What's New > USA: NEA Abruptly Pulls Arts Grants on a Massive Scale
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Arts organizations, including dozens of theatre companies, had NEA grants withdrawn or terminated late last week, and leadership resignations at the endowment bode ill.
By Daniella Ignacio, Rob Weinert-Kendt | AMERICAN THEATRE
Call it a Friday night massacre: On the evening of May 2—just hours after the Trump administration released a proposed budget that would entirely eliminate the both the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), among dozens of other federal agencies—hundreds of arts organizations of all sizes and kinds across the U.S. received emails from the NEA withdrawing pending grants and terminating existing ones, in amounts ranging from $10,000 to $100,000, earmarked for production costs, educational programming, new-work development, artists’ pay, and more.
Without variation, these missives included this explanatory statement:
The NEA is updating its grantmaking policy priorities to focus funding on projects that reflect the nation’s rich artistic heritage and creativity as prioritized by the President. Consequently, we are terminating awards that fall outside these new priorities. The NEA will now prioritize projects that elevate the Nation’s HBCUs and Hispanic Serving Institutions, celebrate the 250th anniversary of American independence, foster AI competency, empower houses of worship to serve communities, assist with disaster recovery, foster skilled trade jobs, make America healthy again, support the military and veterans, support Tribal communities, make the District of Columbia safe and beautiful, and support the economic development of Asian American communities. Funding is being allocated in a new direction in furtherance of the Administration’s agenda.
American Theatre heard from dozens of theatre organizations about these sudden withdrawals over the weekend, and we are gathering more information on the scale of the damage as we report (please reach out to at@tcg.org if your grant was cancelled). What seems to be the case from our reporting so far—and from that of other publications—is that these cuts were sweeping, affecting grants for everything from new-play festivals to large resident houses, from edgy alternative venues to Theatres for Young Audiences and classical theatres, without regard to mission or merit.