Inland Northwest artists worried new Trump restrictions on federal arts funding will hamper mission ‘to help people learn’

The National Endowment for the Arts’ new restrictions barring the use of federal funds on projects that promote “diversity, equity and inclusion” or “gender ideology” are drawing pushback.

The agency implemented new requirements for general grant applicants earlier this month to fall in line with President Donald Trump’s executive orders taking aim at DEI principles and LGBTQ rights, while suspending a separate grant program dedicated to underserved communities. Any organization that previously submitted an application prior to the changes must now resubmit, according to a news release from the agency.

In addition, the arts endowment announced projects that “celebrate and honor the nation’s rich artistic heritage and creativity,” as the 250th anniversary of American independence approaches, will receive priority as they dole out millions of dollars in federal funding.

Prior to its suspension for the upcoming fiscal year, the Challenge America grant program provided funding to primarily small organizations in “historically underserved communities that have limited access to the arts relative to geography, ethnicity, economics, and/or disability.”

Regional recipients of the challenge grant over the past decade or so include Davenport Theatrical, now the Wheatland Theatre Company, for a guest artist program and accompanying workshops; the University of Idaho for a printmaking exhibition; and Spokane Public Radio to support the station’s Kids’ Concerts series.

Last year, The Gesa Power House Theatre in Walla Walla received $10,000 through the Challenge America program to host every fifth-grader in the Walla Walla Public Schools for a field trip. Students were given educational materials to learn about Black History Month beforehand, then attended a performance of “One Nobel Journey,” a play that, in part, recounts Henry “Box” Brown’s journey to freedom.

Born into slavery in Virginia, Brown sealed himself in a wooden crate and shipped himself to freedom in 1849. After arriving in Philadelphia, he became an abolitionist speaker, before moving to England over fears for his safety.

Monica Boyle, executive director of the theater, said the event was a resounding success made possible through the federal funds. Small arts organizations, particularly in rural areas, often struggle with funding, and the Challenge America grant is one of few dedicated resources.

While the agency has said those small organizations can still be competitive in applying through the Grants for Arts programs, small-town theaters would be competing for funds against large national nonprofits, major metropolitan museums and robust philharmonics and symphonies.

“With all of the unknowns and kind of uncertainty surrounding so many things in our economy right now, we’ll be needing to stay in front of donors and community supporters and remind them why we are relevant and why we are so critical for that learning process and helping them to see that we are still a piece that needs to be there,” Boyle said. “That we are worth their support.”

More than 400 students attended private screenings, learned a little bit about American history and had some exposure to the arts, Boyle said. Actor and playwright Mike Wiley participated in a Q&A with the students while in character, and students showed so much interest that ticket sales for a public performance doubled overnight following the students’ visit.

“The kids had gone home and told their parents about this incredible show that they had seen and that they wanted to go back,” Boyle said. “It was very well-received.”

So much so, the theater has invited Wiley back this year for a performance of “A Game Apart,” which follows the story of Jackie Robinson as he broke the color barrier in professional baseball in the late 1940s.

The cancellation of Challenge America aside, it’s unclear if the event would receive funding under the new requirements barring the principles of diversity, equity and inclusion. The National Endowment for the Arts has provided little clarity on how it will go about determining whether an applicant is running afoul of the Trump order.

NEA spokeswoman Elizabeth Auclair did not return a request for comment seeking clarity on the evaluation process, and agency leaders hardly mentioned the policy changes in an hour-long Tuesday webinar for those planning to apply for grants. Similar efforts and directives to comply with Trump’s orders in other branches of the government indicate a program celebrating or recognizing ethnic or cultural awareness or holidays would not receive funding.

The day before Black History Month, the Department of Defense issued a directive banning the use of official resources for celebrations or events marking cultural awareness months, including “Women’s History Month, Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Pride Month, National Hispanic Heritage Month, National Disability Employment Awareness Month, and National American Indian Heritage Month.”

Karen Mobley, an artist, poet and former arts director for the city of Spokane, said she’s disheartened by the policy changes, because the arts are intended to help “learn about each other.”

“If you’re a museum, or you’re a music organization, part of your job is to help people present and learn about whatever: different cultures, different musicians, different literary traditions,” Mobley said.

Rachel Allen, curator for the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, said that’s partly why the museum applied for NEA grant funding to host an exhibit by Indigenous artist Joe Feddersen, a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation.

The museum received $50,000 in 2022 to pay for a display of Feddersen’s work across a variety of traditional mediums, including printmaking, basket weaving and ceramics, that debuted last fall. It was the museum’s first award from the endowment in more than 20 years, and one of the largest statewide in that cycle, according to federal data.

“Our NEA grant was such an important catalyst for much broader support and community support,” Allen said. “It sort of was the first push down the hill, and then the snowball gained traction, as it went down.”

Allen said the application process has always been a bit arduous, which is why it is significant when an organization receives an award from the arts endowment. It shows other potential investors the project and applicant have been vetted, giving it the credibility it may need to take off.

The Feddersen exhibit was a roughly $500,000 affair, and the initial $50,000 NEA award gave the museum the momentum to go on and receive $100,000 each from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Terra Foundation for American Art and the Henry Lu Foundation.

“It really made a big difference when we went to these other funders, because they are really big arts funders for visual art and American art, but we’ve never received money from them, ever,” Allen said. “We did not have visibility with them.”

Wendy Levy, executive director of the Spokane-based nonprofit The Alliance for Media Arts + Culture, said she expects many organizations to factor out NEA funding entirely from their budgeting process. Each artist, museum or organization will need to evaluate whether the grant program is still a good fit for them and whether they’re willing to have their work thrust into the limelight, and possibly, political discourse.

Over the past 15 years, her arts resource organization has received nearly $750,000 in NEA grants for a variety of projects across the country.

“Why would anyone go to any funder that makes it clear that they’re not interested in certain kinds of things?” Levy said. “Strategically, we look to the funders that really understand the urgency of fairness, and will keep funding those art projects.”

Levy is not alone in her worries about what the restrictions may mean for the future of the arts: Hundreds of artists from across the country wrote an open letter to the National Endowment for the Arts asking it to reverse the policy changes, expressing disappointment in the agency for abandoning its mission in “conforming to Trump’s reactionary and discriminatory executive orders.”

The letter points out the agency rolled out the new guidelines as the legality and scope of the executive orders are being challenged in court.

“Trump and his enablers may use doublespeak to claim that support for artists of color amounts to ‘discrimination,’ and that funding the work of trans and women artists promotes ‘gender ideology’ (whatever that is),” the letter states. “But we know better: the arts are for and represent everybody. We can’t give that up.”

The letter, organized by New York-based writer and director Annie Dorsen in just a few days, likely would have included thousands of signatures had it been more widely circulated over a longer period, Levy said.

She’d like to see the arts community steel itself for the next four years, as she expects some of the decades-old attacks against NEA funding in its entirety to arise again. Trump called for the elimination of the arts endowment during his first term; however, bipartisan support in Congress stopped the effort.

In stressing the value of the arts in modern society, Levy noted how they are not only an economic driver and community builder, but an outlet for individuals to explore, understand and express their own, and others’, thoughts and emotions.

“When things are challenging, artists are going to step up, and they will be, in a way, like first responders,” Levy said. “People don’t really realize it’s happening until it does, and all of a sudden you have the concerts happening and amazing short films are being made, and the internet is exploding with beautiful images and messages of hope. That’s because artists are starting to go to work, knowing what people need.”