For Backstreet Community ArtsA non -profit in Newnan, Georgia, who offers free art workshops and studio access for individuals who struggle with trauma, sorrow and other struggles in mental health care, the National Donation for Art (NEA) helps to fill a gap in community care.
“For many in our community, having free access to creative sources is an essential part of emotional well -being, and for various of our participants it is a lifeline” Hyperallergic Via e -Mail. “Mental health care is Difficult to gain access In our community. “
The Small Arts Non-profit received his second $ 10,000 NEA Challenge America Grant in January for the tax year from 2025 to support art programming for mainly low incomes and unmarried persons with limited access to mental health care.
In February, in the midst of a whole series of Trump -Mandates aimed at diversity, shares and inclusion (Dei) programs, De Nea canceled his Challenge America program for at least the tax year of 2026. The program, founded in 2001 To indicate funds for organizations that reach ‘disadvantaged communities’, $ 10,000 have granted subsidies to small non -profit organizations and has long been seen as an access point for smaller organizations to receive federal financing.
According to new requirements released last month, applicants must certify that they will not use federal funds to ‘promote gender ideology’, a movement that artists immediately condemned.
Hyperallergic Contacted various current and previous challenge America Grant recipients. Leaders of the non-profit organizations that received the subsidies said that the cancellation could place them against larger, better-brought organizations in the remaining subsidies for art projects and subject them to stricter access requirements, including the demonstration of five years of programming of the technology, rather than three.
The NEA has not yet responded HyperallergicThe repeated requests for comments.
Wright-Cunniff said that Backstreet Community Arts applied to challenge America because of its relative simplicity of its application compared to the subsidies for art projects. The Challenge America application too offered “Improved technological resources. ”
Because Georgia ranks Last in state art financing per capita of the populationSaid Wright-Cunniff, options for diversifying financing flows are relatively scarce than individual donors and the federal government.
In Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Robert Kesten, executive director of Stonewall National Museum, Archives and Librarytold Hyperallergic That the NEA’s decision to fold Challenge America “sends a message to company donors that they have to reconsider their subsidy.”
The organization was awarded in 2024 to support exhibitions on LGBTQ+ and Black, Native and People of Color (BIPOC) Communities and Hold related public programming. The Challenge America program was more attractive for Kesten because the museum focuses on LGBTQ+ History and Culture and not always conventional art.
But now Kesten says that most business donors from the museum have ‘disappeared’.
“That is the biggest surprise, how fast company and foundation America has closed its doors and the size and scope of the public conversation on important issues such as freedom, justice, diversity, health care, relationships, economy and just about everything else,” Kesten said.
For the Kids & Art FoundationAn organization -based organization that offers art experiences to pediatric cancer patients, the subsidy was attractive because it called on the first federal financing applicants. The non -profit organization was awarded in January to keep healing art workshops in Oakland for children fighting cancer and their families.
“Many of the children in this community live below the poverty line, and social workers we work with, have expressed a strong desire – but lack the money – to offer therapeutic art experiences and other services for these children,” said Rachel Handsman, program director for Kids & Art Foundation.
Handsman said she was worried that the absence of Challenge America will limit financing paths for organizations that serve vulnerable communities.
Sharon Salvador, interim -executive director of the Newark School of the Arts, said that although subsidies for art projects give priority to the implementation of specific initiatives, Challenge America allowed the investment in ‘the overall well -being of a community’.
Newark School of the Arts received the subsidy in 2023 to support creative programming for aging adults to combat memory loss, to improve mental health and promote social involvement. The loss of challenge America, Salvador said, is a threat to the well -being of vulnerable communities, also in northern New Jersey.
While the NEA told earlier Hyperallergic The fact that the cancellation of Challenge America will only apply to future applicants, remains uncertainty for the 2025 AWARDEES, because the agency implements new compliance requirements.
LatinitasA non-profit established in Austin with culturally informed science, technology, engineering, art, art and mathematics (Steam) programming for girls, received a subsidy from 2025 from the NEA to support a public mosaic project in honor of women of color from East Austin.
“In essence, this project is about representation and resilience – to ensure that in the midst of Austin’s fast gentrification, residents see themselves reflected in the evolving landscape of the city,” said Gabriela Kane Guardia, executive director of Latinitas.
On 27 February a Challenge America team member Guardia told in an e -mail that was revised the price of Latinitas to “guarantee compliance with the federal rules and regulations.”
Dani Parmar, program director for Into Creative Arts Forumbased in Birmingham, Alabama, however, said that the non-profit organization has signed its grant agreement and expected to receive 2025 Challenge America financing that would support non-costs interdisciplinary art workshops for people who experience homelessness.
Parkmar said that federal financing is crucial in states such as Alabama with ‘scarce’ support for art, which adds that restrictive access to art permanent.
“We see that the exclusion of cultural and educational opportunities actively contributes to a cycle of poverty, isolation and instability that leads to higher percentages of homelessness and worsening mental health,” said Parkmar.
For Urban artworksA non-profit organization established in Seattle that offers art-related employment training for young people confronted with systemic barriers, was receiving the Challenge America Grant a way to higher NEA awards.
After the Challenge America Grant Award in 2023 to finance a mural observation program, the organization has received $ 40,200 in subsidies for art projects since 2024. “[The cancellation] Is a step back in acknowledging that smaller organizations are aimed at creating art opportunities for disadvantaged communities, have traditionally had more barriers for access to federal financing, ”said Amanda Hashagen, executive director of the organization.
