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‘A huge shock to the system': Mass. arts and culture leaders react to Trump order to pause federal funding

Sebastian Belfanti, director of the West End Museum, which suffered severe water damage in 2022. Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Enter Email Sign Up In his first nine days in office, Trump has signed a flurry of executive orders aimed at reversing progressive policies on immigration; the environment; transgender rights; and diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI — areas that are commonly addressed through arts programming in Massachusetts. 'I'm not shocked that something like this is coming,' Belfanti said, regarding the funding freeze. 'Do I think that our project is probably going to get killed? Yeah, of course.' The proposed pause includes federal agencies like the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) — three prominent funders of local arts and culture nonprofits. According to data from the most recently available fiscal years, NEA promised Advertisement The new administration's stance is in contrast to the Biden White House, which encouraged funding art that shared 'the stories of those in underrepresented communities,' said Emily Ruddock, executive director of It's not just nonprofit arts organizations that are in a holding pattern. State agencies, like the 'Like all who receive federal funding, Mass Cultural Council is troubled by today's announcement and is actively seeking to learn and understand what steps may follow this decision,' Michael J. Bobbitt, the agency's executive director, said in a statement on Tuesday. 'While details are still emerging, we caution a long-term freeze in federal grant-making will significantly and negatively impact many in the Commonwealth's cultural sector.' Michael Bobbitt, executive director of the Mass Cultural Council, photographed in Roxbury before a tour of the OrigiNation Cultural Arts Center at Forest Hills. Josh Reynolds for The Boston Globe Grace Kennerly, executive director of the Jamaica Plain chamber orchestra Historically, a large portion Advertisement the Boston-based chorus and period instrument orchestra, was recently announced as a 2025 NEA grantee to the tune of $40,000 to help finance performances of 'Crossing the Deep,' a choral drama based on the history of the Atlantic slave trade during the time of one of the orchestra's namesakes, 18th-century composer George Frideric Handel. Spoken-word artist Regie Gibson performing in "Crossing the Deep" with the Handel and Haydn Society Chorus and Orchestra conducted by Anthony Trecek-King. Sam Brewer 'Any disruption to funding for the arts is concerning and destabilizing,' said H+H CEO David Snead in a statement. 'The potential loss of $40,000 from NEA to produce 'Crossing the Deep' limits our ability to provide Boston audiences with programming that connects us all with our shared humanity. When public funding is uncertain, we are forced to fill that gap with private contributions. We are monitoring the situation and hope this funding pause is just that.' Bobbitt of Mass Cultural Council is optimistic arts funding will be sustained. 'We are hopeful the Trump Administration's review of federal spending will be expeditious and any and all previously committed funds are delivered without long delay,' he said. But Trump's track record on arts funding hints toward a different outcome. In every year of the president's first term, he proposed a federal budget that 'The zeroing out of the NEA felt largely symbolic from the Trump administration. However, that was under a different Congress,' said Ruddock. 'It's very hard to be able to estimate what the next moves will be.' Advertisement Julian E.J. Sorapuru is an Arts Reporter at the Globe and can be reached at