A Broken Promise: Seattle Arts Push Forward Despite NEA Cuts
To local art groups, the sudden pull of federal support is about more than money.
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Living Voices was planning to use a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to make its historical theater programs more accessible for rural and underfunded schools.
But the Seattle nonprofit’s newest shows about unsung female pilots during World War II do not fit the Trump administration's spending priorities, according to a mass grant termination email the NEA sent last month to hundreds of art and culture organizations nationwide.
Living Voices was one of at least 23 organizations in Washington state to have a total of more than $700,000 in NEA grants yanked post- or mid-project. That’s about 70% of the amount the agency awarded Washington state-based groups in Fiscal Year 2025.
“I don't care if it was for $5,000 or $500,000,” said Rachael McClinton, artistic director of Living Voices. “It was a broken promise when they sent out that letter.”
Nationwide, at least 500 organizations saw canceled grants totaling more than $27 million, according to a crowdsourced spreadsheet created by New York-based theatre director Annie Dorsen.
The news came hours after the Trump administration published its 2026 FY budget proposal calling to end the NEA, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute for Museum and Library Services—agencies that have seen millions in grant terminations and big job cuts the past few months.
This week, NEH layoffs went into effect. Fewer than 60 employees remain, and the agency is set to cut its grants at least in half next fiscal year.
The NEA provided no reason for its cuts other than a list of Trump’s alleged priorities:
“Projects that elevate the nation’s HBCUs and Hispanic Serving Institutions, celebrate the 250th anniversary of American independence, foster AI competency, empower houses of worship to serve communities, assist with disaster recovery, foster skilled trade jobs, make America healthy again, support the military and veterans, support Tribal communities, make the District of Columbia safe and beautiful, and support the economic development of Asian American communities,” according to the email.
Each year, NEA grant applicants undergo a rigorous, months-long review process. Living Voices and several other awardees have argued their defunded projects and company missions align with NEA priorities.
“We did everything we should,” McClinton said. “There should be mutual trust between grantors and organizations.”
The NEA did not respond to Ode’s request for comment.
Since its start in 1965, the NEA has supported a wide breadth of art and culture projects across the U.S. In the 1980s, the agency faced criticism for supporting work like Andres Serrano’s “Piss Christ,” which sent Congress into a conniption, and art student Dread Scott Tyler’s “What is the Proper Way to Display an American Flag?,” a work that brought war veterans and bomb threats to the Art Institute of Chicago.
At the time, acting chairman Hugh Southern said the agency was "forbidden” from “interfering with the artistic choices made by its grantees… even though sometimes the work may be deemed controversial and offensive to some."
Trump proposed gutting the NEA twice during his first term but ultimately agreed to increase funding for the agency. Since taking office again in January, he has curbed federal support for art and culture programs that appear to promote “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion,” “gender ideology,” or a “woke agenda.” Under his order, the NEA’s Challenge America grant program for underserved communities may sunset next year.
“The attacks on DEI—and the disregard for history—go against all the NEA and NEH have supported for decades,” said Katie Bunn-Marcuse, Northwest Native Art curator and director of the Bill Holm Center at the Burke Museum in Seattle.
In May, the NEA walked back a $50,000 grant for “Woven in Wool: The Rebirth of Traditional Coast Salish Regalia,” an Indigenous-led exhibit set to open in September at the Burke. It’s been in the works since 2020 and will tell the story of Coast Salish weaving over centuries.
“I just think it’s ironic,” Bunn-Marcuse said. “Supporting Washington’s Tribal communities is in alignment with their stated message.”
For decades, the museum’s relationship with the NEA has been good, Bunn-Marcuse said. In the past twenty years, she’s seen about eight grants totaling more than $200,000 awarded to the arts and cultures division alone. In that time, she said, the agency has never ended grants mid-project.
Annie Kagi, grants manager of Seattle Theatre Group, said their rescinded $20,000 grant to host Dance Theatre of Harlem in Seattle was already determined by the NEA “to be in line with the priorities of celebrating the history of dance in this country.” They spent the money for related shows, classes, and community activities that ran earlier this year.
The upheaval of the NEA is frustrating, Kagi said, especially since the agency has brought artists together and served as a “stamp of approval” for other donors and support.
There’s more to consider: From 2022 to 2023, the arts and culture sector grew at more than twice the rate of the overall U.S. economy, according to a study the NEA published in April.
In 2022 alone, the arts supported 2.6 million jobs, generated $29.1 billion in tax revenue, and provided $101 billion in personal income across cities and rural America, according to the latest Arts & Economic Prosperity study by Americans for the Arts.
Federal decision-makers driving the NEA’s direction “might at least care about the economic drivers at a time when American cities really need a boost,” said Melody Mikkelsen, executive director of Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra, the largest youth orchestra training program in the country.
The orchestra creates career pathways and spends hundreds of thousands to provide tuition assistance and free or low-cost programs for music students. Although it received the mass grant termination email, the organization submitted documents for reimbursement in time and maintained its $20,000 grant for a commissioned piece set to debut next season.
The NEA is the largest arts funder in the U.S. Yet when it comes to the agency’s annual budget, it’s a small fraction—0.003%—of overall government spending, according to an NEA fact sheet from 2022.
In a public statement, Americans for the Arts CEO Erin Harkey said the administration’s moves are “deeply concerning, shortsighted, and detrimental.”
“NEA grants have touched every American,” she wrote, “supporting projects in every Congressional district and helping the arts reach parts of the country, including often overlooked rural communities.”
Since the emails went out last month, art groups have had to decide next steps. Advocacy groups, including Americans for the Arts and Inspire Washington, sprang into action. Some private funders launched millions in emergency grants.
Americans for the Arts launched a nationwide impact survey for affected organizations and will post those results soon, according to its website.
Much of the initial flurry was a push for affected grantees to file appeals before the seven-day deadline.
“It sends a clear signal to federal agencies and lawmakers about the scale and seriousness of this disruption,” Americans for the Arts wrote on its website. “It helps us build a unified field response, allowing our collective voice to reflect the full scope of the damage.”
The Burke did not file an appeal for its NEA grant, Bunn-Marcuse said, as the museum has enough support to make “Woven in Wool” happen by September. Kagi, with Seattle Theatre Group, also decided to rely on other sources to compensate for their $20,000 loss.
“I'm just one grant writer,” Kagi said. “I did not have the capacity that week.”
Living Voices, a smaller nonprofit, appealed and is brainstorming ways to make up the $10,000.
“I joke with my colleagues, 90% of our audience is under 18,” McClinton said. “I'm not going to crowdsource middle school kids. Maybe for larger organizations the money wouldn't be a lot, but for an organization like us, we would have used that funding to impact a lot of schools and lives.”
McClinton has called her local elected officials. She also called around to see if affected awardees had a case for a lawsuit. One lawyer said he wasn’t sure how legal action would work, while another said there are grounds for a class action suit over breach of contract. McClinton pointed out that the ideology-based terminations, along with the administration’s listed priority to bolster places of worship, could be a violation of the First Amendment.
In 1998, the Supreme Court ruled against artists who claimed the NEA violated the First Amendment when it created new rules about decency in art.
In May, the NEA wrote to arts organizations it “may terminate a federal award to the greatest extent authorized by law if an award no longer effectuates the program goals or agency priorities.”
It remains unclear whether it’s legal for the NEA to change priorities mid-grant cycle, or to what extent arts organizations will pursue legal action.
In March, four art and theater groups filed a lawsuit against the NEA. The groups allege the federal agency’s new guidelines violate the First Amendment because they exclude projects that promote “gender ideology.”
The suit, and related ones over slashed federal programs and grants, were ongoing as of this week.
If anything, it’s important for organizations to close out their NEA grants properly to avoid further financial issues. Law firm Holland & Knight encouraged art groups to seek legal counsel if they’re concerned about their closeouts.
McClinton said Living Voices would be open to pursuing a class action lawsuit, but they can’t do it alone. Other Seattle organizations told Ode they were not pursuing legal action or declined to comment on the matter.
“Each time I'm in front of groups of hundreds of young people, I wonder, ‘Can I plant the seed of what it means to resist and be courageous?’” McClinton said. “I can do that, and I am doing that.”
Washington state:
• Inspire Washington
• ArtsEd Washington
• King County Creative
• Seattle Office of Arts and Culture open grants
Nationwide:
• Americans for the Arts
• Arts Advocacy Alert email, phone script and letter template for contacting elected officials
• National Council of Nonprofits
• Film Festival Alliance
• American Alliance of Museums
• American Library Association
• National Humanities Alliance
• National Assembly of State Arts Agencies
• List of arts advocacy groups by state
• LAA Wayfinder for local arts agencies
But the Seattle nonprofit’s newest shows about unsung female pilots during World War II do not fit the Trump administration's spending priorities, according to a mass grant termination email the NEA sent last month to hundreds of art and culture organizations nationwide.
Living Voices was one of at least 23 organizations in Washington state to have a total of more than $700,000 in NEA grants yanked post- or mid-project. That’s about 70% of the amount the agency awarded Washington state-based groups in Fiscal Year 2025.
“I don't care if it was for $5,000 or $500,000,” said Rachael McClinton, artistic director of Living Voices. “It was a broken promise when they sent out that letter.”
Nationwide, at least 500 organizations saw canceled grants totaling more than $27 million, according to a crowdsourced spreadsheet created by New York-based theatre director Annie Dorsen.
The news came hours after the Trump administration published its 2026 FY budget proposal calling to end the NEA, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute for Museum and Library Services—agencies that have seen millions in grant terminations and big job cuts the past few months.
This week, NEH layoffs went into effect. Fewer than 60 employees remain, and the agency is set to cut its grants at least in half next fiscal year.
The NEA provided no reason for its cuts other than a list of Trump’s alleged priorities:
“Projects that elevate the nation’s HBCUs and Hispanic Serving Institutions, celebrate the 250th anniversary of American independence, foster AI competency, empower houses of worship to serve communities, assist with disaster recovery, foster skilled trade jobs, make America healthy again, support the military and veterans, support Tribal communities, make the District of Columbia safe and beautiful, and support the economic development of Asian American communities,” according to the email.
Each year, NEA grant applicants undergo a rigorous, months-long review process. Living Voices and several other awardees have argued their defunded projects and company missions align with NEA priorities.
“We did everything we should,” McClinton said. “There should be mutual trust between grantors and organizations.”
The NEA did not respond to Ode’s request for comment.
‘Disregard for history’
Since its start in 1965, the NEA has supported a wide breadth of art and culture projects across the U.S. In the 1980s, the agency faced criticism for supporting work like Andres Serrano’s “Piss Christ,” which sent Congress into a conniption, and art student Dread Scott Tyler’s “What is the Proper Way to Display an American Flag?,” a work that brought war veterans and bomb threats to the Art Institute of Chicago.
At the time, acting chairman Hugh Southern said the agency was "forbidden” from “interfering with the artistic choices made by its grantees… even though sometimes the work may be deemed controversial and offensive to some."
Trump proposed gutting the NEA twice during his first term but ultimately agreed to increase funding for the agency. Since taking office again in January, he has curbed federal support for art and culture programs that appear to promote “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion,” “gender ideology,” or a “woke agenda.” Under his order, the NEA’s Challenge America grant program for underserved communities may sunset next year.
“The attacks on DEI—and the disregard for history—go against all the NEA and NEH have supported for decades,” said Katie Bunn-Marcuse, Northwest Native Art curator and director of the Bill Holm Center at the Burke Museum in Seattle.
In May, the NEA walked back a $50,000 grant for “Woven in Wool: The Rebirth of Traditional Coast Salish Regalia,” an Indigenous-led exhibit set to open in September at the Burke. It’s been in the works since 2020 and will tell the story of Coast Salish weaving over centuries.
“I just think it’s ironic,” Bunn-Marcuse said. “Supporting Washington’s Tribal communities is in alignment with their stated message.”
For decades, the museum’s relationship with the NEA has been good, Bunn-Marcuse said. In the past twenty years, she’s seen about eight grants totaling more than $200,000 awarded to the arts and cultures division alone. In that time, she said, the agency has never ended grants mid-project.
Annie Kagi, grants manager of Seattle Theatre Group, said their rescinded $20,000 grant to host Dance Theatre of Harlem in Seattle was already determined by the NEA “to be in line with the priorities of celebrating the history of dance in this country.” They spent the money for related shows, classes, and community activities that ran earlier this year.
The upheaval of the NEA is frustrating, Kagi said, especially since the agency has brought artists together and served as a “stamp of approval” for other donors and support.
There’s more to consider: From 2022 to 2023, the arts and culture sector grew at more than twice the rate of the overall U.S. economy, according to a study the NEA published in April.
In 2022 alone, the arts supported 2.6 million jobs, generated $29.1 billion in tax revenue, and provided $101 billion in personal income across cities and rural America, according to the latest Arts & Economic Prosperity study by Americans for the Arts.
Federal decision-makers driving the NEA’s direction “might at least care about the economic drivers at a time when American cities really need a boost,” said Melody Mikkelsen, executive director of Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra, the largest youth orchestra training program in the country.
The orchestra creates career pathways and spends hundreds of thousands to provide tuition assistance and free or low-cost programs for music students. Although it received the mass grant termination email, the organization submitted documents for reimbursement in time and maintained its $20,000 grant for a commissioned piece set to debut next season.
The NEA is the largest arts funder in the U.S. Yet when it comes to the agency’s annual budget, it’s a small fraction—0.003%—of overall government spending, according to an NEA fact sheet from 2022.
In a public statement, Americans for the Arts CEO Erin Harkey said the administration’s moves are “deeply concerning, shortsighted, and detrimental.”
“NEA grants have touched every American,” she wrote, “supporting projects in every Congressional district and helping the arts reach parts of the country, including often overlooked rural communities.”
‘Resist and be courageous’
Since the emails went out last month, art groups have had to decide next steps. Advocacy groups, including Americans for the Arts and Inspire Washington, sprang into action. Some private funders launched millions in emergency grants.
Americans for the Arts launched a nationwide impact survey for affected organizations and will post those results soon, according to its website.
Much of the initial flurry was a push for affected grantees to file appeals before the seven-day deadline.
“It sends a clear signal to federal agencies and lawmakers about the scale and seriousness of this disruption,” Americans for the Arts wrote on its website. “It helps us build a unified field response, allowing our collective voice to reflect the full scope of the damage.”
The Burke did not file an appeal for its NEA grant, Bunn-Marcuse said, as the museum has enough support to make “Woven in Wool” happen by September. Kagi, with Seattle Theatre Group, also decided to rely on other sources to compensate for their $20,000 loss.
“I'm just one grant writer,” Kagi said. “I did not have the capacity that week.”
Living Voices, a smaller nonprofit, appealed and is brainstorming ways to make up the $10,000.
“I joke with my colleagues, 90% of our audience is under 18,” McClinton said. “I'm not going to crowdsource middle school kids. Maybe for larger organizations the money wouldn't be a lot, but for an organization like us, we would have used that funding to impact a lot of schools and lives.”
McClinton has called her local elected officials. She also called around to see if affected awardees had a case for a lawsuit. One lawyer said he wasn’t sure how legal action would work, while another said there are grounds for a class action suit over breach of contract. McClinton pointed out that the ideology-based terminations, along with the administration’s listed priority to bolster places of worship, could be a violation of the First Amendment.
In 1998, the Supreme Court ruled against artists who claimed the NEA violated the First Amendment when it created new rules about decency in art.
In May, the NEA wrote to arts organizations it “may terminate a federal award to the greatest extent authorized by law if an award no longer effectuates the program goals or agency priorities.”
It remains unclear whether it’s legal for the NEA to change priorities mid-grant cycle, or to what extent arts organizations will pursue legal action.
In March, four art and theater groups filed a lawsuit against the NEA. The groups allege the federal agency’s new guidelines violate the First Amendment because they exclude projects that promote “gender ideology.”
The suit, and related ones over slashed federal programs and grants, were ongoing as of this week.
If anything, it’s important for organizations to close out their NEA grants properly to avoid further financial issues. Law firm Holland & Knight encouraged art groups to seek legal counsel if they’re concerned about their closeouts.
McClinton said Living Voices would be open to pursuing a class action lawsuit, but they can’t do it alone. Other Seattle organizations told Ode they were not pursuing legal action or declined to comment on the matter.
“Each time I'm in front of groups of hundreds of young people, I wonder, ‘Can I plant the seed of what it means to resist and be courageous?’” McClinton said. “I can do that, and I am doing that.”
Resources
Washington state:
• Inspire Washington
• ArtsEd Washington
• King County Creative
• Seattle Office of Arts and Culture open grants
Nationwide:
• Americans for the Arts
• Arts Advocacy Alert email, phone script and letter template for contacting elected officials
• National Council of Nonprofits
• Film Festival Alliance
• American Alliance of Museums
• American Library Association
• National Humanities Alliance
• National Assembly of State Arts Agencies
• List of arts advocacy groups by state
• LAA Wayfinder for local arts agencies
***
This article is part of Ode’s ongoing coverage of the Trump administration’s cuts to the National Endowment for the Arts. For more background, read our earlier report, Muse in the Line of Fire.Join the Club
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