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More Portland arts organizations have come forward to announce that they, too, have abruptly lost National Endowment for the Arts funding in the past few days. My Voice Music, Profile Theatre and Oregon Children’s Theatre all also received emails rescinding grants for their work.
That is likely an incomplete list of local fallout from President Donald Trump’s new “grantmaking policy priorities” at the agency, which range widely from boosting Indigenous tribes and historically Black colleges and universities to disaster relief and training artists in the use of artificial intelligence.
WW reported on Friday that the NEA had pulled a $25,000 award to fund Portland Playhouse’s 2024–25 season closer Joe Turner’s Come and Gone just 24 hours before opening night. That same evening, My Voice Music executive director Amy Sabin received an email from NEA that the remainder of her organization’s $35,000 grant—about $12,000—was canceled.
MVM provides music education, programs and mentorship for children in residential treatment centers and juvenile detention. The NEA email mentioned the Trump administration’s directive to make America healthy again.
“I would argue that the ability to use a creative tool like music to express yourself directly impacts your health and your emotional well-being,” Sabin tells WW via phone.
About a week before the grants disappeared, Sabin got an “unusual” email from NEA last week reminding her organization to invoice for whatever it could. Anticipating the funding was at risk, Sabin had already been invoicing NEA as quickly as possible in recent weeks. MVM had been receiving grants from NEA ranging from $25,000 to $35,000 for at least five years, Sabin says, and has been budgeting accordingly.
Profile Theatre also got a tip-off that its funding was at risk via an April 25 email from the city’s Office of Arts & Culture: “We’re hearing word that [the Department of Government Efficiency] has made its way to the National Endowment for the Arts,” the email read. “A reduction in force is almost certain, and many are worried that the NEA’s grants budget will be reduced as well.”
The theater had planned to use its $35,000 NEA grant to host playwrights Jen Silverman and Mike Lew in Portland for its 2025 Playwright Festival, June 26–28. The grant consisted of about half the budget for the program, which includes community writing workshops and public play readings.
“With the help of our community, we will find a replacement for the money (though an additional boulder for already-burdened arts orgs to carry, to be sure),” Profile’s artistic director Josh Hecht wrote in an email to WW. “But it’s the message that was such a gut punch. Do we not deserve art? Music? Plays? Dance?”
Finally, Oregon Children’s Theatre had gotten a grant with Hillsboro’s Bag&Baggage Productions and its Native Theater Project to fund the development of a new musical for young audiences. The cancellation notice has created even more uncertainty at OCT, which recently announced it will pause all programming starting in September. The company doesn’t know if it can complete the musical project as is or needs to change the scope of the work or repay portions of the grant it has already received.
“OCT stands in solidarity with other arts organizations facing this unprecedented funding crisis at the national level.”