The Chicago Latino Theater Alliance every fall levels a theater pageant throughout Latino Heritage Month.
The organizers deliberate this yr on a $20,000 grant from the Nationwide Endowment for the Arts (NEA), probably the most distinguished federal arts funder. The grant was submitted and authorized, however with a rash of latest pointers coming from the Trump administration round arts funding — together with a prohibition on utilizing federal monies for applications supporting “range, fairness, and inclusion (DEI) that violate any relevant federal anti-discrimination legal guidelines” — it’s unclear whether or not or not the funds promised will truly be delivered.
“Existence is resistance,” stated Jorge Valdivia, govt director of the Alliance. “That’s what that is feeling like now, and it mustn’t really feel that approach.”
Tarah Ortiz Durnbaugh, the manager director of the Hyde Park College of Dance, is apprehensive, too, regardless that the dance college’s grant for 2025 additionally has acquired preliminary approval of moneys to to fund free dance courses for South Facet seniors and refugees to the town.
Durnbaugh chooses her phrases fastidiously, her ideas on the matter interrupted with pregnant pauses. “There’s not a variety of confidence that that cash will come by … .”
There’s been a variety of hesitancy, uncertainty — even outright worry — amongst many within the Chicago performing arts neighborhood, after the NEA introduced a raft of latest guidelines. Amongst them: getting rid of $10,000 Problem America grants for small arts organizations tailor-made to profit underserved communities.
Any group that’s utilized for a Problem America grant for 2026 should now reapply for a extra common grant that doesn’t emphasize the arts-deprived element, the NEA stated in its current announcement. The company goes additional, saying, “the NEA continues to encourage initiatives that remember the nation’s wealthy inventive heritage and creativity by honoring the semiquincentennial of the USA of America.” The hassle is a part of the America250 fee, an FAQ says, designed to advertise the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
In response to new pointers, three different areas of precedence are: initiatives that originate in Traditionally Black Faculties and Universities; efforts that help well being and well-being of communities; and “technology-centered artistic practices,” together with work that explores synthetic intelligence.
A spokeswoman for the NEA stated in an e-mail this week to the Solar-Occasions that the grant utility modifications are merely about streamlining on the company.
“This variation to Problem America will enable the NEA to extra effectively course of grant functions this yr. Beneath Grants for Arts Initiatives, the NEA will proceed to help glorious arts initiatives of all types, together with these serving rural, city, suburban, and tribal communities of all sizes, and those who interact with people whose alternatives to expertise and take part within the arts are restricted,” stated the spokeswoman, Elizabeth Auclair.
Nonetheless, in a number of instances, the brand new compliance necessities demand that theaters not do the precise work they had been based to do.
Chicago’s About Face Theatre, which levels LGBTQ tales, acquired a 2025 grant to help a free theater pageant. Government director Megan Carney is uncertain whether or not or not this grant shall be delivered. However she is bound About Face is not going to apply for funding once more subsequent yr. The brand new pointers state candidates shall be out of compliance in the event that they use funds to “promote gender ideology.”
“We can’t comply,” stated Carney. “We’re not going to have the ability to affirmatively say we’ll adjust to these orders due to our mission alone. Our mission is to advance LGBTQ-plus fairness by neighborhood constructing, schooling and efficiency.”
Carney stated the necessities would undo the essence of every little thing About Face stands for.
Arts organizations in Illinois have acquired preliminary approval for a complete of about $1.9 million in 2025 NEA grants, together with $150,000 in Problem America cash. In 2024, the only largest NEA grant in Illinois — about $1.1 million — went to the Illinois Arts Council, which helps help arts actions statewide.
That state arts council issued a quick assertion in response to questions on modifications on the NEA: “We’re nonetheless within the means of understanding updates with the NEA and can preserve our constituents apprised as we be taught extra.”
Durnbaugh stated fears in regards to the Trump administration’s priorities transcend whether or not promised grant cash won’t arrive. A number of the conversations she stated she’s noticed in “non-profit, arts-heavy” social media circles concern a reluctance to even apply for cash — “Not due to an unlikelihood of getting the funding however due to disclosing that a lot about your group to the federal government right now.”
However some within the native arts scene have a extra wait-and-see angle.
“It does really feel like there’s a variety of chaos, making an attempt to get folks riled up, making an attempt to scare folks, making an attempt to distract folks. As an arts chief, the most effective factor you are able to do is preserve your ft planted on the bottom and preserve your eyes centered on what you’re doing,” stated Kia Smith, founder and director of imaginative and prescient and technique for South Chicago Dance Theatre, an expert firm that’s awaiting a $15,000 NEA grant for 2025.
Tyrone Phillips, founding inventive director of Definition Theatre, who’s presently co-producing “Fats Ham” with the Goodman Theatre supported by a $25,000 NEA grant, stated his group has no plans to cease making use of for federal funding.
“There’s a accountability on each side,” stated Phillips. “The federal government and ourselves ought to be in dialog about what we’re doing. We’re a service group. On the finish of the day, we serve folks. So we are able to’t lose. Now we have to double, if not triple down.”
Phillips stated Definition serves the neighborhood by theater and feels the federal government ought to help that work, as a result of it’s a public service. He does nonetheless, make one very particular distinction: “There ought to by no means be authorities management of the artwork. We’re speaking about help.”
