Artists protest new NEA restrictions

Hundreds of artists signed a letter sent to the National Endowment for the Arts asking it to reverse policy changes made as a result of recent executive orders issued by President Donald Trump.

“We oppose this betrayal of the Endowment’s mission to ‘foster and sustain an environment in which the arts benefit everyone in the United States’,” the letter said.

Annie Dorsen, a New York-based writer and theater director who spearheaded the effort, shared the letter with NPR. She said it was signed by 463 artists from a wide variety of disciplines, including playwrights Lynn Nottage and Paula Vogel.

“Trump and his enablers may use doublespeak to claim that support for artists of color amounts to ‘discrimination’ and that funding the work of trans and women artists promotes ‘gender ideology’ (whatever that is). But we know better: the arts are for and represent everybody. We can’t give that up,” the letter said.

Dorsen told NPR she sent the letter privately to the NEA on Tuesday morning. She also shared it with The New York Times, which was the first to report on it.

In an email to NPR, a spokesperson for the NEA said, “It is my understanding that no person at the NEA has received the letter as described in your email. However, Presidential executive orders have the full force and effect of law and within the Executive Branch must be implemented consistent with applicable law. The National Endowment for the Arts is a federal agency and will fully comply with the law.”

Calling for a rollback of compliance rules

The letter specifically called for the NEA to roll back compliance rules for the Grants for Arts Projects, which now require applicants to abide by two executive orders issued by Trump. One states applicants should not “operate any programs promoting ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ that violate any applicable federal anti-discrimination laws”; the other, which targets transgender and other LGBTQ+ arts programming, states that federal grants must not be used to “promote gender ideology,” with reference to an executive order recognizing only “two sexes, male and female.”

NPR attended an NEA workshop Tuesday afternoon for arts groups planning to apply for grants. Questions were not taken in the session, but had to be sent in advance. No mention was made of the new restrictions in the Q&A session.

“ The First Amendment is one of the most cherished principles that this country was founded on. And we all like to think of this being a country where artists have the right to self expression, as we all do,” said Dorsen. “So this action by the NEA is more than concerning, because it seems to suggest that through these sort of weird executive orders and the applications of them to certain agencies, that freedom is being taken away bit by bit.”

The letter comes amid a growing number of artist-led protests against the Trump administration. They include one involving dancers in Washington, D.C., in connection with Trump dismissing leaders of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and making himself chair.

“ The issue is not over now that we’ve sent this letter,” Dorsen said. “It’s a signal to them that we know what’s happening and we’re not staying silent about it.”

Edited by Jennifer Vanasco.

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