Milwaukee Arts Groups Suffer Federal Funding Cuts

Milwaukee Repertory Theater presents Espejos: Clean in the Stiemke Studio, April 8 – May 11, 2025. Pictured: Dylan Brown as Sarah and Regina Carregha as Adriana. Photo by Michael Brosilow.

On May 2, the Milwaukee Repertory Theater received an email from the National Endowment for the Arts with this message:

“This is to inform you that the above referenced National Endowment for the Arts award has been terminated, effective May 31, 2025.

“The NEA is updating its grantmaking policy priorities to focus funding on projects that reflect the nation’s rich artistic heritage and creativity as prioritized by the President.”

The Rep had been awarded $20,000 to support its production Espejos: Clean, a unique show written in both English and Spanish, but in a clever way that is understandable to audiences who speak either language. Urban Milwaukee reviewer Dominique Paul Noth praised the show as a “technically polished… clash of cultures.”

The cancellation letter arrived nearly four weeks after the show opened and less than a week before it closed, which could hardly have been worse timing for The Rep.

“We were disappointed to learn of the loss of our NEA grant for Espejos: Clean,” said Chad Bauman, Executive Director of Milwaukee Rep, in a statement to Urban Milwaukee. “NEA funding was already committed and tied to expenses already incurred, leaving us short critical resources in the final month of our fiscal year. This was an unexpected challenge, as we had full faith and confidence in a commitment made by the United States government through the National Endowment.”

Across the country, hundreds of arts groups received emails like the one to The Rep notifying them of the withdrawal and termination of their grants. “The updates, which came from a generic ‘arts.gov‘ email address, appeared in grantees’ inboxes just hours after President Trump proposed eliminating the agency entirely from the federal budget,” as National Public Radio reported. In Milwaukee, at least five other arts groups besides The Rep had their grants rescinded. They include:

 –Woodland Pattern: $25,000; To support programming in the literary arts

–ArtWorks for Milwaukee: $10,000; Arts Education

–First Stage Milwaukee: $20,000; Program Support

–Lynden Sculpture Garden: $20,000; Sculpture Garden

–Present Music: $10,000; American composer commission and concert

Sources have said the three other groups lost grants, including $50,000 awarded to the UW-Milwaukee Peck School of the Arts, to create a new dance work, “Care: Illuminating Milwaukee’s Queer and Trans Vogue Dance Community;” $30,000 to  Ko-Thi Dance Company; and $10,000 to Latino Arts Inc., for its Day of the Dead exhibition. Urban Milwaukee could not confirm its this was true as these groups did not respond to a request for comment.

“The sudden termination of NEA awards for literary arts organizations—and across the arts and culture sector—shows the Trump administration’s desire to restrict free speech and expression in the United States,” said Jenny Gropp, co-executive director of Woodland Pattern. “This move is a reprehensible attack on democracy and an attempt to stifle the openly creative innovation that keeps democracy vital in favor of totalitarian propaganda.”

The email canceling the grants stated that the NEA would now offer funding according to President Trump’s priorities: “Projects that elevate the Nation’s HBCUs and Hispanic Serving Institutions, celebrate the 250th anniversary of American independence, foster AI 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.”

That may be the strangest mission statement for “arts” funding ever drafted. And if Hispanic Serving Institutions is a priority, why cancel the Rep’s show with exactly that emphasis or a grant to Latino Arts Inc.?

Polly Morris, executive director of the Lynden Sculpture Garden, told Urban Milwaukee that her group and some others were able to recoup much of the money lost. “Even if your grant is rescinded, they will reimburse you for expenses incurred through June 30. But you have to get your reimbursement form in by the end of this week. We put in for an earlier round of reimbursements and got some expenses covered.”

Gropp notes that Woodland Pattern, too, was able to recoup much of the grant money cancelled.

But for Jeff Frank, executive director of First Stage children’s theater, its entire $20,000 grant will be lost because it was planned for after June 30. “It’s a project we spent more than two years planning,” he notes, an immersive theatre and audio experience intended to use sounds from Milwaukee entitled “Society of Historic Sonic Happenings.”

Now, he says, “I don’t know if the project has a future. It’s on hold for now.”

Gropp noted it will soon get much tougher to get any money, as the new NEA priorities would not fit anything Woodland Pattern does. She estimates the loss next year for her group will be about $40,000.

All of which may be a light preview of tougher times to come as Trump is pushing to terminate the NEA and National Endowment for Humanities in his proposed budget bill. “We may be going into a zero funding situation,” Morris noted.

Since its founding by Congress in 1965, the NEA has awarded $5.5 billion in grants. It is the largest arts funder in the U.S. — yet one of the smallest federal agencies, with just over $200 million funded per year. According to an NEA fact sheet from 2022, the agency’s funding amounts to 0.003% of the total federal budget.

Over its half-century of funding its grants “have sparked the creation of new artwork; taught generations of children the power of creativity; preserved our artistic heritage; and brought the arts to stages, movie screens, television sets, and public spaces around the country,” the federal agency has noted. “The NEA’s history is inextricably linked with the American cultural canon, and has helped shape the diverse cultural landscape this country enjoys today.”

All of which may soon — poof — disappear.