A federal judge in Rhode Island issued a preliminary injunction to halt the elimination of the Institute of Museum and Library Services and two other agencies created and funded by Congress. It is one of the two legal cases that Hawaiʻi is taking the lead on against President Donald Trump in his second term.
The Conversation spoke to Janet Bullard, vice president of advancement and marketing communications for the Bishop Museum, before the injunction was handed down.
Bullard also serves as the museum's acting government relations director. She said that the museum relies on 24 federal grants ranging from collections care to the digitization of the museum's objects.
The museum has an annual budget of about $26 million a year from private and public sources, which includes funding from the IMLS, as well as the National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Bullard shared that the museum had eight total grants with the IMLS, NEA and NEH that have all been canceled, and another eight through the NSF that will no longer receive funding.
The May 6 ruling means the museum could have its funds from the IMLS restored. It is not clear if Trump will appeal or how soon any funding streams could be restarted.
Bullard said that the federal grants helped the museum's mission to serve the community, perpetuate culture, and preserve the environment.
The fully terminated amount of funding is a little over half a million dollars. That's not including $840,000 in NSF funding, which will likely be terminated, she said.
“I think the biggest concern for us is the preservation of our staff,” Bullard said. “Because a lot of the funding is to support the staff who is doing this active either research, [or] collections care and figuring out now how we can and if we can keep those valuable and talented staff members. So that is the most significant impact and immediate concern. In order for them to continue to do this work, can we financially support them as a nonprofit who is now losing funding?”
About 7% of the museum's funding comes from federal grants. The rest comes from through admissions, other government agencies including the state, private foundations, individual donors, facility rentals and programming.
Bullard said there are other sources of revenue, but the federal funding is significant and allows the museum to do much needed work on behalf of communities.
Staff at the museum have stepped up to support what they believe is important for the community and do everything possible to minimize the impact, Bullard added.
“For us, it's really just ensuring that we are still doing everything possible to serve the community,” Bullard said. “To provide the resources and the information that the community needs to continue to do the biodiversity preservation work that we're doing, and really internally, just prioritizing the work so that the most critical responsibilities that we have continue on, so that we can continue to serve our community and be valuable to the state and really preserve our cultural history and natural history.”
This interview aired on The Conversation on May 7, 2025. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Hannah Kaʻiulani Coburn adapted this story for the web.
