Trump’s attack on Bay Area NEA grants stuns art organizations

Trump’s attack on Bay Area NEA grants stuns art organizations

By Lynda Carson - May 10, 2025

In recent days since May 2, 2024, the convicted felon President Trump’s assault on the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), has stunned Bay Area art organizations to the core.

According to some recent Google News Headlines reported in the Bay Area, they say; As NEA cancels grants, small and midsize arts organizations are hit hardest, NEA snatches grants from local arts organizations: New Conservatory Theatre Center, Dance Mission Theater, & Opera Parallel are among groups losing funds, Trump’s ‘new priorities’: Bay Area arts groups stunned by NEA grant cancellations, 3 Berkeley-based arts organizations lose $129,000 total in grant funding, Trump cancels NEA grants for many Bay Area arts nonprofits, Bay Area arts organizations reel, vow to survive NEA grant cancellations, Marin Shakespeare Company says Trump administration has cut 2 of its grants, ‘Trump won’t stop us’: Bay Area arts groups vow to fight back after NEA cuts, Trump cuts funding for San Francisco festival midway through shows, Trump cuts funds to San Francisco International Arts Festival, The American government no longer values the arts, Bay Area arts scene hit by NEA arts grant cancellations, NEA grants canceled to Bay Area arts nonprofits, Changes in NEA grants send Bay Area arts organizations scrambling for funds, San Francisco International Arts Festival $20K NEA grant withdrawn mid-program, Chilling effect’: The NEA halts funding to arts programs promoting DEI or ‘gender ideology.’

Click on link below for more…

https://news.google.com/search?q=NEA%20cuts%20Bay%20Area&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen

Click on link below for Google News Headlines across the nation about NEA cuts…

https://news.google.com/search?q=NEA%20cuts&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen

Additionally, reportedly in Berkeley, since the May 2nd NEA funding grant cuts by the convicted felon President Trump occurred, “The National Endowment for the Arts, or NEA, terminated a grant to the Berkeley Repertory Theatre,” according to the Daily Californian college newspaper.

Reportedly, “Federal support for the arts in the United States is minuscule. The 2024 budget of $207 million for the National Endowment for the Arts came out to around 60 cents per U.S. citizen. But the financial situation at some performing arts organizations is so precarious that a radical change ordered from Washington, D.C., on Friday, May 2, hit many projects still in progress.”

In contrast to the minuscule 2024 federal budget of $207 million for the arts in our country, the convicted felon Trump administration is reportedly spreading hate against immigrants with lies, tyranny, and fear by spending $200 million for hateful, deportation racist attack ads on TV and radio all across the nation, including in the Bay Area sanctuary cities.

Reportedly, according to SF Classical Voice in an article, in part it states, “Federal support for the arts in the United States is minuscule. The 2024 budget of $207 million for the National Endowment for the Arts came out to around 60 cents per U.S. citizen. But the financial situation at some performing arts organizations is so precarious that a radical change ordered from Washington, D.C., on Friday, May 2, hit many projects still in progress.

The San Francisco International Arts Festival reported over the weekend that it was notified of the immediate withdrawal of a $20,000 NEA grant at the very moment the Australian troupe Fairly Lucid Productions was flying to the Bay Area to perform at the festival May 8–11.

San Francisco Contemporary Music Players likewise received notice of the cancellation of a $20,000 grant for a May 10 program at Brava Theater set to feature Tania León’s Indígena, among other new and recent works.

In both cases, as with many other NEA grants that were canceled last week, the presentations highlight themes that could be viewed as falling under the umbrella of DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion). At SFIAF, Fairly Lucid Productions’ show is about “a plague of murders of gay men in Sydney in the 1970s and 1980s.” At SFCMP, Indígena promises to conjure “the spirit of the comparsa, a group of masked revelers who roam the streets of Spain and Latin America during carnival season.

Emails from an arts.gov address notifying grant recipients of the cancellations stated that “the NEA is updating its grantmaking policy priorities to focus funding on projects that reflect the nation’s rich artistic heritage and creativity as prioritized by the President. Consequently, we are terminating awards that fall outside these new priorities.”

According to a report by 48 Hills, in part it states, “The extreme right and the religious right know better than liberals and centrists the power of art to uplift progressive, liberal humanist, and sometimes radical political views,” says Keith Hennessy, choreographer and founder of Circo Zero, whose grant for Fabric, a free QTBIPOC leadership series, was canceled before being fully reimbursed.

Emails announcing the nationwide cuts, which a survey started by theater director Annie Dorsen had tallied at $9,025,200 by the time this article went to press, stated that, “The NEA is updating its grantmaking policy priorities to focus funding on projects that reflect the nation’s rich artistic heritage and creativity as prioritized by the president.

Among other local organizations that have been impacted are Youth Speaks’ Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Festival ($45,000 grant canceled), Bay Area Video Coalition ($100,000), Dance Mission Theater ($75,000), Brava Theater’s production of Tania León’s Indígena($20,000), The Roxie’s Spanish-language and Latinx-focused RoxCine program ($20,000), Gray Area’s annual Gray Area Festival ($50,000), Women’s Audio Mission ($45,000), Queering Dance Festival ($10,000), and Circus Bella ($30,000).”

A list of S.F. art organizations losing federal NEA funding may be found in link below…

https://missionlocal.org/2025/05/sf-arts-nonprofit-orgs-lost-nea-grants-federal-funding-list/

Reportedly, according to Playbill https://playbill.com/article/national-endowment-for-the-arts-lets-go-of-staff-following-dismantling-of-theatre-grants , “Due to Trump's plans to eliminate the NEA, a number of workers are resigning, including Greg Reiner, the NEA’s director of theatre.”

Click on link below for more about NEA resignations…

https://news.google.com/search?q=NEA%20resignations&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen

Just like the Nazi’s did, the fascist convicted felon Trump regime is going after what they consider to be “degenerate art.”

"DEGENERATE ART"

Nazi leaders sought to control Germany not only politically, but also culturally. The regime restricted the type of art that could be produced, displayed, and sold. In 1937, Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels made plans to show the public the forms of art that the regime deemed unacceptable. He organized the confiscation and exhibition of so-called “degenerate” art.

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/degenerate-art-1

The Quote :

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

—Martin Niemöller

Lynda Carson may be reached at newzland2 [at] gmail.com

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