The Trump Administration rescinded $21 million in National Endowment for the Arts grants one year ago, according to arts advocacy nonprofit Americans for the Arts, redirecting federal arts funding toward projects celebrating national pride while eliminating programs serving historically underserved communities.
The shift became visible last month when the New West Symphony performed "The Ronald Reagan Overture" at Reagan's presidential library in Simi Valley, California. The piece, funded by a $25,000 NEA grant, blended excerpts from Reagan's 1942 film "King's Row" with his 1987 Berlin Wall speech. It's one of 50 grants the agency awarded to create artworks celebrating figures slated for the "National Garden of American Heroes," a sculpture park President Donald Trump first proposed six years ago that remains in the proposal phase.
Who Lost Funding
The administration pulled money from projects that didn't meet new funding objectives, particularly those focused on diversity, equity and inclusion. NPR reported the NEA eliminated the "Challenge America" grant program, which supported organizations focusing on "historically underserved communities that have limited access to the arts relative to geography, ethnicity, economics, and/or disability." Hundreds of arts groups received emails suddenly informing them their grants had been terminated.
Sones de México Ensemble, a Chicago-based Mexican folk music group, initially lost a $20,000 grant for concerts and education programs about corridos, a popular type of Mexican ballad. Juan Díes, the group's cofounder, said, "The argument was that it didn't fit the new guidelines under the new administration."
Adapting to Survive
Díes looked down the list of proposed statue subjects and repitched the project using Trump Administration-approved figures like aviator Amelia Earhart and baseball star Roberto Clemente. The grant came through. "I don't feel like we're compromising our goals or mission," he said. "By playing with the rules, we are able to give our perspective on the lives of these American heroes." His corrido about Clemente includes the line, "Nunca agachó la cabeza y condenaba el racismo," which he translated as, "Though he faced plenty of racism he never bowed down his head."
The NEA said in a statement the anniversary is "an opportunity to celebrate our nation's rich artistic heritage and cultural legacy" through "many artistic disciplines and perspectives." The administration prioritized grant applications focused on patriotic works, like military band performances.
Competing Visions of Patriotism
David Lubin, a retired Wake Forest University professor who's written books about American art, politics and cultural propaganda, identified two forms of patriotism. "One is, 'My country, right or wrong,' that America is the greatest place on the face of the earth," he said. "And the other is the patriotic emotion of, 'We can do better. And it's our mission in life to keep hewing to the ideals of the origins of the country.'"
Lubin said patriotic art can unite people around policies and ideologies, but when a country's as politically divided as the U.S. is today, it often reinforces rifts. "It feeds into thought patterns that are already prevalent among half the population," he said. "Like preaching to the converted."
At the Reagan Museum and Library, Michael Christie, the New West Symphony's music director, said, "Stirring patriotism on America's birthday: That is a solid message. I'm proud of it." The performance took place before 600 people in a lofty atrium with Reagan's Air Force One hanging overhead. Audience member Theresa Brunasso said, "It reaches out to your heart. It touches you inside and out. And it makes you so proud to be an American."
Reagan Foundation spokesperson Melissa Giller said the 40th president believed patriotism could coexist with diverse perspectives. "He really believed in bipartisanship, always believed in reaching across the aisle," she said. The foundation created a new Center on Civility and Democracy and distributed free Civility Handbooks at the performance, aiming to help Americans engage in respectful dialogue.
Why This Matters:
The redirection of federal arts funding represents more than a policy shift—it determines which communities get public support to tell their stories. When the NEA eliminated Challenge America grants serving historically underserved communities based on geography, ethnicity, economics, and disability, it withdrew resources from the very populations that face the greatest barriers to cultural participation. Arts organizations now face a choice: adapt their missions to fit narrow patriotic criteria or lose federal support entirely. This creates a two-tier system where some perspectives receive government backing while others must self-fund or disappear. The question isn't whether patriotic art has value—it's whether public arts funding should serve all Americans or only those whose stories fit a particular political narrative. When federal agencies pick winners based on ideological alignment rather than artistic merit and community need, they transform cultural policy into a tool for enforcing conformity rather than fostering the diverse creative expression that public arts programs were designed to support.