There were at least two versions of the arts endowment email. Some said that “the attempt financing recommendation for the following request” had been withdrawn. These emails used to groups that had already resorted to sacrifice letters and recreational legs for subsidies, but that had not yet received their official awards. Others were sent to groups whose subsidies had been approved and said: “This is to inform him that the National Endowment for the Arts of the Arts Award has been qualified, as of May 31, 2025.” The NEA did not respond to requests for comments.
The future of the provision of the arts has been in doubt since the beginning of the Trump administration. At first, the agency suspended a subsidy program. He then tried to demand the applicants from other subsidy programs to promise that not to promote “diversity, equity and inclusion” or “gender ideology” in a way that faced Mr. Trump’s executive orders on those issues, only to suspend and then alter that requirement as he faced legal challenges. Then, on Friday, Mr. Trump proposes to eliminate the agency completely, together with the national endowment of the humanities and others, in the next fiscal year.
Democrats and arts defenders promised to try to fight to save the agency. Trump had also tried to eliminate the ventilation of the arts of the arts his first mandate, but was saved with the support of the Republicans of Congress and the Democrats. It is still not clear if the agency still has bipartisan support in the current political climate, when few Republicans have shown the will to cross Mr. Trump.
Many organizations throughout the country reported having received the emails of cancellation. Among them: the new Harmony project, a non -profit organization of Indianapolis that helps the writers of stage and screen scripts, and that a subsidy of $ 40,000 had been recommended to help finance a writing residence program.
“This mass email on Friday night that reduced funds for so many artistic organizations throughout the country is a clear attack against the arts,” said New Harmony Project executive director Jenni Werner. “This administration wanted to kill the NEA and the artistic freedom that it has supported, and tonight’s email may have done exactly that.”
The Great Plains Theater Commons, in Omaha, Nebraska, received an email that withdrew a recommendation for a subsidy of $ 35,000 for an annual game festival. The artistic director of the organization, Kevin Lawler, described the “devastating” cuts, but promised to work to “continue supporting the narrators and sharing stories because that is the work we love and that is our way of being or the service.”
