For Backstreet Neighborhood Arts, a nonprofit in Newnan, Georgia, that gives free artwork workshops and studio entry for people grappling with trauma, grief, and different psychological well being struggles, the Nationwide Endowment for the Arts (NEA) helps to fill a spot in group care.
The small arts nonprofit was awarded its second $10,000 NEA Problem America grant in January for the 2025 fiscal yr to help artwork programming for primarily low-income and unhoused people with restricted entry to psychological well being companies.
In February, amid a slew of Trump mandates concentrating on range, fairness, and inclusion (DEI) packages, the NEA cancelled its Problem America program for at the least the 2026 fiscal yr. This system, based in 2001 to designate funds for organizations reaching “underserved communities,” awarded $10,000 grants to small nonprofits and was lengthy seen as an entry level for smaller organizations to obtain federal funding.
Underneath new necessities launched final month, candidates should certify that they won’t use federal funds to “promote gender ideology,” a transfer that artists instantly condemned.
Hyperallergic contacted a number of present and former Problem America grant recipients. Leaders of the nonprofits that acquired the grants mentioned that the cancellation might pit them towards bigger, better-resourced organizations within the remaining Grants for Arts Initiatives program and would topic them to stricter entry necessities, together with demonstrating 5 years of prior arts programming, fairly than three.
Austin-based nonprofit Latinitas was awarded a 2025 Problem America grant to create a public set up of mosaics honoring Black and Latina leaders together with Angela Angulo, proprietor of the Spanish-language newspaper El Mundo. (photograph courtesy Latinitas)
The NEA has not but responded to Hyperallergic’s repeated requests for remark.
Wright-Cunniff mentioned Backstreet Neighborhood Arts utilized to Problem America due to the relative simplicity of its software, in comparison with the Grants for Artwork Initiatives. The Problem America software additionally supplied “enhanced technological assistance resources.”
As a result of Georgia ranks final in state arts funding per capita, Wright-Cunniff mentioned, choices for diversifying funding streams are comparatively scarce past particular person donors and the federal authorities.
In Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Robert Kesten, government director of Stonewall Nationwide Museum, Archives, and Library, instructed Hyperallergic that the NEA’s resolution to fold Problem America “sends a message to corporate donors that they should reconsider their grantmaking.”
The group was awarded in 2024 to help exhibitions on LGBTQ+ and Black, Indigenous, and Individuals of Coloration (BIPOC) communities and maintain associated public programming. The Problem America program was extra interesting to Kesten as a result of the museum focuses on LGBTQ+ historical past and tradition and never at all times typical artwork.
However now, Kesten says many of the museum’s company donors have “vanished.”
“That has been the biggest surprise, just how fast corporate and foundation America has closed its doors and is reducing the size and scope of the public conversation on important issues like freedom, justice, diversity, healthcare, relationships, economics, and just about everything else,” Kesten mentioned.
For the Children & Artwork Basis, a Bay Space-based group offering arts experiences to pediatric most cancers sufferers, the grant was engaging as a result of it referred to as upon first-time federal funding candidates. The nonprofit was awarded in January to carry therapeutic artwork workshops in Oakland for youngsters combating most cancers and their households.
“Many of the children in this community live below the poverty line, and social workers we collaborate with have expressed a strong desire — but lack the funds — to provide therapeutic art experiences and other services for these children,” Rachel Handsman, packages director for Children & Artwork Basis mentioned.
Handsman mentioned she was involved that the absence of Problem America will prohibit funding pathways for organizations serving weak communities.
Sharon Salvador, interim government director of Newark College of the Arts, mentioned that whereas Grants for Arts Initiatives prioritizes the achievement of particular initiatives, Problem America allowed for the funding in “the overall wellness of a community.”
Newark College of the Arts acquired the grant in 2023 to help inventive programming for getting old adults to fight reminiscence loss, enhance psychological well being, and promote social engagement. The lack of Problem America, Salvador mentioned, poses a risk to the well-being of weak communities, together with in northern New Jersey.
A weekly open artwork class hosted by InToto Inventive Arts Discussion board, which acquired NEA funding to help related workshops for people experiencing homelessness (photograph by Jacob Garrett, courtesy InToto Inventive Arts Discussion board)
Whereas the NEA beforehand instructed Hyperallergic that the cancellation of Problem America will solely apply to future candidates, uncertainty stays for the 2025 awardees, because the company implements new compliance necessities.
Latinitas, an Austin-based nonprofit with culturally knowledgeable science, know-how, engineering, arts, and arithmetic (STEAM) programming for ladies, acquired a 2025 grant from the NEA to help a public mosaic undertaking honoring ladies of coloration from East Austin.
“At its core, this project is about representation and resilience — ensuring that amid Austin’s rapid gentrification, residents see themselves reflected in the city’s evolving landscape,” Gabriela Kane Guardia, government director of Latinitas, mentioned.
Dani Parmar, program director for InToto Inventive Arts Discussion board, primarily based in Birmingham, Alabama, nevertheless, mentioned the nonprofit signed its award settlement and expects to obtain its 2025 Problem America funding, which might help no-cost interdisciplinary artwork workshops for people experiencing homelessness.
Parmar mentioned that federal funding is essential in states like Alabama with “scarce” help for the humanities, including that limiting entry to the humanities perpetuates exclusion.
“We see that exclusion from cultural and educational opportunities actively contributes to a cycle of poverty, isolation, and instability that leads to higher rates of homelessness and worsening mental health,” Parmar mentioned.
For City ArtWorks, a Seattle-based nonprofit offering arts-related employment coaching for younger folks dealing with systemic limitations, receiving the Problem America grant was a pathway to larger NEA awards.
