UPDATED, with additional comment: The National Endowment for the Arts has revised its guidelines for arts grants, placing funding priority on those projects “that celebrate and honor the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.”
The revisions to the fiscal year 2026 grants, announced Thursday, were in response to “recent directives,” the NEA said in an announcement.
“Under the updated guidelines, the NEA continues to encourage projects that celebrate the nation’s rich artistic heritage and creativity by honoring the semiquincentennial of the United States of America (America250),” the NEA said. The applicants “can include incorporating an America250-related component or focus within a larger project.”
Donald Trump has directed a review of federal spending programs, as well as restrictions on any diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the government.
The NEA also canceled another grant program, Challenge America. That program had an emphasis on “small organizations for projects that extend the reach of the arts to underserved groups/communities.”
The NEA was established in 1965 and distributes grants to nonprofit arts organizations, public arts agencies and colleges and universities, in disciplines ranging from theater to music to fine arts. It received a federal appropriation of about $207 million in 2024.
Axios first reported on the change to its grant program.
Jamie Bennett, co-interim CEO at the advocacy group Americans for the Arts, said that the change in preference guidelines is not unusual, and that there had been some talk of the 250th celebration even during Joe Biden’s administration. “I don’t think this is a hair-on-fire moment,” he said of the grant changes. He also noted that the cancellation of the grant program was a move to make the system more efficient, given that the NEA has been receiving more applications but has fewer staffers to handle them.
That said, Bennett acknowledged the concerns about funding throughout the federal government, as Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency works through federal agencies.
Trump signed an executive order last month establishing a task force to plan 250th anniversary commemorations, with the chair of the NEA and the chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities among its members. Trump has not yet named his nominees to run the endowments. In his first term, his administration proposed zeroing out federal arts funding, but Congress kept it in government spending bills.
