Art: Additional Resources

After President Donald Trump proposed eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the federal agency withdrew or canceled grant offers to arts organizations around the country via email on Friday night, reported the New York Times.

“The N.E.A. is updating its grantmaking policy priorities to focus funding on projects that reflect the nation’s rich artistic heritage and creativity as prioritized by the president,” the emails said. “Consequently, we are terminating awards that fall outside these new priorities.”

The NEA said it would prioritize projects that “elevate” historically Black colleges and universities, as well as schools serving Hispanic students. The organization will also focus its resources on those that “celebrate the 250th anniversary of American independence, foster A.I. competency, empower houses of worship to serve communities, assist with disaster recovery, foster skilled trade jobs, make America healthy again, support the military and veterans, support Tribal communities, make the District of Columbia safe and beautiful, and support the economic development of Asian American communities.”

A number of the affected grants were in support of work by artists of color. The email’s language also appeared out of step with prior moves by the Trump administration, which has pushed back against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. As a result, the Smithsonian Institution and the National Gallery of Art began winding down their DEI operations.

The messages were sent to recipients from a NEA address that does not accept replies.

Two versions of the email were sent from the arts endowment. One went to those who received offer letters and had been recommended for grants, but had not yet received official awards. That version noted that “the tentative funding recommendation for the following application” had been canceled.

Those whose grants had been approved, however, received a different email that read, “This is to inform you that the above referenced National Endowment for the Arts award has been terminated, effective May 31, 2025.”

The Trump administration has also canceled of grants the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, two agencies that Trump also proposed to eliminate in his 2026 budget.

Some begun pushing back against moves made by Trump to curtail arts funding. A pending lawsuit filed by three humanities-focused organizations aims to reverse the cuts in grant programs, staff, and divisions of the NEH that occurred in April. The suit was filed on May 1, the same day that a judge issued a temporary restraining order to block the Trump Administration‘s dismantling of the IMLS shortly before an expected round of layoffs impacting nearly all of the organization’s employees.

The future of arts funding, including the NEH and NEA, has been uncertain since Trump took office. In his first term as president, Trump tried and failed to eliminate funding for the NEH. At the time, the efforts were blocked by congressional Democrats and Republicans. In his second term, Trump has made strides to cultivate a new kind of art program, returning to more traditionally classical styles (an idea he toyed with in his first term but never implemented).

The leader of the Art Institute of Chicago, one of the most widely visited museums in the US, is taking time off amid an investigation into his behavior on a flight last month.

CBS News reported late on Friday night that James Rondeau, the president and director of the Art Institute of Chicago since 2016, had voluntarily stepped away from his post while that investigation proceeded.

An Art Institute of Chicago spokesperson said in a statement to ARTnews, “The Art Institute takes this very seriously and has opened an independent investigation into the incident to gather all available information.” The spokesperson confirmed that Rondeau had voluntarily taken time off during the investigation.

According to the CBS News report, the investigation stemmed from an alleged incident that took place on a flight from Chicago to Munich in April. Citing anonymous sources, the report said that police were “called to the plane following reports of a passenger stripping off his clothes.” Those sources told CBS News that Rondeau was that very passenger, and that “the incident occurred after he drank alcohol and took prescription medication.”

Rondeau has been at the Art Institute of Chicago since 1998, when he joined as an associate curator of contemporary art. He became chair of contemporary art in 2004, and while leading that department, he merged it with the institution’s modern art department. The newly merged modern and contemporary art department received a $400 million art donation from collectors Stefan Edlis and Gael Neeson in 2015, in what remains the museum’s largest gift ever. Through that gift, essential works by Jasper Johns, Cy Twombly, Andy Warhol, and more entered the collection.

As the museum’s leader, Rondeau has continued luring important gifts, including a $75 million one from Aaron I. Fleischman and Lin Lougheed last year that will be used to build new galleries for 19th-century art, as well as modern and contemporary art.

Also in 2024, the museum faced controversy for the way it dealt with a pro-Palestine encampment on its grounds that was led by students at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, a related entity to the museum. Sixty-eight students were arrested after the school called the police. (The school has been the subject of behind-the-scenes upheaval surrounding Israel’s war in Gaza.) The arrests moved more than 40 Art Institute of Chicago employees to write a letter to Rondeau, urging the museum to cut ties with any board members with financial connections to Israel.

The Trump administration issued a 2026 budget proposal on Friday afternoon that would eliminate the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), and other federal agencies that support culture and the arts.

If passed by Congress, the proposal would have immediate repercussions for funding for arts and humanities in the US, directly impacting the agencies and the various nonprofits that rely on this funding, including the 56 state and territorial humanities councils that are funded by the NEH. The proposal would also eliminate the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS); these three agencies have been the subject of major cuts to their 2025 budgets in the past month.

“The work of state and jurisdictional humanities councils includes programs that help veterans heal, teach children to read skillfully and think critically, and provide grants to grassroots, volunteer-driven projects that simply would not happen without the resources of humanities councils,” said Phoebe Stein, president of the Federation of State Humanities Councils, which supports the NEH-funded state humanities councils, in a statement.

She continued, “We will continue to work collaboratively with members of Congress to educate them on the impact and multiplier effect of these investments locally, and trust that they will continue to see the value of these small-but-mighty programs.”

The news comes as cuts from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) already stopped all funding for the 2025 fiscal year, along with $65 million cut from the NEH’s overall $210 million budget, and fired roughly 65 percent of its staff. The funds have instead been funneled into the creation of President Donald Trump’s National Garden of American Heroes, among other projects. In response, the Mellon Foundation dedicated $15 million in emergency funding to the state councils to help prevent many of them from closure.

A pending lawsuit filed by three humanities-focused organizations on May 1, however, aims to reverse the cuts in grant programs, staff, and divisions of the NEH that occurred in April.

On May 1, a judge also issued a temporary restraining order to block the Trump Administration‘s dismantling of the IMLS just days ahead of a mass layoff of nearly all employees.

In his first term as president, Trump tried and failed to eliminate funding for the NEH.

Major art collectors Warren Stephens, Ken Griffin, and Paul Singer, as well as Charles and Helen Schwab were among the top individual donors to President Donald Trump’s inauguration fundraising committee.

The top individual donor to President Trump’s 2025 inauguration was Stephens, who gave $4 million and is a major donor to the Arkansas Museum of Fine Art, according to data released by the Federal Election Commission and new analysis from Open Secrets, a nonprofit research and government transparency group based in Washington, DC.

In 2023 the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts announced that Warren Stephens and his wife, Harriet, endowed eight galleries. The couple also chair the museum’s building committee and foundation board, as well as cochairing its successful capital campaign, which raised more than $160 million.

Until last year, Stephens was the CEO of his namesake financial services firm headquartered in Little Rock. Trump nominated him to be ambassador to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and North Ireland in December. Stephens was confirmed to the position by the US Senate on April 29.

Other seven-figure donations from individuals to President Trump’s 2025 inauguration included $1.1 million from Top 200 collectors Charles and Helen Schwab, $1 million from Top 200 collector and Citadel founder Ken Griffin, as well as $1 million from art collector and Elliott Management founder Paul Singer.

Federal filings showed Trump raised more than $239 million for his second inauguration, far exceeding the $107 million raised in 2017. By comparison, Joe Biden raised $61 million for his inauguration in 2021, and Barack Obama raised $44 million and $53 million for his inaugurations in 2013 and 2009, respectively.

Many large US companies also made donations to Trump’s 2025 inauguration, including donations of $1 million from Amazon, which was founded by Top 200 collector Jeff Bezos; $1 million from Blackrock Financial Management Inc, whose cofounder and CEO is Top 200 collector Larry Fink; and $1 million from Tyson Shared Services Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Tyson Foods.

The current chairman of Tyson Foods, John H. Tyson, is also chairman of the board at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. The institution awards the annual Don Tyson Prize for American Art, worth $200,000, and named for the former chairman and CEO of Tyson Foods.

In addition to donations for President Trump’s inauguration fundraising committee, data from the FEC and Open Secrets show that Griffin donated $100 million to help elect conservatives, the fifth-largest amount for individual contributions to federal election spending for 2024.

Griffin’s largest disclosed donations were to the Senate Leadership Fund, on four separate occasions, totaling $30 million. He also made donations totaling $15 million to the Congressional Leadership Fund, $15 million to the Keystone Renewal PAC and $10 million to Maryland’s Future, a single-candidate super political action committee in support of Republican Larry Hogan for the US Senate.

By comparison, Singer donated $64.15 million (including a total of $27 million to the Senate Leadership Fund, and $14.5 million to the Congressional Leadership Fund), Stephens donated $23.4 million (including a total of $5.5 million to Senate Leadership Fund, $2.91 million to SFA Fund, and $2.75 million to Congressional Leadership Fund), while the Schwabs donated $9.3 million (including $6 million for the Senate Leadership Fund and $3 million for the Congressional Leadership Fund).

Last month, Griffin told Semafor senior editor Gina Chon the US was “eroding” its brand as a result of many of the economic policy changes under Trump. Announcements of tariffs have resulted in volatility in the stock markets, a sell-off in US government bonds, and left art professionals scrambling.

Volatility in global stock markets also resulted in the net worth of many Top 200 collectors declining by billions of dollars, including a drop of more than $6.6 billion for Bezos between April 3 and April 7.