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NYC cultural institutions scrambling after Trump admin guts arts funding
By
Ramsey Khalifeh
Published May 4, 2025
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Richard Termine/Classical Theater of Harlem
By
Ramsey Khalifeh
Published May 4, 2025
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New York City cultural institutions are reeling from the Trump administration’s abrupt withdrawal of National Endowment for the Arts funding, complicating upcoming summer productions.
The full scope of the affected funding was unclear. The National Endowment for the Arts awarded $8.5 million to 326 arts groups in New York for fiscal year 2025. On Friday, some of those groups received emails informing them that “funding is being allocated in a new direction in furtherance of the administration’s agenda.”
The notices went out the same day President Donald Trump released a budget that proposed eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts entirely as part of an effort to “reduce unnecessary governmental entities.”
Locally, affected groups included dance companies, theater groups and the non-profit that organizes popular tours of New York City buildings typically closed to the public. NPR reported that Central Park’s SummerStage series also lost funding.
Trisha Brown Dance Company executive director Kirstin Kapustik said she was rushing to fill a $40,000 gap for a centennial celebration of visual artist Robert Rauschenberg scheduled to start on June 12.
The Trisha Brown Dance Company lost $40,000 for a production scheduled to begin next month.
Maria Baranova/Trisha Brown Dance Company
”I'm in the hole $40,000,” Kapustik said. “I'm scrambling to try to find some money to help support the production of the show, the salaries for my dancers, the scenic elements that we have to finalize and build the costumes. And we have a premier coming up.”
She said she was “shocked” by the notice from the government.
The Classical Theater of Harlem, which runs free productions in Marcus Garvey Park, lost a $60,000 grant for their upcoming show of “Memnon,” about an Ethiopian king who aided the Trojans in the Trojan War. It is scheduled to begin on July 6.
Ty Jones, the theater’s producing artistic director, was hopeful the show will go on. He said he’s seeking money from other sources.
“ We're not going to panic. We're going to strategize. We'll mobilize and we'll execute,” Jones said. “As long as people believe that the Classical Theater of Harlem is great for New York City, we're gonna be fine.”
Many institutions were awarded the grants at the end of last year but had yet to receive the money. Nonprofits often spend money in anticipation of receiving federal grants later on.
The National Endowment for the Arts is a federal agency that is the largest funder for arts initiatives across the country. Though Trump seeks to shut the endowment down entirely, the agency wrote in an email to grant recipients that it was reallocating funding in the meantime.
“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,” the email read. The fund will now prioritize projects like “elevate the Nation’s HBCUs”, “foster AI competency,” “foster skilled trade jobs” and “make America healthy again,” according to the letter.
Another affected organization was Open House, which offers tours of New York City infrastructure, like wastewater treatment plants. The non-profit lost a $25,000 grant.
“The National Endowment for the Arts has been an important source of funding, not just for Open House New York, but for arts and cultural organizations across the five boroughs and across the nation,” executive director Kristin LaBuz said. “And to have this funding slashed really cuts at the core of the vibrancy of what makes New York, New York and what makes the US the US.”
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Ramsey Khalifeh
Ramsey Khalifeh is a transportation reporter on the NYC Accountability desk covering the largest transit system in the country. He was previously a general assignment reporter at Gothamist and worked on the Boston Globe's metro and copy desk. Got a tip? Email [email protected]
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