Heidi Stevens: On long list of things being cut, art may seem inconsequential. It's not
Not in person, obviously. All of my actual travel revolves, happily, gratefully, around my son's lacrosse team and my daughter's college schedule.
My mind, on the other hand, travels (also happily, gratefully) in books. 'The Wedding People' by Alison Espach; 'Prep' by Curtis Sittenfeld (an oldie I was late to); 'We All Want Impossible Things' by Catherine Newman (one of the best books I've ever read); 'Tell Me Everything' by Elizabeth Strout; 'Sandwich' also by Catherine Newman; and 'The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo' by Taylor Jenkins Reid, most recently.
Stories are magic. They introduce me to new people and let me live in their heads and learn from their heartbreak and humor and terrible decisions and wisdom and fears and triumphs. Stories make my world bigger. They complicate easy narratives. They shrink my blind spots. They remind me to hope.
'The Sum of Us' by Heather McGhee taught me more about the United States than a lifetime of history classes. 'Mercy Street' by Jennifer Haigh gave me an entirely new lens through which to view reproductive rights. I think about 'A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius' by Dave Eggers at least once a week.
Books do that.
Art does that. And it is, like so many things that sustain us, under attack right now.
Hundreds of arts groups across the country received notice that their National Endowment for the Arts grants were being withdrawn or terminated in May, the same day President Donald Trump called for eliminating the NEA altogether, as well as the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Library and Museum Services.
It would be tempting to write this off as a minor outrage in the grand scheme of outrages unfolding right now. The budget bill that passed Thursday slashes Medicaid, Affordable Care Act and rural hospital funding, earmarks $45 billion for migrant detention facility beds, rolls back clean energy projects and adds at least $3.3 trillion to the national debt over the next decade. Among other things.
But if the first six months of this administration have taught us anything, it's that we can be appalled by more than one thing simultaneously. And a society that doesn't cultivate and support and sustain art is an appalling thought.
Art matters. It connects us. It softens us. It moves us.
'Everyone — no matter their belief system or politics — deserves art,' Anne Helen Peterson wrote in her July 2 newsletter. 'You deserve art you love and you deserve art that pisses you off and you deserve art that makes you think.
'We also deserve art,' she continued, 'that's not subject to the whims of capitalism or individual taste; if we only fund art that's pleasing or inoffensive, we end up with a bleak art world composed of Justin Timberlake's 'Can't Stop the Feeling' from the 'Trolls' soundtrack on repeat forever.'
Which would not only be deeply unpleasant, it would stunt our growth.
Rebecca Makkai, author of the phenomenal, Pulitzer Prize finalist 'The Great Believers,' wrote a stirring defense of the arts on the same day as the $40 million, taxpayer funded military parade in Washington, D.C. It was headlined, 'Your Kid's Art Class is Paying for This Parade.'
'It's not as if there's a trail of crumbs straight from the NEA cuts to this parade,' Makkai wrote. 'But when your priority is to defund the things that give people a voice and to fund the things that scare people into silence, it's hard not to see them as two sides of one coin.'
Precisely.
Makkai, as it happens, is one of the authors whose name appeared on an AI-generated summer reading list published in a handful of major newspapers recently. The list, which had no byline, recommended 15 new titles, only five of which actually exist. My book- and newspaper-loving heart shattered a little bit that day.
There's an awful lot working against our humanity right now. But there are so many reasons to defend it. There are so many reasons not to give in — to cruelty, to fear, to lazy thinking, to shortcuts that take us to dark places.
Art narrates those reasons. Art illuminates those reasons. Art creates empathy. And it's hard to think of a more precious, endangered resource than empathy right now.
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Chicago Humanities Fall Festival faces the decline of the humanities with lineup including Margaret Atwood, Kate McKinnon
The Chicago Humanities Festival began in 1989. As the longtime nonprofit arts and culture organization announces its signature fall schedule this week, let us pause a moment and consider what a difference 36 years makes. That year, 1989 — not insignificant in the history of free expression in the United States — was the thick of the late 20th century 'culture wars.' Tipper Gore and the Parents Music Resource Center were entrenched. Robert Mapplethorpe (who died that March) and other transgressive artists provoked front-page outrage. Jesse Helms argued for 'family values' even as he sought to deny AIDS funding. The Supreme Court decided whether it was OK to burn American flags. The Moral Majority disbanded that year, but not before setting a table that led to budget cuts at the National Endowment for the Arts. You probably don't remember this part, those days long since obscured by much uglier times, but, in the end, only $45,000 of the NEA's $171 million proposed budget was cut. 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Yahoo
04-08-2025
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‘Very relieved.' How a Charlotte arts group got its NEA funding cuts restored
What's happening in the world of Charlotte arts? Get insights into theater, music, movies, art and museums in the Queen City with our weekly Inside Charlotte Arts newsletter. Catch it in your inbox every Thursday. Sign-up here. Editor's note: This story was updated Aug. 1, 2025, to reflect the appeals status of two other arts groups A Charlotte arts group managed to regain the funding it lost this spring when the National Endowment for the Arts revealed sweeping cuts to organizations in the Carolinas and across the country. Through a complicated process, Three Bone Theatre received the remaining $13,000 from its three-year, $20,000 grant to help put on a trilogy of plays that retell classic Greek tragedies from a modern Latino and Chicano perspective. The group already had spent approximately $7,000 of the grant when the cuts came down. 'We're very relieved,' Three Bone artistic and operations director Robin Tynes-Miller said Wednesday. 'It's a good short-term win, and we'll take it.' 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JazzArt's $20,000 NEA grant was intended to support this fiscal year's jazz concert series. The organization quickly appealed the loss, but still has not received a response about its status, JazzArts President and CEO Lonnie Davis said. Without that funding, it becomes more challenging to cover expenses and maintain program quality. 'It means we need to get creative for alternative funding options,' Davis said, 'including individual supporters and community partners.' Three Bone's work The original $20,000 grant — the first NEA awarded to Three Bone — was to support a three-year project. During that time, Three Bone would produce 'The Greek Trilogy,' by MacArthur 'Genius Grant' winner Luis Alfaro. Three Bone is the first theater to commit to doing all three stories. The company already had staged the first play, 'Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles,' and was preparing for the second one this summer, 'Electricidad,' when it got word of the loss of funds. 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And separately in mid-June, 'Three Bone submitted a final funding request for the outstanding portion of the grant and provided documentation showing it had already spent more than $40,000 on the trilogy project, Tynes-Miller said. The grant termination letter had allowed for groups to submit one final expense by a date in June. 'It was incredibly complicated,' Tynes-Miller said, and had no idea if it would work. But she thought it might have helped that Three Bone was in the middle of a multiyear project with two more years left on the grant. What's more, the group already had spent a substantial amount on the work. And when the theater company got the good news a couple weeks ago that the remaining expenses had been approved, Tynes-Miller felt a wave of relief. She praised her staff and board for their work and support. Tynes-Miller said she had heard of a few other groups nationally that received the remainder of their funds through final expense report submissions, but was unaware if any appeals had been successful. What's next for Three Bone Next up for Three Bone is the second play in Alfaro's trilogy, 'Electricidad,' in its North Carolina premiere. Alfaro moves Sophocles' tale of 'Electra' to the Los Angeles barrios for a story of violence, loss and redemption It runs from Aug. 15-31 at The Arts Factory at West End Studios, 1545 W. Trade St., Charlotte. Go to for ticket and additional information. The final play in the cycle, 'Oedipus del Rey,' is set for May 2026. Meanwhile, Three Bone is asking people to remain vocal about supporting funding for the arts and remain in touch with their elected representatives. 'This (threat to funding) will continue to impact organizations for a very, very long time,' Tynes-Miller said. 'The more we can protect institutions like the NEA the healthier our cultural ecosystem will be. 'It's just been a roller coaster,' she added. Reporter Catherine Muccigrosso contributed to this report More arts coverage Want to see more stories like this? Sign up here for our free, award-winning 'Inside Charlotte Arts' newsletter: And you can join our Facebook group, 'Inside Charlotte Arts,' by going here: Solve the daily Crossword
