An out-of-the-blue email from the National Endowment for the Arts has blown a massive hole in the finances and plans of arts groups across the nation, including those of dozens of Austin-based arts groups.
In an act of grand duplicity, the NEA sent out emails late Friday night announcing to arts organizations that previously approved grants were being terminated, effective May 31, as they no longer fit with new priorities for grants funding. In Austin alone, the email could end up dragging millions of promised dollars out of their coffers. Groups have been given until this coming Friday, May 9, to appeal the decision.
“Losing this funding represents not just a financial challenge, but a blow to the arts ecosystem.”
The move from is the latest blow to the arts that come as part of the NEA’s response to President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14168, “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.” The list of organizations hit covers the panoply of arts groups, including:
• American Short Fiction magazine
• Austin Film Festival
• Austin Film Society
• Cine Las Americas International Film Festival
• Grammy-winning vocal group Conspirare
• School art advocates Creative Action
• African drum and dance troupe Lannaya
• Latinitas
• Conjunto and Tejano music preservation and education nonprofit Rancho Alegre
• The Museum of Human Achievement
• Tapestry Dance Company
• Traveling theatre group Texas Comedies
• Art gallery Women and Their Work
• ZACH Theatre.
AFF, AFS, and the ZACH all confirmed they will be be appealing the decision.
There has not been a fully published list of which grants have been terminated. Gary Gibbs, executive director of the Texas Commission on the Arts, said the immediate concern is the 65 grantees statewide approved by the NEA in January, and who may not have drawn down all or any of their funds.
The termination of the grants is devastating for groups around the country, but comes at a particularly rocky time for arts funding in Austin. While many groups were already reeling from the pandemic, reforms to the city’s own grants program defunded many established organizations. Those groups are still awaiting word on the future of those grants as their management has been transferred to the newly-established Office of Arts, Culture, Music, and Entertainment (ACME).
Noting that “government funding is a lifeline for the arts,” AFS head of Marketing and Engagement Maury Sullivan said that AFS’ $70,000 grant for the current fiscal year and the $35,000 grant it had been awarded for FY26 had both been canceled. She added that “having the funding cut off undermines our focus on delivering programs.”
In a statement, ZACH Managing Director Jamie Herlich echoed that sentiment, adding that “losing this funding represents not just a financial challenge, but a blow to the arts ecosystem in Austin and to the cultural fabric of our country.”
The grants helped cover everything from ongoing operational costs to specific events. On the latter front, one of the most immediate victims is the Cine Las Americas International Film Festival, which is scheduled to begin in just over a week on May 14. Now the organizers will have to go ahead without the $10,000 they had previously been pledged by the NEA. CLAIFF Executive Director Gabriel Ornelas said, “That money was going directly to support the production of [the festival]. The funds were to be used for payroll of staff, providing support for filmmakers attending the festival, and awards for filmmakers. … Such a loss in support has a real impact on that plan.”
Another victim of the cuts is Tapestry Dance Company’s Soul 2 Sole International Tap Festival. Tapestry had received a $30,000 grant to organize the event, which was scheduled to celebrate its 25th anniversary at the Long Center from June 18-22. They have now had to cancel it. Executive/Artistic Director Acia Gray said she was “in shock.” Initially, she thought the email was spam until she checked the NEA grants portal on Saturday and found that it was real. After some consideration, she realized that it would be impossible to raise the replacement funds in time, and so decided the festival had to be canceled immediately (in part, she noted, to allow the visiting performers time to book alternate gigs). So, instead of planning for their signature event, the team spent the weekend contacting artists, refunding participant fees, and getting their venue deposit back.
The cancellation of that one grant is just the beginning of the economic impact. Now the Long Center will likely remain unbooked on those dates, as will the hotel rooms that the international roster of performers and guests would have stayed in, denying the city both lease revenue and hotel occupancy taxes – a tax fund that helps support arts and culture projects in Austin.
Those project-specific grants were not just about events. Latinitas received a $10,000 grant for Patterns of Power, a mosaic project celebrating women leaders who have shaped East Austin. Executive Director Gabriela Kane Guardia called the cut “profoundly disappointing” for Latinitas, its community partners, and the neighborhood. She said, “For small organizations like ours, these shifts are not just about dollars – they disrupt years of relationship-building, project development, and community trust.”
For some groups, the cut comes straight out of their core budget. Creative Action has lost $30,000 for its artistic career development program for students around Austin, including those in rural areas, juvenile detention centers, and those currently experiencing homelessness. Similarly, publisher American Short Fiction has relied on the NEA for roughly 5% of its operating costs since 2021, and most recently was awarded a $20,000 grant to support publication of their magazine, American Short Fiction. Associate Publisher Amanda Faraone told the Chronicle, “At this point, we don’t have any information as to what impact this cancellation will have on our current grant project, since it is already under way and allocated funds have already been spent.”
Also among the entities affected is the Museum of Human Achievement, which won a $40,000 grant to bring together artists across multiple media and technologists to create technology-based art works. Executive Director Zac Traeger confirmed that they received an email on Friday informing the group that the grant had been terminated because it did not align with the new priorities of the NEA.
But what are those new priorities? The email received by the affected groups listed the new criteria, which are seemingly being enacted retrospectively:
The NEA will now prioritize 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. Funding is being allocated in a new direction in furtherance of the Administration’s agenda.
What’s befuddling is that several of the entities that have lost their funding, such as Latinitas and Rancho Alegre, fit those criteria.
“The word ‘art’ is never mentioned.”So welcome to the new era of arts in America, where artists are out, but AI slop and nonexistent cures for measles are in – and artists will be seemingly expected to fill the gaps left by the defunding of FEMA. “Ironically,” Tapestry’s Gray wrote, “the word art is never mentioned.”
The brusque form letter that organizations received has surprisingly little information about next steps. The Texas Commission on the Arts, for example, has already handed out the $1.377 million it received in the current cycle, but other groups are concerned about potential claw-backs of unspent funds. Ann McNair, managing director of Conspirare, said, “We are not exactly sure how that will impact us yet since we have already drawn the funds as it was awarded for a project currently in progress.”
This also leaves many groups who have already made applications under the old rubric in limbo. Aerial dance company Blue Lapis Light made an application in July 2024, covering June to September of this year, but Executive Director Jessica Nero-McArthur said they have heard nothing yet. Similarly, Frank Jenkins, managing director of the Austin Chamber Music Center, said he was hopeful that his organization would be allowed to revise its current application but observed that “it seems unlikely we’ll receive NEA funding for the upcoming fiscal year.”
And this is just one round of grants. ZACH Theatre’s Herlich warned that this is just “a step towards the administration’s intention to eliminate the agency in full.” She added that “NEA funding touches nearly every corner of American artistic life: from community theaters to public murals, from music festivals to educational programs for youth. The NEA provides funding to all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories, including through state and regional arts agencies. This funding reaches every congressional district and is deployed to over 3,000 counties across the United States. Eliminating this funding will have devastating consequences.”