Franklin County arts organizations are worried about the future funding landscape after hearing about cuts the Trump administration is proposing to the National Endowment for the Arts.

In his proposed budget for fiscal year 2026, President Donald Trump has recommended eliminating the NEA as part of targeted cuts to programs conflicting with the administration’s priorities, according to a letter by Russell Vought, director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.

“The budget includes the elimination of, or the elimination of federal funding for, the following small agencies — consistent with the president’s efforts to decrease the size of the federal government to enhance accountability, reduce waste and reduce unnecessary governmental entities,” Vought wrote in a line item description for the NEA, Institute of Museum and Library Services and other similar entities, totaling about $3.59 billion. “Past Trump administration budgets have also supported these eliminations.”

Artspace Community Arts Center at 15 Mill St. in Greenfield is the only arts organization in the city to have received federal funding through the NEA. Artspace received a $10,000 Challenge America matching grant in December 2023 for group and solo artist exhibits at the gallery.

“It helped us pay for new exhibition materials. We got new lights in our gallery to really show off our local artists’ work in the best way possible. We got some other important odds and ends, hardware,” said Artspace Director Madeline Miller, adding that the grant also allowed the gallery to offer modest stipends to the artists, among other additions and programs.

Miller was surprised to receive a letter from the NEA on May 2 announcing that the $10,000 grant to Artspace would be formally terminated on May 31, 2025. Miller explained that, despite this announcement, Artspace had already received the reimbursement from the NEA within the last month, allowing for all funding obligations to be met. At this time, they’ve not received notification that the money needs to be returned.

When Miller received the grant termination notice, she said she was confused by the note that said, “Your project, as noted below, unfortunately does not align with these priorities,” since when Artspace applied for the grant in July 2023, the project was deemed eligible.

As noted in the termination notice, the NEA seeks to prioritize funding projects that “elevate the nation’s [Historically Black Colleges and Universities] and Hispanic-serving institutions, celebrate the 250th anniversary of American independence, foster [artificial intelligence] competency, empower houses of worship to serve 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.”

Miller applied for another grant for $37,500 to support an after-school ceramics program for underserved youth through the NEA’s Grants for Arts Projects program, though this was never followed up on by the agency. Miller said “it just doesn’t seem like they care about that.” Despite this federal match becoming unavailable, Miller said Artspace will continue with its planned summer program — just without the added federal support.

Miller said Artspace is concerned for the future opportunities to secure federal funding and what this changing landscape could mean for the arts going forward.

“Federal support and state support are essential in equitable and democratic participation in the arts, and the arts should not be just for people who can afford to go to pay to participate,” Miller said. “It closes future doors that we were working really hard to open on behalf of our fellow arts organizations. We really hoped that being the first organization to get NEA funding in Greenfield would crack the door for our colleagues in town, and my heart just bleeds for our colleague organizations whose grant cuts are impacting them more directly and immediately.”

In Ashfield, Double Edge Theatre was awarded a $100,000 grant from the NEA in 2023 to support performances, storytelling events and exhibits hosted jointly by Double Edge and the Ohketeau Cultural Center, a Native American-run cultural organization. Executive Director Adam Bright said the grant was a reimbursement, requiring Double Edge Theatre to fund and complete the work by a June 2025 deadline to receive the funding.

Like Artspace, Double Edge Theatre had completed the scope of the work necessary for the grant, which included offering a residency for an Indigenous artist and developing The Ohketeau-DE Indigenous Performance Laboratory, which involves producing original Native American performances.

Double Edge Theatre and the Ohketeau Cultural Center, hoped to apply for future grants to continue celebrations of Indigenous culture through the arts. They had received their NEA reimbursement, Bright said, and then they learned about the cuts.

“Double Edge Theatre closed out all of its direct federal contracts earlier this year and so do not have any currently awarded funds frozen,” Bright said. “That said, we are looking at catastrophic losses in the coming months on programs that have been canceled that we either applied for or have typically relied on annually. The dismantling of federal support will be felt deeply in our communities that we serve.”

Bright said Double Edge Theatre has not been asked to return the grant funding, and he hopes the government does not pursue trying to regain grant money that has already been spent. While the future of federal funding is uncertain, he said Double Edge Theatre will need to lean more on community support, and asked anyone who believes in the arts to contact their legislators to urge them to fight back against these cuts.

“We’re gonna need all the help we can get,” Bright said.