposing its funding allocations in a new direction in furtherance of the president’s agenda.”

The key reason cited in the letter, which was reviewed by the Greenfield Recorder, was President Donald Trump’s Feb. 19 Commencing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy executive order, which mandates that “NEH eliminate all non-statutorily required activities and functions.”

“Your grant’s immediate termination is necessary to safeguard the interests of the federal government, including its fiscal priorities,” the letter, which is signed by acting NEH Chair Michael McDonald, reads. “The termination of your grant represents an urgent priority for the administration, and due to exceptional circumstances, adherence to the traditional notification process is not possible.”

The grant, awarded in early January, was going to supplement about $160,000 in PVMA fundraising to produce a multi-year effort aimed at exploring the experiences of Lucy Terry Prince, the earliest identified African American writer, by producing a free educational website centered on Prince’s life, which could then be used as a focal point to explore other African American historical themes.

With the Trump administration continuing to cut federal agencies’ budgets, as well as parallel efforts to stamp out programs exploring diversity, equity and inclusion, PVMA Executive Director Tim Neumann said his organization’s work ending up in the crosshairs wasn’t surprising. He did add, though, that there was some uncertainty about whether the grant would be terminated, as NEH staffers encouraged PVMA to get started on its work.

“It’s not a shock. … If you look at what our project is, the story of a Black woman and poet, it wouldn’t surprise one [to see the grant be clawed back],” Neumann said. “It is a big disappointment.”

Multiple email requests for comment sent to NEH were not returned.

PVMA is far from the only grant recipient to lose out on money, as The New York Times reported last week that more than 85% of NEH’s grants are up for cancellation, with many organizations receiving the same letter PVMA got.

Brian Boyles, executive director of Mass Humanities, wrote an essay that was published in The Boston Globe, as well as his agency’s website, laying out how he, too, had to find the termination letters in his junk mailbox and that these cuts can be “death sentences” for humanities organizations, which also trickles down to the contractors who help these groups bring their projects to life. Mass Humanities is the state affiliate for NEH.

“In 1965, federal funding for the humanities began with a clear statement, made publicly in the presence of great artists and enshrined in legislation declaring that our democracy ‘cannot rest solely upon superior power, wealth and technology,’” Boyles wrote. “In 2025, the people running our government tell us that the humanities are nothing more than spam. Though clumsy and callous, that message was clear.”

Neumann likewise noted that the artists and designers PVMA was going to hire for the project are now out of a job while the museum reconfigures its approach.

With the project long having been identified in PVMA’s long-range planning, with more than $200,000 going toward the project and its associated research over the last few decades, Neumann said “it’s an institutional setback.”

In that vein, he emphasized that these grants aren’t just checks being mailed out to organizations. PVMA has actively conducted research on Prince for decades and in the last few years has had to work through the NEH grant process, which requires preliminary paperwork and a working prototype of the project before an organization can apply for the production grant.

Despite the loss of the funding, Neumann said PVMA’s work will go on, just as it always has. Though the Lucy Terry Prince website won’t be ready for its intended target date of the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, the project will continue.

“I was told since the day I came in 1975 that we were three years from closing. I have battled that going on five decades,” Neumann said. “I’m not staying in bed and wishing that the Fairy Godmother arrives with a package of money, it doesn’t work that way. I have a lot of faith in what we do and we have a long track record. … There have been major setbacks previously.”

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com.