The National Endowment for the Arts is telling arts groups not to use federal funds to promote “diversity, equity and inclusion” or “gender ideology” in ways that run afoul of President Trump’s executive orders — causing confusion and concern.
Black Girls Dance, a Chicago-based nonprofit that trains and mentors young dancers, was recently approved for a $10,000 grant to help finance an annual holiday show called “Mary.” Now the small company is wondering if it still qualifies for the money.
It was the company’s first grant from the N.E.A., and Erin Barnett, the nonprofit’s founder and executive director, said that receiving it had been “a step of validation — like ‘We see you and we support the work that you’re doing.’” But she said that if the grant were canceled for running afoul of the new requirements, she would persist. “I serve a God that sits on the highest throne of all, and he’s not going to stop this show,” she said.
It is unclear what the new rules will mean for groups seeking grants, or for those that already have them in the pipeline. Many arts organizations have pledged to support diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, and several groups that have received funding in the past have presented works about transgender and nonbinary people.
The new N.E.A. rules require applicants to agree not to operate diversity programs “that violate any applicable federal anti-discrimination laws” and call on grant applicants to pledge not to use federal funds to “promote gender ideology.” They refer to an executive order Mr. Trump signed that declares that the United States recognizes only “two sexes, male and female.”
The N.E.A. did not answer questions about whether organizations that have already been told they would receive grant money would be affected.
“It is a longstanding legal requirement that all recipients of federal funds comply with applicable federal anti-discrimination laws, regulations and executive orders,” the endowment’s spokeswoman, Elizabeth Auclair, said in an email. “The N.E.A. is continuing to review the recent executive orders and related documents to ensure compliance and provide the required reporting.”
During Mr. Trump’s first term, he called for the elimination of the arts endowment. (It survived, thanks to bipartisan support in Congress, and has a current budget of roughly $200 million a year.) It is not clear what its outlook is now.
The endowment is currently without a full-time leader because its chair since 2021, Maria Rosario Jackson, left the day of Mr. Trump’s inauguration. It is currently being overseen by Mary Anne Carter, who led the agency during the first Trump administration, and who is now serving with the title of “senior advisor.” Agency observers and grant recipients were generally positive about Ms. Carter, saying that things had run smoothly when she previously led the agency.
Last week, the N.E.A. said that it was eliminating its “Challenge America” program, a small grant program supporting projects for underserved groups and communities, and that its general grant program would give priority to projects that “celebrate and honor the nation’s rich artistic heritage and creativity” during the lead-up to the 250th anniversary of American independence in July 2026.
Latinitas, which offers educational programming for girls in central Texas, received a $10,000 award under that program last month to go toward a $30,000 project to install mosaics that honor inspiring women from East Austin.
“I emailed the N.E.A. today to check in our status, and the response was rather vague,” said Gabriela Kane Guardia, the organization’s executive director. “We’re very concerned because we were absolutely counting on those funds to make this project possible.”
Many groups are unsure whether they can count on funds they were expecting. Elz Cuya Jones, the executive director of the Broadway Advocacy Coalition, a nonprofit that won a special Tony Award in 2020 for its work combating racism, is not sure if the $20,000 grant she was counting on from the endowment will arrive. “The new N.E.A. guidelines are solving for a problem that does not exist,” she said.
Some arts makers are circulating a petition, asking the NEA to drop its new rules.
Steve Cosson, the artistic director of the Civilians, a New York based theater company that has received multiple grants from the endowment, said he did not expect to submit the organization’s next grant application if the compliance rules remained in place.
“To apply for a grant now is to agree to a very big and sweeping set of guidelines that have all sorts of problematic ramifications,” he said.
While the endowment’s grants are not large, they can play a crucial role for small organizations, many of which are still struggling after the coronavirus pandemic.
“Having even a one-month hiccup in funding, or pauses, can be devastating to the threadbare entities out there that are just barely getting by,” said Doug Noonan, a director of the Center for Cultural Affairs at Indiana University.
