For Backstreet Group 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 12 months to help artwork programming for primarily low-income and unhoused people with restricted entry to psychological well being providers.
In February, amid a slew of Trump mandates focusing on variety, fairness, and inclusion (DEI) packages, the NEA cancelled its Problem America program for not less than the 2026 fiscal 12 months. 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.
Below 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 stated that the cancellation might pit them in opposition to 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, moderately 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. (picture courtesy Latinitas)
The NEA has not but responded to Hyperallergic’s repeated requests for remark.
Wright-Cunniff stated Backstreet Group 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 stated, 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 determination 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 Folks of Shade (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 all the time standard artwork.
However now, Kesten says a lot 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 stated.
For the Children & Artwork Basis, a Bay Space-based group offering arts experiences to pediatric most cancers sufferers, the grant was enticing as a result of it known as upon first-time federal funding candidates. The nonprofit was awarded in January to carry therapeutic artwork workshops in Oakland for youngsters preventing 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 stated.
Handsman stated she was involved that the absence of Problem America will limit funding pathways for organizations serving weak communities.
Sharon Salvador, interim government director of Newark Faculty of the Arts, stated that whereas Grants for Arts Initiatives prioritizes the success of particular initiatives, Problem America allowed for the funding in “the overall wellness of a community.”
Newark Faculty 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 stated, poses a menace to the well-being of weak communities, together with in northern New Jersey.
A weekly open artwork class hosted by InToto Artistic Arts Discussion board, which acquired NEA funding to help related workshops for people experiencing homelessness (picture by Jacob Garrett, courtesy InToto Artistic 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 women, acquired a 2025 grant from the NEA to help a public mosaic venture honoring ladies of colour 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, stated.
Dani Parmar, program director for InToto Artistic Arts Discussion board, based mostly in Birmingham, Alabama, nonetheless, stated 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 stated 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 stated.
For City ArtWorks, a Seattle-based nonprofit offering arts-related employment coaching for younger individuals dealing with systemic boundaries, receiving the Problem America grant was a pathway to greater NEA awards.
