No details about the garden or its potential location have been released. But last month, Larry Rhoden, the governor of South Dakota, sent a letter to Mr. Trump suggesting that it be built in the Black Hills, near Mount Rushmore.
The White House and Mr. McDonald, the agency chair, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
At this week’s meeting, attendees said, Mr. McDonald said that about $17 million from the National Endowment for the Humanities and about $17 million from the National Endowment for the Arts would be directed to the Garden of Heroes. The hypothetical cost of each statue, described as somewhere between $100,000 and $200,000, was also discussed, attendees said.
Mr. McDonald, a longtime agency employee who became acting chair in March after the previous chair, a Biden appointee, was dismissed by Mr. Trump, also suggested that the humanities endowment would have a role in signage and interpretation, attendees said, though it was unclear what role if any the advisory council would play.
The advisory council includes a mix of scholars and educators appointed by Presidents Obama, Trump and Biden. Three attendees described the group’s reaction to the news about the sculpture garden as one of stunned silence, though at least one member expressed excitement that it would become a reality.
One attendee described a sense of betrayal that the group had learned through the news media last week that Mr. McDonald had sent letters to more than 1,200 grant recipients, canceling their already-approved funding, without consulting or even informing the council. And there was dismay, the attendee said, that the agency’s detailed procedures for evaluating grants, which involve panels of experts and ultimate sign-off by the advisory council, had been swept aside.
