ARTS ON EDGE

New Trump rules on federal grants cause confusion and anxiety

Antonia Noori Farzan

Providence Journal | USA TODAY NETWORK

A mural in Providence’s Silver Lake neighborhood. A RISD Museum exhibit on Gorham silver. A theater festival celebrating neurodiversity. A program that teaches environmentally sustainable fashion design to low-income Pawtucket teens.

All won highly coveted grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, which doled out nearly $14 million to Rhode Island-based projects over the last decade.

In the arts world, NEA funding conveys prestige, helps stretch threadbare budgets, and burnishes Providence’s reputation as the “creative capital.” At a time when diminished ticket sales and dwindling corporate sponsorships are making it difficult for some of Rhode Island’s most revered cultural institutions to keep the lights on, being able to count on financial support from the federal government goes a long way.

That’s now in question as new federal arts funding policies are generating confusion, frustration and concern.

Not long after President Donald Trump took office, the NEA canceled a grant program that targeted underserved communities and indicated that it would prioritize funding for projects that honor the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

It also issued new rules for all arts organizations seeking grants, requiring them to pledge that they will not use federal funds to promote “diversity, equity and inclusion” or “gender ideology.”

So far, the NEA hasn’t clarified exactly what that means – for instance, would a Black History Month event or a performance about coming out as transgender be off-limits?

Lila Hurwitz, an arts management consultant who specializes in grant writing and also co-produces Motion State Arts, a Providence-based contemporary dance organization, said that widespread uncertainty and fear are discouraging artists from seeking out the federal funds.

“We’re going to lose art that makes us think,” she lamented.

A chilling effect: Why one local group decided against seeking funding

The federal funding that flows to Rhode Island’s arts community may not seem all that significant: NEA awards can range from $10,000 to $100,000.

But being selected for NEA grants can often lead to other funding opportunities, Hurwitz said. Additionally, arts and cultural organizations tend to tap every available source of funding, and they don’t have much of a buffer if one goes away. Losing a revenue stream can mean cutting programs or even laying off staff.

Arts organizations nationwide rely on private donations for about 31% of their revenue, according the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies. About 60% comes from admissions, program fees, space rentals and the like. Government funding makes up the other 9%.

(Disclosure: The author of this article is a member of the board of Rhode Island Humanities, which receives federal funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities. It does not fund the creation of art or art performances or receive funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. A relative previously served on the board of the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, which does receive NEA funding.)

Motion State Arts, which puts on an annual dance festival, is “very, very barebones,” Hurwitz said. She and the organizers do not take any pay and instead devote their whole budget to putting on shows and paying performers fairly. Winning an NEA grant would have been a morale boost, she said.

But after seeing the new guidelines, she and the other organizers decided not to submit an application.

“We’re not going to compromise what we’re doing in order to fit into the new criteria,” she said.

Theoretically, the group could improve its chances of being awarded funding by crafting a whole dance festival around the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, but “that feels disingenuous,” Hurwitz said.

The ban on promoting DEI and gender ideology was also a concern. In Hurwitz’s read, it seemed to apply to any art that deals with gender and diversity.

“Art is one of the tools that we use as a society to grapple with these issues,” she said, noting that it can also be a way to “maybe just come to a little bit of understanding.”

Additionally, the lack of clarity about what would run afoul of the rules was “nerve-racking,” Hurwitz said.

“What small arts organizations has lawyers that can help them, in case that comes up?” she asked.

‘A slap in the face’

Teatro en El Verano, the summer theater program that features free bilingual performances in public parks, is set to celebrate its 10th anniversary this year.

Right now, however, Rhode Island Latino Arts executive director Marta Martinez is scrambling to find funding.

She’d been counting on getting a grant from the NEA’s “Challenge America” program, which was designed to bring art to underserved communities. Then, earlier this month, the NEA abruptly canceled the program.

Martinez described the move as “a slap in the face.”

The program was one of the few specifically aimed at arts organizations that work with people of color, she said, and it was rare to see Challenge America grants go to “mainstream” cultural institutions like Trinity Repertory Company and the Rhode Island School of Design.

In past years, Rhode Island Latino Arts was awarded grants for bilingual theater, dance, and Latin percussion youth workshops, and tours and art performances highlighting the Latino community along Providence’s Broad Street.

In total, 14 Challenge America grants, ranging from $8,000 to $33,000, have been awarded to projects in Rhode Island since fiscal year 2003.

Among them: A puppet-making workshop for hospitalized children, a weeklong Black storytelling festival, outreach programs introducing schoolchildren to classical music and ballet.

It’s unclear if the NEA’s new policies will also result in a loss of grant opportunities for cultural institutions like Trinity Rep that have made public statements in support of DEI.

Arts groups may get a clearer picture of what lies ahead on Tuesday, when the NEA plans to hold a webinar about the new guidelines.

Trinity’s executive director, Kate Liberman, didn’t say whether she expects the new policies to affect the theater, but she pledged that Trinity Rep will “stand by our values no matter what.”

“That means that everyone is welcome at Trinity Rep,” her statement continued. “We will continue to do everything we can to expand that sense of belonging for all of those who come through our doors.”

Changes at Rhode Island State Council on the Arts

The changes in federal arts policy are also likely to have implications for the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, which receives funding from the NEA and then awards its own grants to local artists and community organizations.

This year, the council will receive $939,000 in federal funds and has a total budget of $3.3 million.

In past years, Rhode Island’s arts council has given grants to groups like Towards An Antiracist North Kingstown.

It’s unclear if that would be prohibited under the DEI ban. Todd Trebour, the arts council’s executive director, said the agency is awaiting clarification from the NEA.

“I think, for now, we’re in a ‘wait and see’ moment,” he said.

The arts council has already made one change in response to Trump’s executive orders: It won’t be accepting new applications for a grant program focused on underserved communities. Under the guidelines for that program, arts organizations were evaluated on their commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and access, Trebour said.

The arts council “prepared in the ways that we could for changes we anticipated coming,” Trebour added. “But there’s only so much you can anticipate.”

Last fall, the arts council increased award amounts for certain grant programs “that also happen to be the ones where we get the greatest number of applications from people or communities that fit the NEA’s definition of quote-unquote ‘underserved,’” he said. It also simplified its application process.

“The fundamental role of a state art agency is to make sure that all communities have access to the benefits of arts and culture,” Trebour said.

“If you lower barriers for everyone to participate and apply, you’re lowering barriers for everyone to participate and apply.”

The dilemma: Pretend to comply, or risk losing support?

New Urban Arts, which hosts free after- school arts programs for high school students, is one of Rhode Island’s main recipients of NEA funding. Its mission is to serve communities that don’t traditionally have access to the arts because of systemic inequities, said executive director Jannelle Codianni.

And while the NEA’s new guidelines prohibiting DEI and gender ideology are difficult to parse, Codianni is fairly certain that the organization isn’t in compliance.

“All of the descriptors that I would use to talk about the different experiences that the students are bringing to the studio are not allowed,” she said. “The reason for what we do has been deprioritized.”

Codianni still plans to seek out NEA grant funding, since removing New Urban Arts from consideration would feel a bit like “complying in advance,” she said.

Just under 30% of New Urban Arts’ annual budget comes directly or indirectly from the federal government, Codianni said.

That includes federal grant funds that the state matches and funding from other agencies, such as the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Though she’s concerned about losing that funding, Codianni said that New Urban Arts has no intention of “pretending we don’t value what we value.”

In theory, the organization could simply avoid mentioning diversity when applying for grants and position itself as a high school program that’s open to everyone.

But Codianni said she’s concerned about “the short-term expediency of saying, ‘We’re just making it look like we’re complying with this on the outside, so that we continue to receive this funding.’” It’s a tough choice for nonprofits to make, she said, adding: “Some programs will need to close their doors without some of this funding, and eventually of all us would.”

She wants New Urban Arts to be around for another 30 years, she said, but she also wants the institution “to hold the values that we were built to support.”

“How we survive matters as much as surviving itself,” she said.