A late-night email from the National Endowment for the Arts sent TheatreWorks staff members into a frenzy on May 2.
The National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency that supports and provides funds for the arts, art education and fellowships to individual actors, writers or musicians across the country, pulled out TheatreWorks’ current Susan Fairbrook Core Writers Group grant for not following the current administration’s stance on removing diversity, equity or inclusion (DEI) commitments.
Giovanna Sardelli, the artistic director of TheatreWorks since July 2023, said many theaters across the country have received emails in the last few weeks from the Trump administration that said funding has been cut. Sardelli said it is not worth compromising their core values for money. She said that their application for the federal grant is different every year and the current one went toward supporting 14 local writers in various stages of their career.
“The money that was rescinded was promised a while ago,” she said. “New applications basically had very complicated language that said, ‘You agree to abide by all federal laws, not discriminate and adhere to all executive orders.’ So as we were reading that, we went, ‘Well, you can’t actually do both so, so you literally cannot follow this executive order and also abide by federal law.’ That’s what makes it complicated.”
She said the National Endowment for the Arts has a long history of supporting the arts and is one of the few federal programs in the United States that relieve art programs of their budget restraints. She said TheatreWorks is going to continue its mission and speak with their supporters on how the company is a valuable resource in the community.
“There are some organizations that depend upon this grant for large portions of their programming, so they have lost the ability to serve their core missions,” she said. “In some ways we are lucky we were not impacted. I think it is a way of silencing voices. Politicization is quite disgusting. The arts was just next, right after universities.”
She said since the emails, they have been fundraising and working with donors to help the writing group. Since the money was promised, TheatreWorks wants to honor their commitment. According to a May 8 TheatreWorks press release, they raised more than $550,000 at their May 4 donor gala.
“We’re going to continue to talk to our supporters about the work we’re doing, why we’re doing it and how we’re doing it, so that they are aware of the kind of institution we are and the kind of support we’re offering,” she said. “I think that’s important. And then we’re going to try to be very creative about other funding sources.”
