Black arts institutions cut NEA funds, facing a tough future

This spring, the National Arts Fund (NEA) announced that it would withdraw funds from art organizations across the country. Art is the latest division in the Chopper neighborhood as part of a broader effort to cut down on the Trump administration’s administration’s administration’s spending.

For many arts institutions, this is especially what it means to serve the black community, and it is an unstable future. In New York City alone, between 2000 and 2016, $233 million in NEA funds benefited all five boroughs, allocating a large amount of space to black, Latino and working-class communities.

Yet even as black art museums and organizations struggle, the largest U.S. institutions continue to flourish: The Metropolitan College of Arts and Clothing recently raised a historic $31 million on its annual MET Gala theme with a “Black Dudaism,” a habit that is a historic, rooted in a boycott of black codes and class exclusion from metal dress.

The juxtaposition is arousing popularity when elite institutions show up from an increasing number of black aesthetics, underfunded black organizations face an existential threat.

“The reality is that many of our institutions have been on the threat of closing our doors and/or reducing the show to survive.” Artnews. “Most of us have staffed over their capacity for a long time, and many of us have no uncertainty periods of cash reserves or endowment funds.”

Quite large donations, profitable sponsorship deals and wealthy private donors are reliable sources of funding for the largest museum in the United States, and they can help these institutions address financial challenges. But these are safety nets that many black art institutions do not have. These organizations were among the first to suffer the most when they cut NEA funds.

Mocada is not the only black-led agency that feels stressed. Hue, an organization that advocates for black artists and other cultural workers of color, received the Federal Academy of Museums and Library Services (three-year grants, totaling more than $545,000) and the NEA (total $75,000 grants).

Although the former has been overturned due to the interim injunction, the appeal is still available, the Museum Hue was able to complete the NEA grant requirement and receive full spending before the termination notice.

The withdrawal, while not requiring the organization to return funds, means that the museum’s tone will no longer be eligible for renewal or expansion of grants in future cycles, cutting off critical institutional support for its programming.

“These losses are painful, frustrating and distracting, although the museum’s tones can find solace and solidarity among many other affected organizations in the area,” Stephanie Johnson-Cunningham, the museum’s executive director, told The Museum’s Executive Director Artnews.

When the NEA policy shift occurred, others, such as Billie Holiday Theatre, were in a unique position. The theater was in the final year of its multi-year funding grant and received an expedited closure to receive a final payment of $30,000 for the project. Last year, it has applied for two open NEA funding rounds, but has received no response.

NEA is the main source of funding for the Billie’s Black Arts Initiative (BBAI), a program created for recent art and theater school graduates, as well as emerging professional actors who are seeking a deeper understanding and training in the American Black Theatre Canon.

Billie Holiday Theatre executive director Shadawn N. Smith told Shadawn N. Artnews. “The program model costs $70,000 to $75,000 per year to execute,” the figure is for its program supervisor, lecturer fees, field trips, performance tickets and other overhead costs.

In response to the withdrawal of NEA support, these black art platforms are not idle. For example, the Association of African American Museums (AAAM) located in DC has taken action.

AAAM President and CEO Vedet Coleman-Robinson told EDET Coleman-Robinson that he told AAAM President and CEO Vedet Coleman-Robinson that our direct response was dual. First, we are working to determine which members of ours have been affected,” AAAM President and CEO Vedet Coleman-Robinson told Artnews. “Secondly, we have been actively interacting with members of Congress, advocating for these museums and cultural organizations – many of whom have received funds through formal, signed contracts. These are not hypothetical grants; they are funds that our members rely on.”

The relationship between major museums and smaller black art institutions can be defined by a one-time collaboration, always lacking long-term goals or cross-institutional imagination.

In the 1980s, Metropolitan Metropolitan held a small community exhibition at Restoration Square (where Billy is located). Fast forward to 2025, and the Metropolitan Education Department has selected Billie as its second community partner to host the conversation for its current fashion show, Super Elf.

“There is no other collaboration between the Metropolitan and Billy. Billy has no relationship with cultural organizations and theaters that are mostly white-led,” Smith said.

“For our 49-year history, we have been connecting with larger elite institutions with one-time programs, but mainly performative or for diversity visibility purposes,” said Melody Capote, director of the African Expatriate Institute (CCCADI), the Caribbean Cultural Center. “We prefer long-term intentional, task-aligned programming, representational equality in resource allocation, decision-making processes and cultural capital.”

Although major museums have said over the past few years that they will support black art institutions, some leaders of these organizations say their recent NEA cuts feel isolated, and their more financially stable colleagues are not there to help them.

Like black fashion, black art is entangled with the material conditions that shape it (racial capitalism, apartheid). Often excluded from white-dominated institutional spaces (games, museums, global markets), black art flourished on the edge, stitched into the structure of the community, merged with the black power movement aesthetics as a tool of liberation.

Historically, local black art funds were obtained from communities, churches, mutual aid, self-sufficiency, informal economic and political movements. Kerry James Marshall and Noah Purifoy gained local fame in Chicago and Los Angeles, respectively, before receiving reviews at the largest museum in the United States. Recognizing this trend, some artists even built their own space: Married Los Angeles artists Noah Davis and Karon Davis formed the Underground Museum in 2012 in Arlington Heights, a large community of black and Latino people.

But despite supporting generations of black artists, black art spaces often struggle to thrive due to gentrification, financial instability and institutional neglect.

For some, the uneven terrain of art funding raises a larger and more uncomfortable question: Is there an obligation to redistribute their wealth and resources, especially under the banner of celebrating Black cultural heritage, especially when they are scattered? What would be a fairer, more responsible, more materially fair black fashion celebration, and what is art like, especially from the perspective of the community’s deeply entrenched black art institutions?

“Imagine how influence is directed to some of this funding to some of our local small and medium-sized organizations,” Capote said. “These major agencies need to use their platforms to highlight and enhance Black artists and organizations based on these communities and experiences that are doing this.”

During such times, black art spaces often put pressure on to act as counterweights to fill funding gaps. Andrieux believes that this approach fails to acknowledge how institutions like Mocada cultivated and committed to the artists in the early and ongoing development, long before being accepted by mainstream institutions. “There are less competency and manpower besides our work as community moderators and nursing centers,” she said.

In addressing funding differences, Andrieux proposed that major foundations and donors need to establish the right relationship with small and medium-sized institutions, the most well-known institutions, to understand their work and the communities they serve.

“Foundations and donors need to establish a mechanism to sustain our organization over the long term, thereby reducing the athletic environment and elevating the industry as a whole,” she said. “I invite them to go beyond the underwriting program and consider offering general operating dollars that fund one year’s overhead, staffing, research, experimentation or donation (such as what NYSCA is currently doing). This will change lives.”

The New York State Council on Arts may not be directly affected by the NEA budget cuts, but its operational flexibility provides general operational support rather than program-specific grants that can provide long-term sustainability for organizations that need it.

Aside from symbolic gestures, solidarity on social media, and the performance of diversity efforts, Coleman-Robinson believes that community service agencies like AAAM have a real opportunity to lead a call for a national accountability framework for equitable distribution of resources, ethical collaboration and long-term investment.

“Agencies often operate in silos, plan independently, and then scramble to develop programs for Black History Month as February approaches. While these efforts may come from a good place, we have the opportunity (and a responsibility) to do a more than just a checkbox,” she said. “We shouldn’t ask: We should ask: How do we support and enhance the work that African American museums and culturally specific institutions have done in our community? This should be rooted in partnerships rather than repeated conversations.”