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Back in May, Portland Playhouse was among the first local arts organizations to sound the alarm that the National Endowment for the Arts had revoked a $25,000 grant. The timing was inauspicious: Portland Playhouse’s season closer, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, opened the next day. The show went on.
Eventually, more than two dozen Oregon arts organizations lost $590,000 total in a gutting of NEA grants at the request of President Donald Trump, saying that their work no longer fit new “grantmaking policy priorities” at the agency. The money remains tied up in an appeals process.
But in a reversal of fortune for the Playhouse, U.S. Rep. Maxine Dexter (D-Oregon) announced today a $20,000 grant for the Portland Playhouse under the National Endowment for the Arts’ program Shakespeare in American Communities: Schools.
“The arts are central to Oregon’s identity,” Dexter said in a press release. “It’s inspiring to see communities across the country support one another, protecting creativity, uplifting self-expression, and keeping the arts accessible to all. While Trump continues to devalue the arts and diminish their importance, this investment tells a different story. The Portland Playhouse is here to stay.”
Brian Weaver, Portland Playhouse’s artistic director, says the theater company plans to use the new NEA grant to support its Fall Festival of Shakespeare program that serves middle and high school students.
“We’re deeply grateful to the NEA’s staff who champion the transformative power of the arts in our classrooms and communities,” Weaver said in a statement. “And, while we celebrate this support, we remain hopeful that this, and future, funding won’t be subject to sudden reversals, such as we faced in the spring. Following a groundswell of community support to fill the gap, our commitment to bold, inclusive and artistically daring programming remains steadfast. We hope this grant will help ensure that those values endure.”
