Numerous St. Louis arts organizations—including those involved with theater, film, dance, and visual arts—say they were informed over the weekend that 2025 grants previously awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts have been revoked.
Those facing revocation include St. Louis Shakespeare Festival, Saint Louis Dance Theatre, The Black Rep, Cinema St. Louis, Classic 107.3 FM, the Kranzberg Arts Foundation, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, and the Laumeier Sculpture Park. Many of the organizations’ leaders say they were told that grants that had been previously preliminarily awarded now falls outside the NEA’s “new priorities.”
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Those priorities, several leaders were told in emails that arrived Friday night, include a curious grab bag: “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.”
What falls outside those priorities, according to the emails, includes the gospel music show on 107.3 FM hosted by local music educator Maria Ellis, which was set to receive $20,000. It also includes $40,000 for a solo exhibit at Laumeier Sculpture Garden by the late artist Jackie Winsor; $15,000 for a program to bring visiting artists to Saint Louis Dance Theatre, previously known as Big Muddy Dance Co.; $20,000 for Cinema St. Louis; and $20,000 for the Kranzberg Arts Foundation’s MATI festival. The Contemporary Art Museum lost two grants; the Black Rep, one worth $35,000.
Also getting the ax was a $20,000 grant for St. Louis Shakespeare Festival’s Tour Co., which this year includes a traveling version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream along with, across the river, Shakespeare in the Streets: East St. Louis, featuring an original play by DeAsia Paige, who was previously a reporter with the Belleville News-Democrat and SLM culture writer.
Tom Ridgely, the festival’s producing artistic director, says the show will go on, thanks to strong local support.
“What’s alarming, among other things, is the hostility towards the arts that lies beneath it and the deliberate chaos of reversing so many thoughtful decisions by the agency,” he adds. “But we know the value of bringing free Shakespeare to neighborhoods all over St. Louis and of lifting up communities like East St. Louis, so we’ll keep doing this regardless of whatever noise is coming out of Washington.”
Erin Warner Prange, executive director of Saint Louis Dance Theatre, says the organization made plans based on the funds it was told were coming. As is typical, they’d gotten an offer from the NEA and accepted it, and were just waiting for the agency’s final review to see that it had cleared.
“It was taking longer than usual,” she says. “And then we got a notification on Friday that the offer was terminated. Obviously, from a legal standpoint, they had not officially awarded us anything; we had not invoiced for the funds yet. But absolutely, we were counting on those funds.” In the past, this step felt more like a formality. She says, “Nothing like this has ever happened before. We also made plans in commissioning artists and programming our season according to what had been told to us.” Now it will have to find funding elsewhere.
Prange notes that the grant was cut at an uncertain time, when retirement accounts are suffering and recession fears have mounted. “Thankfully, we have diversified our revenue streams enough that our small and mighty team can work to fill the gap, and we’re dedicated to moving forward with our commitments as they stand, and making sure that we fulfill our commitments to artists,” she says. “But it is difficult. And I think that, on a national level, we don’t yet know what the trickle-down effect will be, or what this means for the larger arts landscape. None of us really know that yet.”
Laumeier executive director Lauren Ross says that the sculpture garden originally applied for its grant in 2023 and got it last year, but had to push back the funding due to the death of the artist being featured. Typically, she says, the NEA is flexible and allows for delays, but this cancellation seems to preclude that.
“With the multiple challenges and setbacks around this exhibition, losing our funding is the final blow, and now I don’t anticipate we will be able to do it at all,” she says.
Ross is even more worried looking ahead to future grant cycles. Laumeier submitted an application in February, even with all the uncertainty in Washington, because next year is a big year for the organization: Its 50th anniversary.
“We have ambitious programming plans to mark that landmark,” she says. “A successful NEA grant would have gone a long way to help us meet our goals and best serve our community.”
Julie Schuster, executive director of Classic 107.3, says the organization is also wondering about the future. She says they’ve already spent funds towards Ellis’ gospel show, but they’re not sure if they can get that reimbursed. “Some of the money has already been spent, but we’re uncertain as to whether we will be able to receive any reimbursement for those expenses. “As we understand the emailed instructions, we can submit a request for ‘actual, approved’ costs through the end of June, which we plan to do,” she says in an email. “We also submitted an application for another $20,000 grant that was to support a new radio program on film soundtracks hosted by Leonard Slatkin, conductor laureate of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. Given the description of the current administration’s funding priorities, we anticipate that this grant will be rejected, which will be another blow for our station … and a huge loss for St. Louis audiences, should we be unable to find a sponsor for the program.”
Despite the losses, Prange sees a silver lining in the community of local arts leaders, whose phones were buzzing yesterday as they sought to sort out what the emails meant and how to address funding shortfalls.
“It’s really kind of a magical thing to see everyone come together and share information, share resources, share contacts, and make sure that we are all as prepared as possible to face the road ahead,” she says. “And I think that we’re really all looking to call the community to support arts and culture and to make sure that people are getting off the couch and coming out to the theaters and coming out to the museums. During a time like this, the arts are really what’s going to pull everyone together and create change and create hope—and are more important now than ever.”
