When the email came on the evening of May 2, the subject line alone was enough to stop hearts in the offices of arts organizations across the country: “NEA Withdraws FY 2025 Grant.” For Boulder’s Motus Theater, the rescinded $35,000 wasn’t just a lost line item — it derailed a statewide tour of Youth Behind & Beyond Bars, a monologue series written by formerly incarcerated youth.
Without it, Motus must raise $70,000, the grant and match, to keep the tour alive.
“It’s disgusting,” says Motus Producing Executive Director Rita Valente-Quinn. “We have known since the inauguration that something like this could happen, but the lack of due process is appalling.”
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), founded in 1965 and funded at just 0.003% of the federal budget, has long been the nation’s most consistent public arts supporter. But in a wave of political maneuvering, it has once again become a cultural flashpoint.
President Trump’s proposed 2026 discretionary budget includes plans to eliminate the NEA, alongside other so-called “small agencies” like the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. According to the budget language, remaining funds would be used “for costs of orderly shutdowns.”
Hundreds of arts organizations — including at least eight in Colorado, according to CPR — have already seen their FY25 NEA grants rescinded. In Boulder County, both Motus Theater and Turning the Wheel Productions Inc. lost their federal funding. For both, the impact is more than just financial.
“When you cut the arts, you're saying something,” says Lauren Click, manager of the City of Boulder’s Office of Arts and Culture. “We talk about economic impact, but research from [economic and social impact study] Arts & Economic Prosperity 6 said 86% of Americans say that arts and culture are important to their community's quality of life and livability. You're cutting something essential to our humanity.”
Appeals unanswered
Both Boulder-based organizations filed appeals with the NEA, arguing their work aligned with the agency’s newly stated priorities, particularly the directive to “Make America Healthy Again.” But with no clear process and only seven days to respond, neither Motus nor Turning the Wheel has received a reply beyond an automated acknowledgment.
“The grant was already issued, so it’s just not appropriate to claw back money that’s already been given, especially to small organizations,” says Suzanne Palmer, national coordinator for Turning the Wheel, which operates in six cities across the country, including Boulder. “We’re in the $250,000 a year range, which is not a large annual budget, so that $10,000 grant really makes an impact.”
Fortunately, the organization’s canceled grant was rescued by emergency support from the New York City-based Warhol and Frankenthaler Foundations, which covered 80 rescinded NEA awards. But the loss still stung. “That money was meant to grow our work,” Palmer said. “Now, we’ll have to reallocate just to survive.”
Motus Theater wasn’t so lucky. Although private foundations and the City of Boulder helped fund the upcoming premiere of Youth Behind & Beyond Bars at the Boulder Public Library’s Canyon Theater on May 31, the full regional tour, originally slated for other stops across Boulder County, Colorado Springs and Denver, remains in jeopardy.
When the news of the NEA termination broke, Motus had just finished a new application for the next NEA funding cycle in April. They don’t expect to receive funding.
“He tried to kill the NEA the day he rescinded our grant,” Motus Artistic Executive Director Kirsten Wilson says. “There’s a naive hope that we’ll get it, but it doesn’t matter. We have integrity, so if we don’t, we’ll continue to support our country and community through our work.”
‘A real attempt to control the narrative’
The deeper harm of NEA cuts, according to many in Boulder’s arts ecosystem, goes beyond budgets. It indicates a deeper political threat.
“The NEA is small — just $207 million annually,” says Charlotte LaSasso, executive director of the Boulder County Arts Alliance. “This is hateful and unnecessary. It’s a horrible situation, and I feel betrayed by our leaders.”
While BCAA isn’t in a position to replace lost federal funding, LaSasso said the organization is working to support local artists through convenings and training opportunities. “We just had a workshop about budgeting in an unstable environment,” she said. “What gives me hope is that this will pass, but I’m concerned about how much damage will be done in the meantime.”
The Community Foundation Boulder County echoed the concern in a recent survey of local nonprofits. Of 96 respondents, more than 70% reported having six months or less of reserves. Diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, immigration policy, gender health and climate were the top four areas organizations feared would be affected.
Even those who received their NEA funding felt rattled. “The first thing I did when I heard about the cuts was transfer the money out of my account,” says Longmont poet Amber Adams, who was awarded a $25,000 creative writing fellowship. “I was afraid they’d take it back.”
Adams is using the grant to complete a poetry collection about her brother’s death in an avalanche while skiing in Japan. Though she did receive funding this cycle, she is concerned about what comes next.
“If you try to tell people what they should be making art about, you’re trying to create homogeneous art, which is antithetical to art,” she says. “If the NEA sticks around, I wonder about the next cohort. How will they decide who gets funding and who doesn’t?”
Several major agencies, including the office of Gov. Jared Polis, Colorado Creative Industries (the state’s designated arts agency), Create Boulder and the NEA itself, did not respond to requests for comment. The Scientific and Cultural Facilities District, which provides year-over-year general operating support to cultural organizations in seven Colorado counties, said in a written statement that funding will continue “during these uncertain times.”
Some emergency relief has emerged. On May 13, the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation launched a $400,000 Arts & Culture Rapid Response Grant for organizations facing revenue loss due to federal policy changes. Though Boulder is outside the foundation’s usual service area, Motus plans to apply.
For now, groups are doing what they can to adapt. But Wilson warns that without confronting the motivations behind these cuts, the losses will extend far beyond the stage.
“This is not some sidekick to the arts; it’s a real attempt to control the narrative, because without that, he can’t control power,” she says. “He is a man elected on the story he told, and when the story you tell is not based on truth at its foundation, then you must exert strict control of the narrative to maintain your power. … I believe in the power of the arts. I believe in the power of narrative. And right now, that power is under threat.”