Detroit — The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History is seeking $11 million in city government funding due to an “extremely challenging” financial climate, museum leaders told Detroit City Council Thursday afternoon.
Currently, Mayor Mary Sheffield has earmarked $2.6 million in funding for the city-owned museum in her proposed budget for the 2026-2027 fiscal year, which starts July 1. During Thursday’s budget hearing, museum officials said they need additional funds for both operating expenses and capital improvements, or they face layoffs and reduced hours as early as this spring.
“It is a very challenging environment that we find ourselves in,” said Neil Barclay, the museum’s president and CEO during a council budget hearing.
Changes in federal funding during the Trump administration and the recent halt in state funding have resulted in the loss of millions that the city-owned museum counted on in previous years. The cultural institution is one of the largest and oldest African American museums in the world, officials said.
Another challenge is that a proposed millage vote, which the museum has sought for years to pursue, is trapped in a partisan legal fight in Lansing.
During the 2023-2024 legislative term in Lansing, the then Democrat-controlled state legislature approved bills that would allow the Wright museum and the Detroit Historical Society to seek a property tax millage vote in Wayne and Oakland counties.
But the potential millage is one of nine bills in limbo after last year’s Republican-led legislature refused to send the bills to Governor Gretchen Whitmer to approve and make into law. It was an unprecedented move and the lawsuit battle is ongoing. The case has been appealed to the Michigan Supreme Court, which has not yet said it would take up the case.
Barclay pointed out that it has until the middle of May to get the potential millage vote on the November ballot.
The legislation allows the county commissioners in Wayne and Oakland to create a museum authority in each county that could levy a tax of up to 0.2 mills to generate taxpayer support for the Wright and Detroit Historical Society, which operates the Detroit Historical Museum and the Dossin Great Lakes Museum on Belle Isle.
If the millage vote is not the November ballot, the next opportunity would be 2028, Barclay said. It’s unclear the museum “will be able to maintain current operations through 2028,” Barclay said.
On Wednesday, officials from the Detroit Historical Society told city council said it is currently operating on a deficit and without the millage vote, reduced hours and other cuts could be made.
Beyond the stalled millage, the Wright and many other cultural institutions have lost funding during Trump administration, which has moved to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs wherever it can.
Barclay said that federal funding once specifically dedicated for Black museums has been eliminated and that federal grants must be rewritten as to not specifically target a specific race. The new federal rules for those grants are “making it challenging, if not impossible, for African American museums, and indeed all museums of a color to apply,” he said.
The Wright is requesting $3.3 million in operating support and $7.7 million in capital support. The capital support would go mainly to complete a years-long upgrade of the museum’s heating and cooling systems. The museum also aims to raise another $9 million through fundraising in the next year, officials said.
The latest financial statements, for the year 2024, show the Wright had $20.8 million in annual revenue and $7.2 million in annual expenses.
City Council members expressed support for the Wright museum, with two indicating they will be willing to give more funding. “We love the Wright museum,” said Councilwoman Gabriela Santiago-Romero, who added she is “grateful that we can move the budget forward so we can discuss how we can help.”
The nine-member council has until April 7 to make amendments and vote on the budget.
laguilar@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Detroit’s African American museum says fed, state funds drying up
Reporting by Louis Aguilar, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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