The president of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), Shelly C. Lowe, who had been appointed to this position by the Biden administration in 2021, has just announced her dismissal. “I can confirm that Shelly C. Lowe has resigned from her post as president of the NEH by order of President Trump”said Paula Wasley, spokesperson for the NEH, New York Times. Michael McDonald, the lawyer general of the NEH, will assure the interim, until Donald Trump appoints a new president and the Senate confirms the appointment.
Shelly C. Lowe, who grew up in the Navajo reserve of Ganado (Arizona), was the first Amerindian to occupy this position. Previously, she had occupied various management roles in the universities of Harvard, Yale and Arizona and had notably sat on the board of directors of the National Indian Education Association and the National Museum of the American Indian.
The departure of Shelly C. Lowe follows that of Maria Rosario Jackson, who had resigned from her post as president of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) on January 17, a few days before the investiture of Donald Trump. She was the first African-American and American-Mexican woman to occupy this position.
The National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts are federal agencies created in 1965 which contribute to promoting equal access to culture and artistic creation. Since its creation, the NEH has paid nearly $ 6 billion (5.5 billion euros) from subsidies to museums, historic sites, universities, libraries and other organizations.
During his first mandate, Donald Trump spoke of his desire to remove these two agencies, which have an annual budget of around 200 million dollars (183 million euros) each. This is not (yet?) The case.
