It’s been three months since the National Endowment for the Arts suddenly canceled previously-approved grants for hundreds of organizations across the country, amounting to what is estimated to be a $27 million funding gap. Nonprofit arts groups have employed a mix of strategies to respond. 

Some have relied heavily on their donor base to make up the difference or applied for funding from foundations, some of which have announced emergency funding initiatives in response to the NEA cuts. Others have pushed state and local governments to respond, with some success both in red and blue states. 

The funding scramble comes as arts organizations are also watching Congress debate whether to reduce NEA funding for the next fiscal year by as much as a third. 

Arts leaders say the uncertainty comes at a time when organizations are still struggling to recover from the disruptions of the COVID pandemic and foundation funding changes have already caused shortfalls. 

“The impact of the cuts is most felt by small and mid-sized cultural organizations,” said Claire Rice, who heads the advocacy group Arts Alliance Illinois.

The NEA cuts may have hastened or caused organizational closures, arts leaders say. In other cases, groups have had to trim their budgets by reducing their work. 

“So what we're seeing is you may not lose an entire program, but you may have to drastically cut the number of teaching artists you have, or you may have to drastically cut the number of opportunities to engage in an arts program that you provide,” said Chris Kiley, executive director of Texans for the Arts. 

Many other organizations have managed to survive and continue with their programming, including initiatives that were directly affected by the NEA’s cancellations. 

In mid-July, the literary-focused organization Youth Speaks, which is based in San Francisco, held its annual poetry slam festival in Madison, Wisconsin, despite a last-minute funding cut of $45,000, issued by letter in May.

Joan Osato, one of the leaders at Youth Speaks, said his team scrambled to trim their budget. They sent fewer permanent employees to work the festival and relied more on temporary staff. 

“We are hopeful that the cuts did not impact the quality of the program,” Osato said. “If we were to ask folks like who were in this festival, they did not go without.”

While Youth Speaks tightened its budget, the Denver-based theater group Su Teatro looked for private funds. Executive artistic director Tony Garcia said they lost a $15,000 grant earmarked for a play called “Yankee Bajan.”

“It tells the story of a woman — second, third generation from Barbados, who returns to Barbados,” Garcia said, “kind of looking at the U.S. from external eyes.” 

The funds that Su Teatro lost were just a sliver of their $2 million annual budget, but it was supposed to help pay for the artist who performs the play, Garcia said. So, they had to make up the difference by fundraising through their community of small-dollar donors and major benefactors. 

“And our community responded. We had an individual donor covering the $15,000,” Garcia said. 

The donations kept flowing in, and Garcia said they raised more than they lost and still intend to perform the play in the fall. 

“Our community saw this as an opportunity for resistance,” he said. 

Arts leaders caution that private funding cannot replace the NEA, because it spreads its $200 million annual budget throughout the country, including in smaller and rural communities where a large donor base or deep-pocketed funders just don’t exist. 

“Especially in rural areas, in smaller towns, this public funding is one of the most equitable sources of funding, and folks are just more heavily reliant on it,” Rice said. 

With the loss of federal funds, Arts Alliance Illinois has focused on finding other government money. In late May, the advocacy group scored a victory at the Illinois state legislature, getting a substantial increase in arts funding to help offset NEA cuts. City leaders in Chicago also announced new arts funding. Other states — blue and red — have done the same. 

“I'm very proud that we were able to secure an additional $7.9 million for the Texas Commission on the Arts, which is our state arts agency,” Kiley said. 

The NEA gave organizations which lost funds the chance to appeal. Many did — including Tony Garcia’s group Su Teatro. He said he’s still waiting to hear back. 

“The trust that we had in the government, in that part of the government, is gone. And to me, that's a harder thing to replace,” Garcia said. 

Joan Osato of Youth Speaks also appealed their funding cut. No response yet for her group, either. Osato said she’s written off the NEA, at least for the time being.