NEA Grants to Dance Organizations Face an Uncertain Future After Funding Freeze
More than 100 National Endowment for the Arts grants to dance organizations remain in limbo this week after President Trump’s administration said it would conduct a review of previously allocated federal aid.
Last Wednesday, the administration rescinded a controversial memo that froze all grant funding, and judges have already ruled in favor of states that have protested delays in federal pay-outs. But court challenges may drag on for months, other executive orders prohibiting money from being spent in ways that run counter to Trump’s ideological priorities remain in effect, and the NEA itself cannot guarantee that promised money will be dispersed. “The National Endowment for the Arts continues to review the recent executive orders and related documents to ensure compliance and provide the required reporting,” assistant director of public affairs Liz Auclair wrote in an email to Dance Magazine.
Service organization Dance/USA sent out an advocacy alert Friday evening, with executive director Kellee Edusei urging organizations that have been promised grants to “take action immediately by requesting to be reimbursed for any and all funds due to you.” Dance/USA has scheduled an “Advocacy Office Hour” for February 7, and plans to update dance artists then.
The funding streams subject to review include nearly 1,500 “Grants for Arts Projects” in all fields, announced on January 14 and worth a total of $37 million, as well as “ArtsHERE” grants earmarked for specific diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, with 112 organizations across the arts each receiving up to $130,000. Cebo Terry Carr, president of Next Generation (NXGN) Foundation, an advocacy and education group that represents street and club dance, said Wednesday that the ArtsHERE grantees have only received the first of what were expected to be multiple payments from the NEA. NXGN was slated to receive $32,500 more, leaving Carr frustrated that the federal government might walk back what it promised. “I could never do that without being sued,” he said.
The ArtsHERE grants remain in particular jeopardy because they were promised, according to the press release announcing the grantees in September, “in response to President Biden’s Executive Order that put forward a government-wide effort to advance equity for all Americans.” Since taking office, President Trump has rescinded many executive orders issued by his predecessor, which isn’t unusual with a new administration. But the new president has gone further, lambasting Joe Biden’s DEI policies in press conferences and issuing new executive orders requiring reviews for, as stated in one order, “illegal DEI and ‘diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility’ (DEIA) mandates, policies, programs, preferences, and activities in the Federal Government.” “This has a chilling effect,” says Jamie Bennett, interim co-CEO of Americans for the Arts, the nation’s leading arts advocacy nonprofit.
Bennett, who held a political appointment at the NEA during President Barack Obama’s administration, says he cannot speculate on the fate of the ArtsHERE grants, but he can comment on what’s next for the Grants for Arts Projects: “There will be a review,” Bennett says. As announced in January, the fiscal year 2025 Grants for Arts included 108 direct appropriations for dance organizations, plus others in categories like arts education; dozens of presenting grants for venues that book touring companies; and 47 folk and traditional arts grants for groups that promote culturally specific art forms, including dance.
Evaluating applications for legal red flags is part of the routine staff and panel vetting process, which occurred before Trump took over. Organizations that applied for projects that could be construed as DEIA initiatives may face more scrutiny from incoming Trump appointees at the NEA. But if the grants were awarded for projects core to an organization’s mission, they are likely to move forward, Bennett says. Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, for example, is scheduled to receive $50,000 to fund dancers’ salaries for its 2025 North American tour. “Touring and presenting excellence in Black dance is core to what Ailey does,” Bennett says.
While Ailey has an annual budget of around $45 million, most dance organizations waiting on grant money are much smaller. Milwaukee’s Ko-Thi Dance Company, which has an annual budget of less than $300,000, is in a distinctly challenging position: It’s still hoping to receive the second half of its ArtsHERE grant, and is still waiting to hear if it will receive a $30,000 project grant. Ferne Yangyeitie Caulker, the company’s founder and interim executive director, says she’s been in meetings all week. “This is the baddest roller coaster ride you’ve ever been on,” she says.
As she headed to rehearsal Thursday, Caulker was preparing to tell her artists that losing the promised funding and future NEA grants may imperil the 55-year-old company. “We should be worried about what comes next,” she says. “The NEA is too important.”