A group of senior officials at the National Fund for the Arts announced their resignation Monday days after the Trump administration began withdrawing grants from art groups across the country.
Their departure coming as the fund is withdrawing its current grants was published in a series of emails and social media posts on Monday, with President Trump suggesting that the agency be removed entirely next year.
A NEA spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.
Some of those leaving the agency are directors who oversee dance, design, folk, traditional arts and theatre grants, and directors in the “Partnerships” department, which oversees work with state and local arts agencies. These officials announced their departure in a newsletter sent by donations starting at noon on Monday.
The head of the agency's literary department will also be leaving along with three members of her team, according to a newsletter sent by Litnet, a coalition of literary organizations on Monday morning.
The announcement of their departure brought the besieged institutions to face even more uncertainty. It is not clear how the agency will issue grants without this class of officials. A round of Grant Cancellation Notices, which came out Friday night, showed that Trump had prioritized the agency, who hoped to continue the grant.
Oscar Eustis, the artistic director of New York's public theaters and one of the leaders of the professional nonprofit theatre coalition, said the staff's resignation was “troubling.” He has not criticized him for leaving, but he added that he feared that the departure could make it easier to eliminate the institution.
Eustis condemned the cancellation of funds that had already been pledged to, but he said it was particularly painful for small arts organizations around the country.
“This is not a thoughtful, targeted reassessment of what the NEA should support. It's a massive clawback of money awarded to theaters around the country, and a lot of that depends on this money,” he said. “What the NEA does is destroy the premise that it was established. They are weakening and destabilizing institutions across the country in all council districts.”
Many of the departing officials have quit their donations at the end of this month as part of a postponed resignation programme. Some have retired. In many cases, not only are artistic field directors left, but members of staff members left too.
Founded in 1965, the National Fund for the Arts is an independent federal agency that distributes grants to art organizations and state arts agencies around the country. Its budget was $207 million in 2024, and its financial report said it provided more than $163 million in grants that year.
Arts institutions across the nation have scrambled over the weekend to find a way to move forward without the federal funds they had hoped for.
Some say they will appeal the refusal of grants, as specified in the cancellation notice. Others have launched fundraising appeals in an attempt to bridge the gap with private charity.
In Oregon, Portland Playhouse said donors step up to replace the $25,000 NEA grant that was withdrawn for production of August Wilson's “Joe Turner Come and Gone” after Cut of the Cut was released. On Monday, the theatre leaders said they are launching a statewide fundraising campaign to support other arts organizations in Oregon, estimated that the cancellation of NEA Grants has ended at least $590,000 in the state's arts funds.
