A NEW PLAYBOOK: THE MAY 2025 NEA GRANT CANCELLATIONS, IDENTITY-FOCUSED NONPROFIT THEATER, AND THE LATEST CULTURE WAR

Abstract

In May 2025, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) abruptly cancelled millions of dollars of previously awarded grants to arts organizations “to focus funding on projects that reflect the nation's rich artistic heritage and creativity as prioritized by the President.” This unexpected shift in funding policy occurred shortly after the passage of the Trump administration’s January 2025 Executive Orders 14151, 14168, and 14173, which aimed to prohibit federal funding of activities supporting “gender ideology” and “diversity, equity, and inclusion.” Currently, no substantial scholarship exists primarily focusing on this contemporary event, and the evidentiary record documenting the event is sparse. This thesis aims to answer three research questions. First, how did the May 2025 grant cancellations affect identity-focused nonprofit theater organizations and how did those organizations respond? Second, what were the perceived goals of the NEA’s cancellation of grants in May 2025? Third, how do the May 2025 grant cancellations fit into the historical tension between the federal government and the arts regarding state censorship and artistic freedom of expression? Through original semi-structured interviews with organization leaders, a nonprofit arts scholar, and anonymous sources with credible knowledge of NEA operations, supplemented by primary document analysis and secondary historical literature, this thesis reveals the significance of the May 2025 cancellations and its impact on five identity-focused nonprofit theater organizations in New York City. This thesis reveals that the financial impact varied among the studied organizations but was still recoverable, with losses replaced through alternative fundraising strategies. The more significant harms were symbolic and psychological, though several organizations were galvanized rather than suppressed. Corroborated by anonymous insider accounts and primary source analysis, the cancellations aimed to accomplish ideological enforcement through ambiguity and destabilization, deploying incoherent compliance criteria to produce a “whiplash effect” for organizations that had simply applied for grant funding under the previous administration. While also contributing to the evidentiary record of the May 2025 NEA grant cancellations, this thesis argues that this moment in time represents a major shift from prior instances of federal arts censorship in United States history, constituting a new “playbook” for right-wing-led culture wars whose full historical significance is only beginning to come into view.