Donald Trump has proposed eliminating funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, as his administration also has taken steps to pull back grants that have already been awarded.
The NEA received an appropriation of $207 million in the most recent fiscal year.
Meanwhile, some arts groups have reported getting notice that grants that have already been awarded are being withdrawn. Portland Playhouse said that the NEA informed them on Friday evening that a $25,000 grant to support a production of “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” was being rescinded.
“To receive this news on the eve of opening night is deeply disappointing,” the playhouse said in a statement. “While we have no plans currently to cancel our production, moving forward without the support of this critical funding presents a significant challenge for our company.
“We know we’re not alone. Arts organizations across the country are grappling with reduced support at a time when the need for community, connection, and cultural expression is vital. Your support of our cultural institutions is more crucial now than ever before.”
The New York Times first reported on the withdrawn grants. Earlier this year, the NEA announced a shift in grant priorities to projects in support of the 250th anniversary of the United States. The NEA also canceled another grant program, Challenge America. That program had an emphasis on “small organizations for projects that extend the reach of the arts to underserved groups/communities.”
In his first term, Trump’s budgets repeatedly called for the elimination of NEA funding, but Congress, which sets the budget, ignored that proposal. Instead, NEA funding steadily increased during his first term.
Trump’s latest budget proposal also calls for eliminating funding to the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, along with a host of other small agencies.
Trump already singed an executive order to eliminate the Institute of Museum and Library Services, but that dismantling has been challenged in court. On Thursday, a federal judge temporarily blocked the administration from doing so, per the AP.
The president also signed an executive order this week ordering the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to stop funding PBS and NPR. The CPB and the public media outlets said that the president did not have the authority to do so and are weighing their next steps. The corporation already is suing the administration over its effort to fire three of the five members of the CPB board, including Sony’s Tom Rothman. Trump’s latest budget proposal also calls for zeroing out CPB funding.
Erin Harkey, the CEO of Americans for the Arts, which advocates for federal arts funding, called the moves “a systematic effort to undermine the nation’s cultural fabric.” She also noted administration efforts to reduce staff of the National Endowment for the Humanities by 70% and to cancel current and future grants.
A spokesperson for the NEA did not immediately return a request for comment.
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