Many of you may have read that the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has canceled all 272 of their $10,000 Challenge America grants. The program was intended to offer support primarily to small organizations for a wide variety of arts projects that extend the reach of the arts underserved groups and communities that may have limited access to the arts relative to geography, ethnicity, economic status, and/or disability. This includes communities that have limited grant funding opportunities and/or have been underserved by national arts funding; small organizations that may face barriers to accessing grant funding; and organizations that may benefit from enhanced technical assistance resources.
I was glad to see the Warhol and Frankenthaler Foundations step up to provide some support. I hope other private foundations that aren’t dependent on National Endowment funding will step up like these two foundations have and that the community of commercial galleries and collectors upon whose wealth the visual Arts are completely dependent will also see the importance of leadership in this moment.
Arts NC has some material up in their action center if the spirit moves you. If you are a board member or employee of an arts organization you can also sign on to their letter of support as well. You can send a written letter of support through their portal or use the talking points (below***) to contact your state’s US legislators (if you’re in NC like me see below)
***The arts play a vital role in local communities and economies throughout North Carolina and across our nation. Recent developments at the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) are deeply troubling as hundreds of grants for local projects have been cancelled and massive staff reductions raise questions about the ability of the agency to meet its statutory mandates. Additionally, the White House has proposed eliminating the NEA in the latest FY26 budget proposal, as well as the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), which have also experienced significant grant cancellations and staff reductions in recent weeks.
Please sustain and protect both funding and staffing for the National Endowment for the Arts, a highly efficient agency that offers a large return on investment and supports consensus values cherished by all American communities. I urge you to continue decades of bipartisan support by allocating at least $209 million for the NEA in the FY2026 Interior Appropriations bill.
The NEA offers a big bang for the buck. More than $500 million annually has been generated in matching support, illustrating why federal support for the arts is uniquely valuable. The arts and creative industries give America’s economy a competitive edge, achieving a $36.8 billion trade surplus, adding $1.2 trillion in value to the U.S. gross domestic product, and $22 billion in North Carolina and creating 5.4 million jobs on American soil, 134,245 within our state’s borders.
The NEA is committed to efficiency. Since inauguration the agency has proactively streamlined its grant programs, downsized the agency workforce and optimized technology. It manages a high volume of grants competitively adjudicated by citizen panels based on merit.
The NEA is an important partner of the national America 250 celebration and other White House goals. All of the state arts agencies who partner with the NEA are actively engaging in America 250 planning and programming. Disruption of federal support to state agencies like the NC Arts Council could weaken America 250 efforts in North Carolina and across the country.
The NEA supports the military, veterans, and their families through its Creative Forces program, a collaboration with the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs to serve the unique and special needs of military patients and veterans diagnosed with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and psychological health conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
The NEA and state arts agencies like NC Arts Council support arts activities that boost economic productivity, improve education outcomes, foster civic cohesion, facilitate good health, and preserve our cherished heritage and traditions for future generations. These are consensus values that all Americans want for their communities and families. And as the largest public funder of the arts and a leader in arts education in the United States, the NEA reaches communities often underserved by private dollars investing in 779 more counties than the 1,000 largest private foundations.
The NEA makes up only 0.003% of the overall federal budget and works to support more than just the nonprofit arts sector, which alone generates more than $150 billion dollars in economic activity to the American economy ($2.2 billion in North Carolina) and supports more than 2.6 million jobs, 38.000 of them in our state alone. This is a small investment for a huge return. This is not just good government; this is good business.
I urge you to support sustained investment in the NEA, NHS, and IMLS and work to protect the public servants and resources committed to those agencies so they may fulfill their Congressional mandates and improve the lives of every North Carolinian and all Americans.
Painting After Art is Dead 