May 9, 2025
Dear valued member of our community,
Last Friday, many though not all active and pending direct grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) were terminated. One of the projects that was terminated was the NEA’s ArtsHERE initiative, delivered in cooperation with South Arts and through significant partnership with the US Regional Arts Organizations. This comes alongside the president’s proposal to eliminate the NEA entirely in the FY26 federal budget. Together, these actions will have devastating impacts on communities throughout the country.
We, the national collective of US Regional Arts Organizations, strongly urge Congress to restore the grant funding in support of the arts, culture, and creativity that was passed during the last budgetary approval process, in addition to maintaining its broad bipartisan commitment to funding the NEA in next year’s budget. As the landscape of support for our cultural infrastructure continues to be eroded, we remain steadfast in our commitment to stand with you in defending and preserving our nation’s artistic and cultural agencies.
When Congress passed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965, it declared that “the arts and the humanities belong to all the people of the United States.” Since its inception, the NEA has played a critical role in broadening access to the cultural, educational, and economic benefits of the arts in every Congressional District. In fact, federal arts funds support thousands of communities across the nation, including 678 counties that private foundations do not reach.
Collectively, the NEA, Regional Arts Organizations, and State Arts Agencies serve thousands of communities across the country. And yet this work is funded by just 0.004% of the federal budget–less than 62 cents per American per year.
This low-investment, high-return model is a shining example of good government–federal funds are successfully leveraged many times over by states and private funders to increase the impact of public dollars. Federal dollars don’t replace private investment–they attract it.
Without seed support by the NEA, many states, cities and towns would struggle to secure the additional public or private funds that enable them to deliver programs that serve their constituents. And sadly it is rural communities, which often lack access to private funding sources, who will be disproportionately impacted by a loss of NEA funding and will lose the power to shape their own cultural infrastructure.
The NEA is critical to ensuring that every citizen, in every corner of our vast country, receives the economic, cultural, civic, educational, and health benefits of the arts and creativity. Now is the moment to act to fully restore the NEA and its fellow cultural agencies, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences (IMLS), so that they can fulfill their congressional mandate and ensure that communities across the country benefit from the many advantages that arts engagement provides.
Thank you for all that you do to support arts, culture and creativity in your community. We stand shoulder to shoulder with you and all of the advocates fighting to ensure that your vital work continues for generations to come.
In solidarity,
Torrie Allen, Arts Midwest President & CEO
Christian Gaines, Creative West (formerly WESTAF) President & CEO and USRAO Chair
Todd Stein, Mid-America Arts Alliance President & CEO
Juan Souki, Mid Atlantic Arts Executive Director
Harold Steward, New England Foundation for the Arts Executive Director
Susie Surkamer, South Arts President and CEO
Shannon Daut, USRAO National Director