Arts Endowment Cuts Grants Dedicated to Underserved Communities

The National Endowment for the Arts has eliminated a grant program supporting projects for underserved groups and communities, the latest sign that the Trump administration is quickly putting its stamp on federal arts policy.

On Thursday, the endowment said that its next round of funding under its “Challenge America” program, which would have awarded a total of $2.8 million in small grants, was being canceled. Instead, groups can apply to its general grant program, which will give priority to projects that “celebrate and honor the nation’s rich artistic heritage and creativity” during the lead-up to the 250th anniversary of American independence in July 2026.

In its most recent quarter, the agency distributed more than $32 million in overall grants to roughly 1,400 groups across the country. Grants under the “Challenge America” program, described as serving small projects for “underserved groups and communities that may have limited access to the arts relative to geography, ethnicity, economic status, and/or disability,” were a small fraction.

They included support for ballet classes for children with disabilities in Maryland, a prison theater program in Missouri and a Native American artists residency in North Dakota.

The new policy reflected a pivot for President Trump, who in his first administration repeatedly called for the elimination of the arts and humanities endowments, both of which have frequently been the target of Republican critics. (Each survived, thanks to bipartisan support in Congress, and has a current budget of roughly $200 million a year.)

Mr. Trump has yet to name new leadership for either endowment, as incoming presidents usually do. But other actions suggest he sees the agencies less as foes than as a means of taking cultural policy in what he describes as a “patriotic” direction.

In an executive order on Jan. 29, Mr. Trump included the heads of both agencies as members of his newly created Task Force 250, which is charged with providing “a grand celebration worthy of the momentous occasion of the 250th anniversary of American independence.” He also renewed his call for the construction of an National Garden of American Heroes, and reinstated a 2020 executive order calling to protect monuments from vandalism by “violent mobs.”

It remains unclear how the new task force, headed by Mr. Trump himself and administered out of the Defense Department, will interact with the existing U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission, a bipartisan group established by Congress in 2016.

It is also uncertain if the humanities endowment will change its grant programs in response to Mr. Trump’s policies, which have included a ban on federal diversity, equity and inclusion programs and the elimination of programs and entire agencies deemed “wasteful.”

Paula Wasley, a spokeswoman for the N.E.A., said the agency was “currently reviewing all of the agency’s funding opportunities to ensure compliance” with recent executive orders and with guidance from the Office of Management and Budget.

During the first Trump administration, the humanities endowment announced “A More Perfect Union,” an initiative aimed at “funding projects that enhance our understanding of our nation, including the country’s founding period.”

Projects under that rubric have included museum collaborations with historically Black colleges and universities, a convening of Native American scholars and preservationists and support for National History Day, which helps middle-school and high-school students do historical research.