
Last week, the National Endowment for the Arts continued a 60-year tradition by announcing 1,474 awards totaling $36.8 million to support specific arts projects in all 50 states, including 22 in Colorado totaling $435,000.
The uneasy question on everyone’s uneasy minds right now is an obvious one: Will federal funding for the arts survive under the incoming administration?
One foreboding signal: Today, Wednesday, NEA Chair Maria Rosario Jackson abruptly resigned, effective immediately, saying she was “grateful to have worked with an administration that believes in the power of the arts.”
The Biden administration brought about the largest-ever increase to the NEA’s budget, though its $207 million line item pales in comparison to, say, the National Science Foundation, which has a budget of more than $9 billion. Arts funding swallows up all of 0.004% of the federal budget.
During his first administration, Donald Trump tried to eliminate both the NEA and the National Endowment for the Humanities but couldn’t quite get it done. Observers have attributed that to both bipartisan support for arts funding in Congress, and studies that have consistently shown the positive economic impact the arts have on local communities.
“Do I know the future of the NEA?” asked Kirsten Wilson, executive artistic director of Boulder’s Motus Theatre, asked. “I have seen the NEA repeatedly strengthened and weakened over my 58 years of life, and Motus Theatre, like a lot of arts organizations, will be doing our best to be ready to respond courageously, regardless of funding.”
Motus received $35,000 from the NEA, the second-highest grant to a Colorado organization this round. It will be used to develop and tour “Youth Behind & Beyond Bars: Stories from the Juvenile Justice System,” a series of monologues written by system-impacted youth. Wilson is more worried about the prospect of the Trump administration using the NEA for propaganda purposes than she is that it will be defunded.
Gary Steuer, President and CEO of the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation, said he is “cautiously optimistic the NEA will at least survive.” He noted that Trump tried to eliminate the agency before “but it has been shown over many decades the NEA has had broad, bipartisan support, particularly in rural areas,” Steuer said. “Then again, this is a very different time and a different administration, so only time will tell if our national arts support can survive. But my bet is it will.”
Colorado’s state arts office, fancifully called Colorado Creative Industries, has a $2 million annual budget, which comes from gaming revenue. That ranks Colorado as just 46th in the nation (and dead last among Western states) in state arts funding, or about $0.35 per capita.
A big part of the CCI’s reason for being is receiving and distributing matching federal funds from the NEA. Last fiscal year, the NEA provided CCI with $900,000, or about 47% of its state appropriation.
The NEA’s newest round of grants will support dance, educational theater, afterschool programs, architectural education, creative writing, two jazz music series, the development of new stage plays, a painting series and more. Cleo Parker Robinson Dance received $25,000 to present an evening celebrating the works of legacy dance choreographers Kathryn Dunham, Winifred Harris, Hope Boykin and Robinson.
“It is inspiring to see the wide range of creative projects taking place — those that address our past and help us consider our future,” the NEA’s Jackson said in announcing the grants.
Wilson was disappointed but emboldened by news of Jackson’s resignation. On Monday, which was both Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Trump’s second inauguration, Motus presented “Still We Rise,” its 3rd annual performance of monologues addressing civil-rights challenges facing transgender, immigrant and incarcerated people.
“Dr. King talked a lot about how all of us have an obligation to civil disobedience against unjust laws,” Wilson said. “And he reminded us that everything Hitler did was legal at the time. Now we have community leaders who are going to be asked to do things that follow Trump administration policy – but that doesn’t mean they are right or support the strength of our country. We are all going to have to make some choices about how we stand for human rights, for civil rights and for the American values we most believe in.”
Colorado NEA recipients:
- Denver Botanic Gardens: $40,000
- Motus Theater (Boulder): $35,000
- Denver Art Museum: $30,000
- Adams, Amber (Longmont): $25,000
- Aspen Santa Fe Ballet: $25,000
- Blue Sage Center for the Arts (Paonia): $10,000
- Cleo Parker Robinson Dance: $25,000
- Denver Architectural Foundation: $25,000
- Union Hall: $25,000
- Creede Repertory Theatre: $20,000
- Gift of Jazz: $20,000
- Metropolitan State University of Denver: $20,000
- University of Northern Colorado (Greeley): $20,000
- Vail Dance Festival: $20,000
- Center for Literary Publishing (at CSU): $15,000
- Su Teatro: $15,000
- Athena Project: $10,000
- Colorado Conservatory of Dance (Broomfield): $10,000
- Fraser Valley Arts: $10,000
- Performing Arts Academy (Highlands Ranch): $10,000
- Tank Center for Sonic Arts (Rangely): $15,000
- Turning the Wheel Productions (Boulder): $10,000
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