Community rallies around LCT's Penguin Project
But the community didn't hesitate.
In just a matter of weeks, individual donors, local businesses, and longtime supporters stepped forward with generosity and heart. Not only was the funding gap filled, but community contributions surpassed the original NEA grant amount, ensuring the Penguin Project continues to thrive this season. Erik Vose, Executive Director of La Crosse Community Theatre, said, 'The Penguin Project is more than a performance. It's a celebration of possibility. This community showed what it truly values. We may have lost a grant, but we gained a powerful reminder of how much people care. While we'll continue to welcome support, the very best way to uplift our Penguins right now is to come see the show. Buy a ticket. Be part of their audience. You won't regret it.'
The Penguin Project is a nationwide program that provides theatre opportunities for young artists with developmental disabilities and special needs, pairing them with peer mentors for a fully staged musical production. The Big Bad Musical will be performed June 13th through the 15th in the Lyche Theatre at the Weber Center for the Arts.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Los Angeles Times
3 days ago
- Los Angeles Times
Trump-era cuts to public art create a ‘state of emergency' for L.A. dance community
Linda Yudin was sipping coffee with family and friends on May 3, the morning of her birthday, when they warned her not to check her emails. Later that afternoon, she learned why: Her dance company, Viver Brasil, had lost a $20,000 grant. It was among 30 Los Angeles arts organizations that received a grant termination letter from the National Endowment for the Arts the night before. 'Was I mad? Yes, I was mad. I was really angry. We were all really angry because it slows our process down,' Yudin, Viver Brasil's founding artistic director, told The Times. The money was intended to support staff salaries and artist fees for a national tour of 'Rezas e Folhas (Prayers and Leaves),' choreographed by co-artistic director Vera Passos. The piece blends Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous dance with experimental choreography to examine the climate crisis and social change — subjects playing out in real time in L.A. Now, Viver Brasil has to pause and reevaluate what that tour will look like. Possible adjustments include performing in smaller venues and cutting down the size of the cast. 'We have to rethink perhaps, but I'm proud to be part of such a creative dance ecosystem,' Yudin said. 'We dance hard, we fight hard, and that's what we do.' Dance is one of the most underfunded arts disciplines, according to Raélle Dorfan, executive director of L.A.'s Dance Resource Center. She points to inherent economic challenges that inhibit the industry's infrastructure and growth potential — such as limited funding sources — which consequently can make it challenging for companies and venues to fill seats. With the stress of federal and local funding cuts, as well as the January fires, many L.A. dance organizations are scaling back their programming and outreach. While small nonprofits and underserved communities have been impacted the most, larger companies are feeling the pain as well. 'We're really in the middle right now of compounding crises,' said Gustavo Herrera, chief executive of Arts for LA. 'It's really a state of emergency for arts organizations.' Arts organizations across the country have been reeling from NEA grant terminations amid priority changes under President Trump's administration. Twelve L.A. organizations are currently at risk of needing to eliminate jobs and programming due to federal funding cuts, according to Herrera. In his 2026 budget proposal, Trump has called to eliminate the NEA, the largest arts funder in the country, altogether — a proposal he also made in his 2018 budget that failed to move through Congress. In response, a group of senior officials resigned from the agency, including dance director Sara Nash. Dance specialists Kate Folsom and Juliana Mascelli followed suit, leaving the NEA without an active dance division. These sudden changes have proven frustrating for many companies, including Dance Camera West, which received a termination letter for its $15,000 grant. 'For an organization our size, you have to be so nimble,' executive director Kelly Hargraves said. 'Because we're dancers, we know how to pivot. And we have to pivot every single year based on which grant we did get and didn't get, and change what we're doing and not doing.' Hargraves had already spent the money before receiving the termination notice and, to her knowledge, does not owe any of it back. Still, she's concerned about future funding and has decided to cut the Visibility commission project — which supports the creation of new dance films from underrepresented artists — for the next Dance Camera West festival. 'I was joking that I should basically just take my old applications and put the word 'not' in front of everything,' she said, 'because it's a very DEI program.' For her 2026 grant application, Hargraves wrote a proposal for a series of documentaries about the great masters of dance and dance film, including Martha Graham, Anna Sokolow and Shirley Clarke. But she, like many other company directors, has been left in the dark regarding the status of her application. 'I've sent emails that don't get responded to,' she said. 'I feel like I'm that emoji with the hands in the air. Let's just do what we can, not count on anything.' L.A. Dance Project, founded by acclaimed choreographer Benjamin Millepied, also has a pending $66,744 grant application for Launch:LA, its residency program for emerging artists. Each year, the company supports two projects by providing three weeks of rehearsal space, a stipend and production resources. The program culminates with performances at the company's downtown performance space. While Launch: LA is partially funded by private foundations and individual donors, receiving the full amount from the NEA would make it possible to offer the program biannually, supporting four projects each year. But until L.A. Dance Project hears back, the company is focused on safeguarding its current annual offering. 'To get this kind of news and see our colleagues experiencing this sort of rug being pulled out from underneath them, it's difficult,' said Rachelle Rafailedes Mucha, director of foundation and government grants. 'We just are now trying to share the case for arts funding, and we need the private foundations and the individuals and our local and state agencies to step up and fill the void of what's happening with the NEA.' Keeping employees on the payroll presents another challenge for small dance organizations — especially after AB5, which makes it more difficult for companies to classify their workers as independent contractors, went into effect in 2020. This means many arts groups have had to reclassify workers as employees, leading to increased expenses to cover payroll taxes, overtime pay, paid sick leave and more. The Performing Arts Equitable Payroll Fund was implemented in March to help performing arts companies comply with AB5 by reimbursing a portion of their payroll costs. The $11.5 million allocated for PAEPF was put on the chopping block in Gov. Gavin Newsom's May proposal but was ultimately restored in the final budget. Still, it can be difficult to secure funding through the PAEPF due to high demand and the first-come, first-served nature of the program. Hargraves is currently on hiatus from Dance Camera West until the fall in order to reduce administrative costs. '[The PAEPF] would make it feasible for me to be on salary again,' Hargraves said. 'Obviously I keep working because I'm not going to let [Dance Camera West] die in the meantime. But I still have a day job or two or three.' On the county level, the Department of Arts and Culture budget was slashed by $1.7 million this month, impacting its organizational grant, community impact arts grant and arts internship programs, according to the department's website. At least 17 dance companies are at risk of losing their funding because of these cuts, said Herrera. The Organizational Grant Program, which provides two years of funding to grantees, offers money for general operating costs, not just specific projects. Grantees for the 2024-2025 fiscal year were first paid in November 2024 and will receive money again this November. Their promised funding will not be affected by the cuts, according to the department's website. Yudin, whose company was granted $23,600 last year to support director salaries and invest in a new position, said she deeply values the funding Viver Brasil has received from the county. 'Is it enough? I think we all recognize that it is not enough, but it is an important recognition, and we appreciate that very much.' The City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs also faced steep cuts in Mayor Karen Bass' proposed budget, but the funding was ultimately restored in the final version. The DCA was the only department whose funding wasn't cut, according to Arts for LA. Funding cuts to the arts affect more than just the arts, said Herrera. A study commissioned by Arts for LA found that for every 100 performing arts jobs, there were an additional 156 jobs supported in other sectors. 'It activates entire neighborhoods and communities,' Herrera said. 'We really feel that elected officials need to do more to come to the table and support this sector, because at the end of the day, it impacts the bottom lines of cities, regions, states, countries.' In Orange County, Anaheim Ballet did not receive its $10,000 NEA grant to support Step-Up!, an afterschool program that provides free dance classes to youth. The money would have come through the Challenge America grant — canceled by the NEA for the 2026 fiscal year — which supports arts programs for underserved groups and communities. Anaheim Ballet will continue to offer classes to underserved youth, but it now relies on private donations, other grants and funds shifted from other operations. 'We just want to make sure they're able to dance if they want to. There are kids, young people, that do want to, and it's prohibitive for many families that are struggling just to make ends meet,' said executive director Lawrence Rosenberg. 'From day one, from our inception, we saw the need. It's always been a part of what we do. Our go-to slogan is 'Anaheim Ballet: more than dance.' 'The point is we think that people respond to something in ballet when it's more than dance — when you're seeing persistence and hope and effort and things that we can all relate to, whether it's dance or any other area of our lives that we know is worth struggling in.'
Axios
21-07-2025
- Axios
How Trump's arts funding cuts are impacting Pennsylvania
More than 90% of Pennsylvania's art and cultural institutions expect to be impacted by the Trump administration's cuts to arts funding, per a new PA Humanities' CultureCheck report. Why it matters: It's another hit to the performing arts sector — which is recovering from the pandemic and trying to lure audiences back in. The big picture: Of the more than 400 organizations surveyed, 62% said the funding cuts could force them to postpone or cancel programming, per the report. About half of those organizations said their attendance levels hadn't returned to pre-pandemic levels. Zoom in: Many Philly organizations have scrambled to fill budget holes after learning their funding was rescinded from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), which advocates warn could face more cuts. Philly-based PA Humanities, which supports arts, culture and civic engagement, had its operating grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) terminated this year — a move that cut off 60% of the org's annual budget, Axios Pittsburgh's Chrissy Suttles reports. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has said the funding cuts are part of a broader effort to reduce what it considers wasteful government spending. By the numbers: Pennsylvania has received more than $123 million in federal arts funding since 2020 — critical dollars since the state's per-capita spending (91 cents) is significantly less than neighboring states like New Jersey ($4.45), New York ($4.45) and Maryland ($5.63). Between the lines: The organizations in Pennsylvania's arts and culture sector aren't just sources of entertainment. Last year, 43% of organizations surveyed said they offered some type of mental-health-related programming, up from 29% in 2023. What they're saying: The cuts could "erase years of hard-won progress," Patricia Wilson Aden, president and CEO of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, tells Axios.
The Hill
18-07-2025
- The Hill
Art or algorithms? A choice for America's children
While America fixates on wars in Israel and Ukraine, protests over deportations and fights over tariffs, a quieter crisis is destroying our children from within. Nearly one-third of U.S. children show signs of addictive behavior tied to mobile phones and social media by age 11. Those with the highest levels of compulsive use are more than twice as likely to report suicidal thoughts, depression, anxiety or aggression. This isn't speculation — it's the stark finding from a new study that should terrify every parent in America. Children who feel they can't put the phone down are literally losing hope. And while our attention stays locked on external battles and street demonstrations, we are about to defund the one proven antidote to digital despair: arts education. The research, as reported by the Financial Times, amplifies the work of social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, whose book ' The Anxious Generation ' exposed how smartphones are damaging developing minds. The rise in teen anxiety, depression and self-harm isn't a coincidence — it tracks directly with the spread of smartphones and social media. Haidt's call to action is clear: Give kids their childhoods back by changing our digital norms. But here's what the policy debate is missing: When I was chairman of the New York State Council on the Arts, we commissioned a study from McKinsey in 1997 titled, 'You Gotta Have Art!' It found that for every dollar received in public grants, arts organizations raise $9 from other sources. In other words, taxpayers get tremendous bang for their buck spent on arts education. And art isn't a luxury. It's a lifeline. In low-income and underserved communities — where kids face the highest risk of social media addiction and have the least access to mental health support — arts programs provide what algorithms cannot: structure, purpose and human connection. They teach discipline and self-expression. They offer sanctuary from the scroll. They give children the chance to discover who they are beyond the screen. I've witnessed this transformation firsthand for decades. In my role as chairman, I've visited VFW halls turned into rehearsal spaces, summer camps that became studios, shuttered churches reopened as community theaters. These places don't need TikTok — they need teachers, canvases, clarinets and courage. Without National Endowment for the Arts support, they vanish. Not hypothetically — now. In Iowa, the beloved nonprofit cinema FilmScene just lost its entire National Endowment for the Arts grant overnight. There was no warning — just a cold, bureaucratic phrase: 'no longer prioritized by the president.' That funding supported programming for people with disabilities, local festivals and community outreach. Without it, a cultural pillar could collapse. FilmScene isn't alone. Today, students in high-poverty schools are twice as likely to have no arts education at all. This isn't just unfair — it's strategically stupid. Data show low-income students engaged in arts are twice as likely to graduate college. Arts education creates a pipeline to success and a buffer against isolation and algorithmic manipulation. So why cut it? Because critics call it elitist? Here's the truth: Cutting arts funding doesn't hurt elites. It devastates kids who have nothing else. Lincoln Center will survive. The after-school jazz program in East St. Louis will not. The community mural project in West Texas will not. In 1997, conservative Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) tried to kill the National Endowment for the Arts — until fellow Republican Sen. Alfonse D'Amato (R-N.Y.) stood up and said no. D'Amato cited hard data and made the case that arts funding wasn't liberal indulgence but conservative common sense. President Trump should follow that model. He should not only preserve the National Endowment for the Arts, but he should reform it to serve communities most in need. As he did at the Kennedy Center, he can appoint leadership reflecting traditional values — faith, discipline, patriotism, family — and repurpose the NEA to rescue children from digital despair. This transcends politics. It is about right and wrong. Arts aren't the enemy of conservative values — they are the antidote to a society forgetting how to raise whole human beings. They teach perseverance, honor tradition and create bonds no app can replicate. We face a simple choice: algorithm or art. One isolates. The other inspires. One extracts attention. The other expands minds. One sells. The other saves. For our children, our communities and our country, let's choose art.
