NEA cuts already being felt in the Triad

Following President Donald Trump’s calls to do away with the National Endowment for the Arts, hundreds of organizations across the country began receiving emails saying their grants had been terminated. The dismantling of the NEA is having a large impact across North Carolina and here in the Triad.

In 2022, North Carolina arts councils, organizations and individuals received just over $500,000 in NEA grant funding. This year, many awards are being rescinded to focus on supporting projects prioritized by the current administration.

Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County President Samantha Howard says that money had already been counted into budgets and used to promote and implement community programs that will now have to be retracted.  

She says that same level of uncertainty extends to the North Carolina Arts Council in Raleigh, with major ripple effects here in the Triad.

"A lot of their funding comes through the NEA, and we don't know how that is going to impact the grassroots and multicultural funding that the city of Winston-Salem and County of Forsyth receives," says Howard. "So, we are just bracing ourselves and not even knowing whether or not we should consider that money in our budget going forward."

Howard says they typically receive some $30,000 in individual artist support funding from Raleigh, and this year that number has been cut in half.

Arts Council of Greater Greensboro president Laura Way says high-profile organizations like Eastern Music Festival and North Carolina Folk Fest will likely no longer receive NEA support. She says lesser-known community-building events developed by the Council, like the Community Elevation Grant Program, which emphasizes diversity, equity and inclusion, no longer have a place to apply on the NEA website.  

Way says the previous $50,000 grant allowed them to enter underinvested historic Black neighborhoods that were fractured through urban renewal, hold community conversations, and bring in arts organizations that would tell their stories.

"It was really impactful," she says. "It meant so much to that community, those community members who have been there and sort of forgotten, and the rich history of that community. And five arts organizations worked with them, and it was uplifting, affirming, wonderful storytelling rooted in the truth." 

Way says that while the council’s core mission can remain intact with the NEA cuts, they will no longer have resources for programs like this.

She adds that rather than bemoan the sudden loss of federal funding, she would like to see more emphasis placed on developing relationships with local elected officials, and persuading them to see the value in supporting these previously NEA-funded programs. 

According to its website, the NEA supports arts organizations and artists in every congressional district in the country. The grant cuts and proposed agency elimination have drawn widespread criticism across the country. 

While the dismantling of the NEA is already underway, eliminating the endowment itself requires a majority in Congress.