Ever since the Trump administration decimated the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) last month, I’ve been bracing for news of the same fate befalling its sister agency. That gloomy moment has arrived. In its 60-year history, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has given out $5.5 billion in grant money, making it the nation’s largest arts funder. But last Friday, Trump’s cronies began canceling hundreds of previously-awarded grants from the NEA, sending out late night emails to grant recipients informing them that their funds were being revoked. That’s like a school providing a teacher with money to buy supplies for the classroom, letting the teacher buy everything, then saying “Actually, we’re taking that money back so that your own resources pay for enriching the community.” The language in the cancelation emails pretty uniformly read: “The NEA has updated priorities to make President Dipsh-t happy, your project no longer aligns with those priorities, money bye bye.” (I may have paraphrased.) And the new priorities are, quite frankly, baffling:
“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,” the email, several copies of which have been shared with NPR, stated in part. “Consequently, we are terminating awards that fall outside these new priorities.” The email includes a line saying the recipient can appeal the decision within seven days.
The email states President Trump’s priorities as being: “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.”
The NEA did not respond to requests for comment. But arts groups have been vocal about the cuts on social media, in online newsletters and in emails to NPR.
“The work will go on, but right now I’m pretty discouraged,” wrote Rob Lentz, executive director at Open Studio Project, on LinkedIn. Lentz said his organization’s two-year grant supporting art for elementary school students has been canceled. “The nonprofit sector is under siege by our own government, and arts organizations are especially vulnerable. When chaos and cruelty are the order of the day, all I can ask for is solidarity and resistance.”
Studio Two Three, a community arts space in Richmond, Va., shared information about a canceled $30,000 grant. “Absolutely furious,” wrote Kate Fowler, the organization’s director of community partnerships and development, on Instagram: “A grant we spent hours (days?) writing, submitted on time, were selected and approved for by a group of our national peers and received our acceptance letter for, was randomly revoked today. It is WILD that this administration is retroactively pulling funding.”
…Beyond the wave of cuts, the National Endowment for the Arts is among a group of “small agency eliminations” proposed by the Trump administration’s 2026 Discretionary Budget Request, alongside the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. “The Budget includes the elimination of, or the elimination of Federal funding for, the following small agencies — consistent with the President’s efforts to decrease the size of the Federal Government to enhance accountability, reduce waste, and reduce unnecessary governmental entities. Past Trump administration budgets have also supported these eliminations. Remaining funds account for costs of orderly shutdowns,” the budget request states.
The first priority listed is supporting HBCUs and Hispanic Serving Institutions?!? From the guy who says all the ills of the world are from DEI? From the guy who’s indiscriminately rounding up latino men with tattoos to illegally send to a prison in another country!?! And then to go on and list things like “assist in disaster recovery” and “make America healthy again.” Are they trying to have NEA-funded projects pick up the slack for all the agencies this administration has already kneecapped? What is Trump playing at here? Or is the clown clowning us, because his endgame is to shut down the NEA entirely anyway? FWIW, the NEA is estimated to account for 0.003% of the total federal budget. Big savings, “UGE!”
Even though I said I was expecting this move, it was still a sucker punch when it happened. A good friend of mine started a nonprofit music organization 10 years ago; they’re dedicated to investing in completely original IP (no adaptations or revivals) from emerging composers. I write all the grants for them, and yeah, we knew it was bad when May began and we still hadn’t heard about the last application we submitted… in July of last year for fiscal year 2025. I was about to start prepping for the next app when all this erupted. My friend says he considers himself lucky since we never got a response at all, so it’s not like we’re being told now to return any money. Silver linings, when the bar is in hell.
Photo note by CB: These photos are of some of the NEA highlighted human and civil rights awards grant recipients including Kansas City-based advocacy group Showing Up for Racial Justice, Nawahiokalani Public Charter School and The Missisippi Minority Farmer’s Alliance
Silver linings when the bar is in hell is a fantastic sentence Kismet
So many things can be said of it these days.
The arts are under attack. Please, please support local arts organizations as these funds are key components to much needed services, programs, and jobs. I can’t believe this administration and this trash President is being allowed to do so much damage. We will rise up and he will never know a day of peace again.
I’ve worked in the museum industry since 2008. I remember during that election cycle, the idiot Sarah Palin was talking about gutting NEA and NEH. So that was my first awareness of Republicans wanting to target the arts and humanities. The’ve been playing the long game in attacking the arts and education. They want a dumbed down populace so that they can control us. In Trump, they have someone heinous enough to actually enact it.
The NEA and NEH amount to the tiniest sliver of the federal budget, yet contribute so much.
If we survive this “presidency” and ever get an intelligent grown-up back in office they are going to have their hands full fixing all of this.
Settle in for the long haul. Trump will never leave office, there will be no elections, and laws will be changed so he can be “appointed” President for life.