‘Chilling effect’: Arts organizations react to end of DEI initiatives from fed agency

In a move that has shaken arts organizations, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) said on its website that it is eliminating a funding program that supports diversity, equity and inclusion and underserved communities. Instead, the federal agency will prioritize programs that celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States.

The NEA is cutting the grant program Challenge America which primarily supported small organizations that reached “historically underserved communities that have limited access to the arts relative to geography, ethnicity, economics, and/or disability.”

Challenge America’s $10,000 grants funded a wide range of programs by arts groups across the country, from free or reduced prices for theater tickets in Florida, to an arts program for Native American residents at a nursing facility in North Carolina.

The NEA is encouraging arts groups to instead apply for Grants for Arts Projects (GAP), which support projects that “celebrate the nation’s rich artistic heritage and creativity by honoring the semiquincentennial of the United States of America (America250).”

Another change: The NEA says applicants for all grants must follow “all applicable executive orders” from the White House. The guidelines state that applicants “will not operate any programs promoting” DEI or use federal funds “to promote gender ideology.”

A press representative for the NEA told NPR that Acting Chair Mary Anne Carter was unavailable to comment.

“There is a broad chilling effect on the field,” said Jamie Bennett, interim co-CEO of the advocacy group Americans for the Arts. He said arts groups are wondering, for example, “How an application to celebrate Black History Month [would] be received?”

But Bennett, who has worked for the NEA and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, says he isn’t that concerned, mostly because of the agency’s current leadership under acting chair Mary Anne Carter. She was NEA chair during President Donald Trump’s first term.

“She is someone who is very much dedicated to that agency, to its mission, to supporting the good grantmaking it does, and to supporting the staff,” says Bennett, “And I heard from several of them how happy they were that she was back because they knew she understood the agency.”

Still, other arts organizations are unsettled by the changes.

Jenni Werner, executive artistic director of The New Harmony Project, wrote in an open letter, “At a time when racist, transphobic, and bigoted voices are being amplified at the highest levels of the federal government, The New Harmony Project will continue to be a just, equitable, anti-racist, and anti-oppressive organization.”

She continued, “We will prioritize people over process, programs, or federal funding.” The New Harmony Project has received multiple NEA grants over several years.

The NEA is holding a webinar that will cover the updated guidelines next Tuesday.

Edited by Jennifer Vanasco