May 5, 2025
This past weekend, numerous National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) grants were terminated. The loss of these funds is a serious blow that will be felt across the nation.
The NEA plays a vital role in helping communities to thrive through the arts. Its work touches more than 24 million Americans each year. Federal arts funds facilitate public access to cultural opportunities in every U.S. congressional district. They spark economic growth, promote good health, bolster civic cohesion and catalyze positive community engagement. When it has full resources, the NEA ensures that every community has access to these advantages. 34% of NEA grant projects take place in high-poverty neighborhoods and 18% go to rural areas and small towns. 75% of NEA arts education grants engage underserved youth, helping them to flourish in and out of school.
In short, a strong NEA strengthens America. We should be sustaining our federal investment in the arts—not retracting it.
American taxpayers want to be able to count on government to keep its commitments. Each of the NEA’s terminated grants had already passed a rigorous review process based on excellence and merit. Grantees, in turn, had already made commitments to their communities, workers and venues—promises that the federal government has now broken. NASAA fully respects that government agencies must adjust their services from time to time, to address executive or legislative goals and adapt to changing community conditions. But the abrupt termination of active grants is counterproductive.
Per a mandate from Congress, 40% of the NEA’s grant funds must be allocated to state and jurisdictional arts agencies and regional arts organizations. Because the NEA is following this congressional directive, Partnership Agreements to state arts agencies have not been terminated. The federal-state partnership plays a critical role in the nation’s arts infrastructure. It broadens the reach of federal funds and leverages additional state investments. The federal-state partnership ultimately yields more than 30,000 grants each year, reaching many underserved communities that lack direct access to federal funds. Sustaining the federal-state partnership is a positive step that will help to stabilize the arts field at a time of fiscal uncertainty.
NASAA stands for 100% of NEA funding. We call on Congress to make the NEA whole and to ensure that all communities have access to the arts. Please join our efforts. Sign up for NASAA’s Legislative Alerts and download our free advocacy tools.