LGBTQ+ and Environmental Arts Projects are Under Attack - Fight With Us for “Groundwater”
Back in 2024, when we were all much more young and innocent, our volunteer staff did something pretty incredible-- we completed our first application for a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) grant application, and WE GOT IT! A $10,000 award through the Grants for Arts Projects program was dedicated to our June production of Flannery Cunningham's "Groundwater", which requires resources above and beyond those which we've engaged with before, including live electronics, which will require not just a dedicated audio engineer, but also a significant amount of electronic equipment. While expensive in the short term, this investment is also geared towards enabling us to consider more pieces that involve electronics or amplification in future seasons.
Then, in January 2025, not two weeks after our grant was publicly announced, an executive order announced that the NEA would now be prohibited from supporting projects that forwarded "gender ideology," "DEI," or other "divisive" topics. As a queer- and trans-led organization which is specifically mission-driven to produce contemporary works by historically marginalized voices, this was a direct hit to us.
Wait... But didn't you already get the award?
Unfortunately, at the time of the executive order, our award was still in the "offer" stage, which is the final review period where our application is "reviewed for compliance with federal regulations" before funds are disbursed. What that means is, the NEA itself no longer has access to our application, and isn't able to give us any money until our project is deemed "in compliance." We have been given no timeline for when that process might be completed, because it isn't even clear who exactly is doing the compliance review.
While this bureaucratic nightmare continues, we still don't have the $10,000 that we were counting on in order to make this project happen. This season has been our most successful yet in a huge number of ways-- we're working in a beautiful new venue, we've had excellent audience numbers, produced striking and powerful performances, and expanded our network of amazing artists; we've also begun working with consultants to help us create a strategic plan for ongoing growth and fundraising. It would be a real shame for us to end this season in debt thanks to the incredibly short-sighted action of our government.
Didn't the NEA pause enforcement of that requirement?
At this precise moment, the policy is "under review" at the NEA, with a plan to announce the findings of their review on April 30th. Because of this, a federal judge has declined to issue an injunction, stating that such an action would be "moot" before a decision on the policy has been made. However, it is expected that the NEA will return to enforcing the restrictions set out in the executive order,[1] as they have previously stated unequivocally that "[they are] a federal agency and will fully comply with the law."[2] Regardless, in the meantime, review of applications and disbursement has been paused, with no timeline on completion-- in other words, regardless of why, we still don't have the money that we were expected to have by now.
What are some of the specific expenses this grant was supposed to help cover?
There are a number of things that "Groundwater" demands that we've never encountered before, including:
-a trained audio engineer, who will need to be present for most rehearsals as well as all performances
-three instrumentalists who will need to be part of the entire rehearsal process, as opposed to just being brought in the week before the show
-electronic equipment such as microphones, an audio interface, monitors, and all the ensuing cables and stands*
(*a grant from The Saints is helping us cover many, but not all, of the equipment costs)
-a dancer/choreographer, to create a visual/movement language to communicate the work to audiences
-integrated projections & physical material design to deepen the audience experience of the performance
How can we help?
A gift of any amount is incredibly helpful to help make up this unexpected shortfall. Regardless of your own donation, sharing this campaign with your network will dramatically increase the visibility of our work and help spread the word of our situation.
We want to be clear that we are surely not the only organization currently experiencing this, and we encourage you to check in on other LGBTQ+-led orgs in your life and see how they're doing. It's a scary time to be doing this work, especially with looming economic uncertainty and the ballooning costs of materials.