Latest news with #NationalEndowmentfortheArts'
Los Angeles Times
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
South Coast Repertory loses $20k grant after NEA changes priorities
Richard Soto and Richard Doyle in South Coast Repertory's 2022 production of 'A Christmas Carol,' by Charles Dickens, adapted by Jerry Patch. South Coast Repertory announced Tuesday it lost a $20,000 federal grant for a play on the day the theater company was celebrating its opening night due to a change in the National Endowment for the Arts' grant-making priorities. The Costa Mesa-based theater company was notified Friday that its National Endowment for the Arts grant for 'The Staircase' by Noa Gardner was being withdrawn. The grant did not finance the entire production, South Coast Repertory Managing Director Suzanne Appel told City News Service. But the grant 'supports quite a lot of the work of the skilled technicians,' who work on the production, she said. The $20,000 'is not anywhere close to the full cost of the project or even a tenth of the full cost, but it is a meaningful amount of money,' Appel said. The company was told Nov. 7 it would receive the grant. 'We were told we did everything we needed to do and the grant was in process, and then we received this notification with no warning,' Appel said. South Coast Repertory has been given a chance to appeal the denial in a week, Appel said, adding the theater company intends to appeal the denial. In the notice of withdrawal of the grant, the theater company was told that the arts agency was 'updating its grant-making 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 NEA will now prioritize projects that elevate the nation's (historically Black colleges and universities) and Hispanic Serving Institutions, celebrate the 250th anniversary of American independence, foster AI competency, empower houses of worship to service 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. Funding is being allocated in a new direction in furtherance of the administration's agenda.' Gardner's story focuses on a native Hawaiian family and was commissioned, developed and staged by South Coast Repertory. South Coast Repertory officials say it celebrates native Hawaiian culture and is a 'universal story of familial love and obligations...'
Yahoo
19-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Opinion: Will Trump's ‘Garden of Heroes' Become an Act of Government Villainy?
We treated it like a joke, another grandiose plan promoted by Donald Trump that would go nowhere. But it turns out he was serious when he stood at Mount Rushmore in July 2020 to fervently propose 'a vast outdoor park that will feature the statues of the greatest Americans to ever live.' Since then, we've had our fun imagining the occupants of Trump's sculpture garden: How about tough-guy lawyer Roy Cohn, well-endowed golfer Arnold Palmer, Hannibal Lecter—maybe even Robert E. Lee, although there's a law now against building anything new to honor a confederate. But then Trump is flouting norms and laws left, right and center so good night and good luck. (There is also an unwritten rule that statues commemorate the dead, not the living, though Trump will surely find a way to be in the company of those he envisions in his sculpture garden.) The time for joking is over. Trump's National Garden of American Heroes—which he has vowed will 'teach our children to know that they live in a land of legends'—is on its way to becoming a reality when we celebrate the nation's 250th birthday in July 2026. Members of the National Endowment for the Humanities were reportedly aghast when told that Trump had ordered a portion of the agency's grant money re-directed to fund the sculpture project 'as expeditiously as possible,' Trump's executive order noted. (Portions of the National Endowment for the Arts' budgets were also reallocated thusly.) Spending big to fund a gaudy tourist attraction while slashing grants for cancer studies and firing federal workers en masse is bad enough. But even assuming the sculpture garden is a done deal, under Trump's rule we have no idea how the selection process for the figures it will feature will be organized—or if the president will consent to a selection process at all, when he could just pick his favorites. Perhaps even wield the chisel? 'This is an historical site being built with taxpayer dollars and there's no indication thus far on how these individuals will be chosen,' said historian James Grossman, noting the apparent absence of any consultation with professional historians. 'It could be useful if it opened up discussion in schools around the country of what is a hero? Who is a hero?' Grossman suggested. But discussion is not what Trump wants. 'He thinks there's only one way to interpret history and it's one where he situates himself in (it),' Grossman told The Daily Beast. 'He and his followers see themselves as saving us from a future which is divisive and honors knowledge.' Trump's sculpture garden will tell America's story one way or another. Will he embrace the fullness of the country, or will he demand an imagined history in which he is among the greatest of the greats? The grand plan currently envisions 250 statues at a cost of between $100,000 and $200,000 each to design and build. An initial list of candidates included in an executive order signed by Trump in January 2021 featured (mostly) non-controversial figures across politics, culture and sports: George Washington, Martin Luther King Jr., Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Sacagawea, Neil Armstrong, Babe Ruth, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Humphrey Bogart and the Wright brothers among them. Retired Army brigadier general Ty Seidule, vice-chair of the Naming Commission which selected ten new heroes for army bases previously named for confederate generals (and author of the book 'A Promise Delivered' about that process), offered more insight into what makes a person's legacy worthy of note. 'Are we going to reflect what America looks like today, or will we celebrate the return of white rule?' Seidule told the Daily Beast, noting Trump's view—and platforming—of a country where white men and their cultural values are revered, while multiculturalism is rejected. 'Who we commemorate reflects our values,' Seidule continued. 'In a hundred years, historians of memory will look back at who we honor today with statues— and will say that sports heroes reflect our values. They seem to have more statues than anyone.' Sports figures bring us together. There's Babe Ruth, yes. Muhammad Ali. Serena Williams. Lou Gehrig. Jesse Owens. Michael Phelps. Trump has his golf idols—Palmer, yes, and Tiger Woods, who's at this point just a few steps from family. Maybe Tom Brady? But knowing how he likes to foster division, he's likely to go back to his long-held grievances and prejudices. He signed a 'restoring truth' executive order last month that calls for the reinstatement of monuments and memorials removed for ideological reasons. In other words, he won't rest until he restores Confederate traitors back on a pedestal.
