A children’s classical music program in Suquamish is in jeopardy of cancelling its two-week summer camp this year after the Trump administration axed the small grant that funded it.
272 arts organizations across the nation were notified by email April 29 that $10,000 grants they received from the National Endowment for the Arts, a bipartisan federal program founded in 1965 that supports arts and culture in all 50 states, will be revoked, and the program administering the grants cancelled indefinitely.
Kids in Concert, a free after-school music education program for students in North Kitsap, was counting on that funding to support its low-cost musical theater summer camp, now in its 10th year, explained program director Kirsten Branson-Meyer. But now, the organization is not sure what it’s going to do.
KIC offers music education year-round, but the summer camp is a two-week combination of live music performance and theater. Teen camp leaders write scripts, choreograph dances, adapt musical numbers, and teach about 50 first- through sixth-grade campers the basics of live performance. At the end of the session, the campers perform their play for about 300 community members.
“This revocation has a real impact. While we do charge a small tuition for camp, over half of our participants attend on full or partial scholarships. We now face a significant funding gap, and we will need to divert our limited staff time and resources toward emergency fundraising to ensure the program can run as planned,” Branson-Meyer wrote. “Like many small arts organizations, we operate on a very tight budget. Every dollar counts. This setback will not only strain our team but may limit our ability to offer the same quality or scope of programming.”
Challenge America, one of several arts grants available from the NEA, was a $2.8 million program that offered $10,000 to 280 small arts organizations in underserved communities around the country to extend their reach. In 2024, the total funding available for the NEA was about $207 million, or about 0.003% of the total federal budget, and one of the smallest federal agencies, but it’s the largest arts foundation in the country.
The email from the NEA provided to the Bainbridge Island Review, originating from a generic arts.gov address, cites President Trump’s “new priorities” for the federal arts foundation as its rationale for canceling the Challenge America grant.
“The NEA will now prioritize projects that elevate the Nation’s (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) 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,” the email states.
Going forward, “[f]unding is being allocated in a new direction in furtherance of the Administration’s agenda,” the email concluded.
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