Federal agency ends funding for Maxo Vanka mural renovation at Millvale Croatian church

The third phase of the long-term restoration work on St. Nicholas Church in Millvale’s historic Maxo Vanka murals is so close to completion. Another month and conservators could set aside their brushes and tools, the scaffolding could be removed, and church members and visitors could view his artworks’ renewed beauty unobstructed.

Paying for it is another matter.

A Save America’s Treasures $471,670 grant the Society to Preserve the Millvale Murals of Maxo Vanka won in 2022 enabled the painstaking work, along with matching funds the organization raised.

Society Executive Director Anna Doering had filed $16,000 in recent expenses as required by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, an independent federal agency that awarded the grant. It was pro forma: reimbursement for conservator wages, forensic assessment and repair of previously conserved murals, conservation supplies and materials, and more that Doering’s organization had paid for already. When she checked, the request had been approved on March 31.

That brought a sigh of relief, especially amid daily reports of federal funding cuts, frozen grants, and agency and department staff reductions.

That changed days later. The society learned on April 8 that its grant had been terminated.  At stake is $156,000, money the society has already expended or committed, Doering said. Some of that covers a vitally needed climate control system.

The email sent to Doering and the society board chair and other grant recipients came from IMLS acting director Keith Sonderling. The only reason given for the termination in it is that it is occurring “in alignment with the agency’s updated priorities and the President’s Executive Order 14238, ‘Continuing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy,’ issued on March 14, 2025.”

Sonderling is a lawyer who also serves as the deputy secretary for the Department of Labor. His brief bio on the site does not list any museum or library experience.

The society has 30 days to appeal the termination, which it will do, and Doering received a second email stating that if there was an approved reimbursement request in process, those funds should be forthcoming. If that doesn’t happen, there appears to be a way to request that as well.

Preceding this, the executive director said, the entire IMLS staff had been placed on administrative leave at the end of March. Like other agencies, Doering said, this one has been “stripped down to the studs.”

Doering said the society has reached out to U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio, D-Fox Chapel, for help in getting those last grant funds. He is on it already, according to his spokesperson Zoe Bluffstone.

“Instead of trying to make life better for anybody, the Trump administration is attacking nearly every aspect of daily life and making it worse,” she wrote in an email. “From cultural sites in the community, to our Social Security earned benefits, to veterans’ health care, they are coming for our way of life.”

After learning of the notice of grant termination from leadership at the Society to Preserve the Millvale Murals of Maxo Vanka, Bluffstone wrote, Deluzio and his staff immediately demanded an explanation from IMLS. “They are ignoring our congressional inquiry and have provided no response,” she wrote.

The society celebrated the restoration work the grant funded in October. The Save America’s Treasures Collections Grant aimed to bring full conservation of the murals to 90% by 2025, according to society materials and its Save Maxo Vanka website.

Today St. Nicholas Church has 150 families, Doering said in October, and some parishioners are members of the society and volunteer with it. The structure for Croatian Catholics was rebuilt and reopened in 1922 after a devastating fire. The Rev. Albert Zagar became pastor and hired muralist Vanka to “beautify the church” and tell the story of the parish and its people, including the immigrant experience in America.

In 2019 St. Nicholas became one of six churches in the Shrines of Pittsburgh grouping, and the Rev. Nicholas Vaskov became team ministry moderator and director of shrines, as well as pastor of Christ the Savior Parish that has three North Side churches.

In addition to Deluzio, the society will reach out to state Rep. Lindsay Powell, D-Lawrenceville, and state Sen. Wayne Fontana, D-Brookline, who both helped it secure state grants for the needed work.

While the society pursues the appeal and other legal recourse to recoup the remaining grant money, Doering said the society board is committed to finishing the work.

“The support for our work has been steadfast,” she said. “Father Vaskov has expressed our support for whatever we can do and the advocacy.  They are partners with us in the climate control project, so that support remains in place. … We have the majority of the funds for climate control in place.”

The climate control system is part of the society’s match for the grant, and in addition to preserving the murals, it will make the church more comfortable during Masses, tours and workshops. It had pledged to raise $500,000 through other grants and private funds for the mural renovation work and key structure repairs; that effort has been successful.

While the grant termination is upsetting, Doering takes strength from the support the society, which offers the tours and educational workshops and programs to raise revenue, has accumulated in the community throughout its existence.

The society board may also seek a bridge loan to finish this phase of work.

Since 1991, the society has conserved the murals and provided the church with dedicated museum-quality lighting for them. The National Register of Historic Places added the Catholic church and its 25 Vanka murals to its roster in 1980, and the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation later designated it as a historic landmark.