There were at least two versions of the email from the arts endowment. Some said that “the tentative funding recommendation for the following application” had been withdrawn. Those emails went to groups that had already received offer letters and been recommended for grants, but had not yet gotten their official awards. Others were sent to groups whose grants had been approved, and said, “This is to inform you that the above referenced National Endowment for the Arts award has been terminated, effective May 31, 2025.” The N.E.A. did not respond to requests for comment.
The future of the arts endowment has been in doubt since the start of the Trump administration. At first, the agency suspended one grant program. Then it tried to require applicants for other grant programs to promise not to promote “diversity, equity and inclusion” or “gender ideology” in ways that ran afoul of Mr. Trump’s executive orders on those issues, only to suspend and then alter that requirement as it faced legal challenges. Then, on Friday, Mr. Trump proposed eliminating the agency altogether, along with the National Endowment for the Humanities and others, in the next fiscal year.
Democrats and arts advocates promised to try to fight to save the agency. Mr. Trump had also tried to eliminate the arts endowment during his first term in office, but it was saved with the support of congressional Republicans as well as Democrats. It is not yet clear whether the agency still has bipartisan support in the current political climate, when few Republicans have shown a willingness to cross Mr. Trump.
Many organizations across the country reported receiving the cancellation emails. Among them: The New Harmony Project, an Indianapolis nonprofit that assists stage and screen script writers, and which had been recommended for a $40,000 grant to help fund a writers’ residency program.
“This Friday night mass email that cut funding for so many arts organizations all over the country is a clear attack on the arts,” said The New Harmony Project’s executive artistic director, Jenni Werner. “This administration has wanted to kill the N.E.A. and the artistic freedom that it has supported, and tonight’s email may have done just that.”
The Great Plains Theater Commons, in Omaha, Neb., got an email withdrawing a recommendation for a $35,000 grant for an annual play festival. The organization’s artistic director, Kevin Lawler, called the cuts “devastating,” but pledged to work to “continue to support storytellers and share stories because that is the work that we love and it’s our way to be of service.”
