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Los Angeles Times
a day ago
- Entertainment
- 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
- Entertainment
- 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
- Politics
- 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.
Chicago Tribune
17-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Chicago arts organizations press on despite ‘gut punch' federal cuts
To Nita Win, a South Shore mom of two, there's a freedom of expression that the arts provide that's refreshing. It's a feeling, that as much as she can, Win tries to expose to her 8-year-old daughter and 14-year-old son. On Tuesday night, Win and her family did just that, attending the opening performance of this year's Rhythm World, the country's longest-running tap dance festival that for 35 years now has called Chicago home. She left the performance, a free showcase at downtown's Studebaker Theater, amazed. She enjoyed every bit, though she thought it bittersweet, knowing she could have seen more. Amid federal funding cuts, this year's Rhythm World is nearly half as long as originally planned, spanning six days instead of 10. 'What a shame,' Win said following Tuesday's performance, noting it was her family's first time at the festival. 'Me being able to come here and experience this free performance is wonderful. And without … funding, this is not possible.' Organizers opted to shorten the 35th anniversary programming so they could weather changes without losing the heart of the festival, they say. But their choice is becoming a familiar one these days, as federal downsizing places pressure on arts organizations across the Chicago area to make do without funding. On May 2, the White House released President Donald Trump's budget proposal, which called for billions of dollars of sweeping cuts, including the elimination of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the largest funder of arts and arts education in the country. Candace Jackson looks forward to Rhythm World, which has long received NEA grant funding each year, the Edgewater resident said ahead of Tuesday's opening performance. 'I live for this week,' she said. A novice tapper herself, Jackson has been an avid attendee of Rhythm World for more than a decade, she said. Usually, she goes to every festival performance possible. Jackson, who remembers Rhythm World in full form, said news of the NEA cuts 'saddened' her. And even still, she didn't anticipate the cuts affecting the festival as much as they did. 'I thought it was just going to be maybe a day or so,' she said. 'But they cut performances, they cut some training.' Over the past three years, some 192 organizations and institutions have received funding from the NEA across Illinois, according to data compiled by Arts Alliance Illinois. Shortly after Trump's budget plan was released, NEA sent notifications to hundreds of grant recipients across the country terminating and withdrawing awards in progress. The Chicago Human Rhythm Project (CHRP), the nonprofit behind Rhythm World, received a termination notice on May 2. '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,' the emailed notice stated. 'Consequently, we are terminating awards that fall outside these new priorities.' In and of itself, the notice was a moot point. CHRP had already received funding, distributed on a reimbursement basis, for the in-progress award that NEA cut short, according to Lane Alexander, founding director of CHRP. The award, in part, was used to fund last year's Rhythm World. The bigger question was what the notice meant for future funding, Alexander said. CHRP starts planning Rhythm World a year in advance, said Jumaane Taylor, its artistic director. Organizers need the time to arrange programming and especially funding. 'It takes months of finding the money for it,' Taylor said. 'You know, how are we going to pay for all of this?' For this summer's Rhythm World — originally a $165,000 venture — CHRP had applied and planned for NEA funding to cover about $30,000, some 18%, of total festival expenses, Alexander said. However, after the upheaval in May, the status of that hopeful funding was left uncertain. CHRP has reached out to NEA for clarification but, to date, has only received a short response from the endowment saying funding was still under evaluation. NEA did not return multiple requests for comment. When Taylor, who's been CHRP's artistic director since 2021, heard about the NEA cuts hitting home, he took a step back for an hour or two and worked out what he was feeling in the dance studio, he said. Born and raised on the city's South Side, Taylor, 39, started tap dancing when he was 7 years old. He was first introduced to CHRP as a student at 13, he said. Now tasked with directing Rhythm World, Taylor found himself deciding how he could still authentically and proudly put on the festival despite frozen NEA funding this year. It took some fine-tuning, he said. In light of uncertain funding, CHRP canceled all festival programming originally scheduled from July 9-13. That meant cutting an opening concert at the Jazz Showcase, one of the city's oldest jazz clubs, in the Loop, a free concert at the DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center and a slate of master classes. Instead, the nonprofit abbreviated the festival to a second week of master instruction plus three performances. But ultimately, what was important was ensuring that less funding didn't entail a lesser product, Taylor said. 'Even if (the festival) does have to be scaled down a couple of years,' he said, 'at least we're all up here at the top putting our best efforts forward.' Sarah Savelli, a performing artist in this year's Rhythm World, lingered at the Studebaker long after Tuesday's performance ended. Attending the festival since she was a teenager, Savelli, 48, said every time she returns gives her 'warm fuzzies.' From the get-go, Savelli wasn't slated to be a part of any canceled programming this year but feeling the weight of NEA cuts, even tangentially, was sobering, she said. 'Many of these organizations are built on these donations and they've just grown to expect it. Their seasons are already planned, people have commitments,' she said. 'You're just left with, what do you do?' Seeing Rhythm World press on despite it all, though, is encouraging, Savelli said. 'These moments, this connection, this feeling,' she said, 'is why we all do it.' Other Chicago area arts organizations echo the sentiment. In January, the NEA announced that Midnight Circus, a beloved Chicago company that promotes theater and circus arts, had received a $20,000 grant. The award was poised to help the nonprofit underwrite the costs of this year's tour of performances, set to start in September, so that ticket prices could remain affordable, according to Jeff Jenkins, the circus' founder and executive director. Where that funding stands is unclear. Though Midnight Circus didn't receive a formal termination notice per se, the nonprofit hasn't been able to discern whether pending grant dollars will come through, Jenkins said. The nonprofit has been operating under the assumption that they won't. With the money crucial to ensuring that programming, which Midnight Circus intentionally brings to underserved audiences, stays accessible, the nonprofit decided it wouldn't take the loss lying down, Jenkins said. Instead, the circus turned to the community, making up the dollars lost through a fundraising campaign. Still, there's the looming possibility that cuts are long-standing, especially after a few difficult post-pandemic years, Jenkins said. In 2023, a change in eligibility requirements for arts programs to receive Chicago Park District funding and resources as well as additional permit fees forced Midnight Circus to cut back programming. 'If that NEA money is gone for good, that is additional funds we're going to have to raise,' Jenkins said. 'It's hard for a small arts organization. We're a mom-and-pop shop. … So it's a huge amount of pressure. (But) as we say, the show will go on.' Also charging ahead despite withdrawn NEA funding is the Hyde Park Jazz Festival. The free two-day festival, in its 19th year, was counting on $30,000 from the NEA to finance artist fees for this year's event, set for Sept. 27-28. That is, before the festival received a withdrawal notice in May, according to Kay Dumbleton, its executive and artistic director. Dumbleton said $32,000 accounts for just under 30% of the festival's artist fee budget. Losing that money, she said, was a 'gut punch.' To manage the loss, Dumbleton shaved off expenses, took on extra work and combined powers with other area organizations so the show, like Midnight Circus, could go on. But Dumbleton is also weary of what a future without as much NEA support looks like. 'People will muddle through this year, but it's the future that's really challenging,' she said. 'To take that kind of percentage out of your budget year after year.' Cuts are 'being deeply felt by our communities,' said Andrew Schneider, senior director of government affairs for Arts Alliance Illinois. 'The key words that keep coming up in our conversations are devastating, catastrophic. … It's our belief that art is not a luxury, so we're losing important infrastructure to ensure that everyone can benefit from the arts,' Schneider said. 'And it is extremely difficult.' And yet, he's resolute. '(While) we're dealing with the devastation and feelings of catastrophe … (we're) picking ourselves up, dusting each other off and moving forward,' Schneider said. On Monday, House Republicans released draft fiscal 2026 funding legislation for the Department of the Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency and related agencies, including the NEA. Under the bill, the NEA would get about $135 million, a 35% cut for the agency. After watching CHRP's opening performance Tuesday night, Win found herself thinking about what her family missed out on with a shortened Rhythm World this year. '(The arts are) the heartbeat of a community,' she said, pausing to look at her two kids, the three of them standing in the foyer of the Studebaker. 'Anybody being able to express themselves through the arts,' she said, 'is so important.'
Metropolis Japan
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Metropolis Japan
Gary Bartz Quintet
In 2024, he will be appointed an 'NEA Jazz Master,' the highest honor for jazz artists, by the National Endowment for the Arts. Jazz saxophone legend Gary Bartz will appear at Blue Note Tokyo with his own quintet. Since the 1960s, he has performed with masters such as Max Roach, Charles Mingus, Art Blakey and Miles Davis, and has appeared as a guest on over 45 solo albums and over 200 works. In recent years, he has collaborated with talented musicians in the contemporary scene, such as Ali Shahid Muhammad and Adrian Younge's 'Jazz Is Dead' series and the UK jazz funk band Mysha. He appeared with up-and-coming members such as Mark Carey and Kassa Overall on NPR's popular series 'Tiny Desk Concerts,' which became a hot topic. Bartz is still at the forefront, and his legend is not over. Showtimes: August 2 – 3: [1st] Open 3:30pm Start 4:30pm [2nd] Open 6:30pm Start 7:30pm August 4: [1st] Open 5pm Start 6pm [2nd] Open 7:45pm Start 8:30pm Blue Note Official Website
