Institutions across the U.S., including MASS MoCA, are grappling with sudden NEA grant cancellations that have upended budgets and programming. Courtesy MASS MoCA

When Deborah Block, artistic director of Philadelphia’s nonprofit theater company Theatre Exile, received word last November that a $25,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts had been approved for the development and production of R. Eric Thomas’ play Glitter in the Glass, she immediately set to work on getting this dramatic piece up and running. Fifteen people—including a stage manager, an assistant stage manager, a director, five designers and some others—were hired, and the playwright himself needed to be paid.

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Glitter in the Glass will open as planned on May 29, with twenty-two performances running through June 22. Missing, however, will be the $25,000 to help pay for it—that was rescinded shortly after President Trump assumed office and demanded that federal agencies reduce their budgets by, in some cases, canceling already approved grants.

“Theatre Exile’s budget for the year is $850,000, so losing $25,000 is a big thing for us,” Block told Observer. The cost of producing Glitter in the Glass itself is $95,000, but “we’re still going ahead with it. I’m under contract with various people, and we’re proceeding as best we can.” Under existing NEA protocols, groups are informed that their grant applications are approved, and the federal agency reimburses the organizations for monies already spent up to the amount approved. Those like Theatre Exile that already expended cash on projects are now out of luck. Block’s options are few, largely consisting of “letting our audiences know that our grant was frozen” and contacting some wealthy philanthropists in the area who have been supportive in the past. Block’s worry is that every nonprofit arts group in Philadelphia will be contacting these same people “and they may just get tapped out.”

Covering the shortfall in this year’s budget is potentially doable, but Theatre Exile has to make the same financial pitch to those same philanthropists for next year, and they’re not the only ones. At least 202 other visual arts, performing arts and literary arts organizations around the country........

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