What's at stake:
A recent executive order from Trump aims to dismantle the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the only federal agency dedicated to funding and supporting museums, libraries, and educational institutions, potentially ending the Arte Américas’ fellowship funding altogether.
Five Latino undergraduates from Fresno State, Reedley College, and Fresno City College—majoring in anthropology, history, studio arts, women’s, gender, and sexuality studies, Chicano, and regional planning—each bring a unique perspective to art from their diverse academic backgrounds.
They’re part of Arte Américas’ nine-month Cultural Arts fellowship, gaining hands-on experience at one of the Central Valley’s largest arts institutions dedicated to preserving and showcasing Latino life, art, history and culture.
Fellows, who began in early March, will receive gallery education training, research artists and institutional history, digitize collections, develop educational content, and support community outreach events like Día del Niño and Día del Maestro.
“I think it’s through preserving stories, artifacts and traditions within our communities that we can better understand them, not only for people within the community, but people outside of it who just don’t know a lot,”said Tomae Hernandez, a history major at Fresno State. “For me, the practice of history is really rooted in cultural preservation—it’s at the heart of it—and I think it’s some of the most important work we need to be doing, especially at a time like this when people of color, women, and marginalized communities of all kinds are under attack.”
This opportunity is funded by a three-year, $555,000 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to support Arte Américas in developing the new fellowship program.
Arianna Paz Chávez, executive director of Arte Américas, said it’s uncertain whether the organization will receive funding following President Donald Trump’s March 14 executive order gutting the only federal agency dedicated to supporting and funding museums, libraries and educational institutions.
Grant money from IMLS can help libraries, museums and educational institutions expand digital resources, improve technology and internet access in underserved areas, support workforce development programs, preserve historical collections, fund educational outreach, among other resources for communities. In fiscal year 2025, IMLS had a budget of nearly $280 million, approximately $15 million less than the previous year’s $295 million.
Early last week, the entire staff at IMLS were put on administrative leave for up to 90 days.
The possible cuts at IMLS follows the Trump Administration’s move last week to cancel more than $12 billion in funding to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As a result, Fresno County officials were notified by nearly a dozen nonprofits this week that $11 million in federal grants for community health have been canceled.
Fellowship offers underserved undergraduates hands-on experience in the arts
Chávez said that she was proud and excited when she received the news about the IMLS’ grant last summer.
Chávez had to have an open and honest conversation with the fellows, not only about the uncertainty surrounding the grant funding but also about how obstacles like this are not new in the arts and culture field.
“The intention was always to create opportunities for our young people and create entry points to careers in the arts because we don’t have enough of those here in the Central Valley,” said Chávez. “The idea of our own ability being diminished is heartbreaking but the notion of these opportunities disappearing at the national level is terrifying.”
In the funding application, Chávez outlined why the organization believed this funding was crucial for the Central Valley, highlighting that 81% of undergraduates are economically disadvantaged and 57% of them are first generation students according to the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium’s 2017-2018 dashboard.
Chávez said the application also highlighted the challenges Latino undergraduates in the Central Valley face in accessing resources, such as food insecurity—despite the region producing over a quarter of the nation’s food supply—along with other limitations.
The fellowship received 67 applicants, Chávez said, and from the moment they saw the number, it was clear that “there is not only strong interest but also a real demand and need for opportunities like this for our local youth.”
For Brenda Angelica Gutiérrez Mora, who grew up in a rural unincorporated Central Valley community with parents working as dairy and farm laborers, envisioning a future in the arts felt uncertain—becoming a museum curator wasn’t something that seemed within reach.
“This is literally my dream—figuring out how to become the next generation of cultural arts professionals who cultivate art, healing, and community, especially in this region,” said Mora. “We all stand on the shoulders of greats and it has been so nourishing and a breath of fresh air to come to Arte for our fellowship, and see art like F. John Sierra’s, and honor the lineage of Latino artists, muralists, educators.”
Most fellows doubted they would be selected for the opportunity—like Andrea Martinez, who submitted her application the day before due to a lack of confidence, or Hernandez, who rarely encounters others, especially young professionals, actively promoting and uplifting Chicano culture in their art careers.
Each fellow emphasized that most opportunities for early-career individuals seeking to work in the arts are concentrated in Los Angeles or San Francisco, and that it’s a privilege to “stay here in our homes and serve our communities,” said Angelina Flores.
“There’s this idea that when you want to work in culture and arts, that you have to go away from home, and I think that that leaves an idea that we have to strip Fresno from amazing people who have so much to offer to our community,” said Juliana Alcala, an anthropology and Chicano Latin studies double major at Fresno City College. “I think that having an organization like Arte in the heart of our town and downtown can be overlooked by so many, and just being able to be a part of it has been such a privilege.”
Will the fellowship cease to exist?
Despite this, Chávez said Trump’s order effectively pulled the rug out from under Arte Américas before they even had a chance to begin.
“What is clear is that the Institute of Museum and Library Services is being reconfigured,” said Chávez. “Programs like ours, which were specifically for Latino serving institutions, will no longer be prioritized, to say the least, and so we don’t know what will happen.”
In the meantime, as the fellowship enters its third week, the fellows have already “hit the ground running” with gallery education training, preparing to lead their own tours.
The fellows also visited kindergarten and first-grade classrooms in Laton, where they led bilingual cultural arts programming in English and Spanish. With the fellows’ guidance, students were encouraged to ask questions and create their own books, helping them see themselves as artists and creators.
Chávez said Arte Américas is actively seeking additional funding to sustain the fellowship program amid IMLS grant uncertainty. While the three-year grant was meant to develop and refine the program, securing long-term resources was always part of the plan.
One of the main goals moving forward, Chávez said, is to maintain transparency with the fellows about the impact of the Trump administration’s executive order—not only on them, but also on many institutions that serve as pillars of arts, culture, and community across the U.S.
In response, the fellows are reaching out to California senators and representatives to urge them to overturn the executive order and protect IMLS funding.
“We know that the responsibility of defending IMLS falls on Congress, and we’re hopeful that our representatives, Jim Costa and Anna Caballero, will stand up to the bat and protect our libraries and cultural institutions in the San Joaquin Valley,” said Mora. “We know that it’s not specific to us or just at Arte Américas, and that attacks like these have lasting impacts across generations.”
