NEA grant cancelations shock NM arts organizations

Arts organizations in New Mexico have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in promised funding from National Endowment for the Arts grants, including the National Institute of Flamenco, Paseo Project, Friends of the Orphan Signs, New Mexico Jazz Festival, Santa Fe Desert Chorale, AMP Concerts, Georgia O’Keeffe Museum and Santa Fe Art Institute (SFAI).

Toccarra Thomas, the executive director of the SFAI, said the email she received at 7:34 p.m. on Friday notifying her of the cancellation of a $45,000 NEA grant came “out of the blue.” It was also delivered, not to her work email address, but to her personal email and that of a former employee. “So, I got the sense that there was something very rushed about how the messaging was going out,” Thomas said.

The grant cancellation emails contained the lines: “The NEA is updating its grantmaking policy priorities to focus funding on projects that reflect the nation’s rich artistic heritage and creativity as prioritized by the President. Consequently, we are terminating awards that fall outside these new priorities.”

The emails to New Mexico arts organizations further defined President Donald Trump’s priorities as being: “Projects that elevate the Nation’s (Historically Black College or University) 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.”

Thomas noted that nothing the artists associated with the SFAI are doing goes against those priorities, which is why her organization plans to appeal the decision.

“When I look at what we submitted and the work that the artists are doing, we have artists who are looking at the environment this year. We have artists who are focusing on childhood cancer. We have artists who are working on neurodivergence and filmmaking practices. These aren’t necessarily in opposition to anything that was listed. So, that’s just an indicator that one thing is being said and another thing is being done,” Thomas said.

According to a 2026 Discretionary Budget Request from the Trump administration, “The Budget includes the elimination of, or the elimination of Federal funding for, the following small agencies — consistent with the President’s efforts to decrease the size of the Federal Government to enhance accountability, reduce waste, and reduce unnecessary governmental entities. Past Trump administration budgets have also supported these eliminations. Remaining funds account for costs of orderly shutdowns.”

The proposed cuts for “small agency eliminations” include the National Endowment for the Arts, along with Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Institute of Museum and Library Sciences and the National Endowment for the Humanities. The NEA fiscal year 2002 appropriation of $180 million constitutes .003% of the federal budget, according to a NEA fact sheet.

The National Endowment for the Arts was founded in 1965 as an independent federal agency that is the largest funder of the arts and arts education

The National Institute of Flamenco also intends to appeal the cancellation of a $70,000 grant. The institute was counting on that grant funding as partial reimbursement for the nearly $140,000 in travel expenses they had incurred to bring 91 individuals to teach and perform in their upcoming flamenco festival, according to NIF’s executive director Marisol Encinias.

“Considering what are the stated new priorities of the NEA, we feel like we are in alignment with those new priorities,” Encinias said. “Specifically, the priority to support the rich artistic heritage of the United States … and to support HSI — Hispanic-serving institutions — and the University of New Mexico, which has been a partner of the festival since its inception, is a Hispanic-serving institution.”

Encinias said the NEA’s decision to cancel their grant, and those of so many others, is “very sad.”“It’s sad for our country, and it’s sad for people who dedicate their lives to creating art and making art accessible in our communities,” she said.

Encinias said the institute plans to appeal the NEA’s decision, but depending on the result of that appeal, she wouldn’t rule out a legal challenge.

“We have to rise up, and we have to fight for what we believe in. And I’m willing to do whatever it takes to do that,” she said.

AMP Concerts had a $20,000 grant withdrawn that was intended to support a multi-day residency with Vietnamese musician Van-Anh Vo.

AMP executive director Neal Copperman said he viewed the cancellation as a direct attack on diverse perspectives.

“What the humanities and the arts stand for are anathema to what Trump and the current administration stands for, and they have no tolerance for any perspective different from theirs,” Copperman said. “It seems like they’re attempting to remake the government and the country in their own very narrow vision of what makes America great and will do whatever they can to undermine anything that looks slightly different.”

Copperman also noted the irony of grants being potentially canceled for representing “diversity,” when DEI was originally a requirement to apply for an NEA grant.

“One of the things that’s really humorous about that whole approach is that every single NEA grant had a requirement to talk about what you were doing in support DEI,” he said. “So, if they want to use that as an excuse to cancel the grants, it was previously a grant requirement, so every single one of them will automatically have that in it.”Copperman mentioned that some of the organizations which have lost grant funding are likely to file a class action lawsuit, which AMP would participate in. But he said even if such a suit were to succeed, much of the damage will have already been done.

The Paseo Project, which runs the PASEO, a popular interactive arts festival in Taos, had a $35,000 grant canceled.

“We’re a very rural, small community, and we honor and respect art and creativity,” said Matthew Thomas, executive director of the Paseo Project. “I think I feel more sadness than anything.”

The sense of sadness was echoed by Lindsey Fromm, executive director of Friends of the Orphaned Signs, a group that finds abandoned or unused road signs and redesigns them with poetry and a fresh look.

“We really wanted to create these beautiful artworks by people right now, for 10, 20, 30 years in the future,” Fromm said. “But we don’t have the means to do that anymore.”The New Mexico Jazz Festival had a $25,000 grant canceled. And while Tom Guralnick, executive director of Outpost Productions, which puts on the festival, said this year’s programming will still move forward, he also said, “It’s important people know about this and challenge this.”

At least some of the 18 NEA grant recipients in New Mexico have not had their grants canceled.

As of Monday afternoon, Opera Southwest’s grant of $25,000 is still in place. That grant will help fund “Dolores,” a new opera coming in November about the life of labor rights icon Dolores Huerta.

The grant is already under contract, which historically is very secure, according to Opera Southwest’s executive director Tony Zancanella. If the grant were rescinded, it would have a major impact on Opera Southwest’s ability to produce “Dolores.”

“She’s such an icon of civil rights, it would be tragic if we weren’t able to produce that opera,” Zancanella said.

Santa Fe Pro Musica had two $20,000 NEA grants that have already been paid out this year to support their programming. But Santa Fe Pro Musica senior advisor and cofounder Carol Redman said the organization is “absolutely concerned” about National Endowment for the Arts funding next year.

A number of the New Mexico arts organizations the Journal spoke to expressed concern, not only for what the funding cuts might mean in practical terms for their own organizations, but also what they may indicate about the nation’s changing priorities under the Trump administration.

Thomas of the SFAI linked the recent cancellation of NEA grants to the ongoing waves of book bans, since both seem to be targeting organizations that support a diversity of viewpoints, as opposed to what she called a “monolithic way of thinking.”

“There’s a huge emphasis on cutting people off from information, and I think that is very scary. The biggest thing that an entity like us represents that’s (seen as) a threat is giving people access to different viewpoints and information in a way that’s accessible to them.” The Journal was unable to reach the National Endowment for the Arts for comment.