S5E8: Arts Funding Shifts
In this episode, Hayley and Amy discuss funding shifts in the arts in 2025. We get ourselves up to date on what’s been happening with the National Endowment for the Arts, chat about alternative funding visions for theatre and the arts, and share action steps you can take to support the arts in your own community. Scroll down for episode notes and transcript!
Episode Notes
Hosts: Hayley Goldenberg and Amy Andrews
Music: Chloe Geller
Episode Resources:
National Endowment for the Arts website
Pittsburgh Arts Council - Trump’s Impact on the Arts: A Running List of Updates
Broadway World - The NEA Grant Terminations and What it Means for the Future of American Theatre by Cara Joy David
American Theatre - NEA Abruptly Pulls Arts Grants on a Massive Scale
Broadway League - Broadway’s 2024– 2025 Season Wraps with 14.7 Million Attendances and Grosses Of $1.89 Billion
Women & Theatre Podcast S4E9: Danielle DeMatteo
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Episode Transcript
(Music)
Hayley: Hello beautiful people, and welcome back to the Women & Theatre Podcast! We’re your hosts, Hayley Goldenberg…
Amy: …and Amy Andrews. Grab a cozy beverage and join us as we talk to women and gender-expansive folks about their experiences at the intersection of womanhood and theatre.
Hayley: On the pod, we cultivate open conversations across identities and professional roles…
Amy: We look for opportunities to support one another in growing our careers…
Hayley: And we pool our collective wisdom to build the equitable theatrical spaces of the future.
(Music)
Hayley: Hello, how are you?
Amy: Hi! I am good. How are you doing?
Hayley: I am okay. I'm trucking along.
Amy: Do you want to share your Rose and your Thorn for this week?
Hayley: My Rose for this week is that Mariya, one of our OG interviews for Women & Theatre and my long-distance bestie, came to visit me, and we got to see a ton of theatre with her and her lovely partner. I went to see Sunset Boulevard and Death Becomes Her, and we went for a bunch of yummy food, and, like, it was just so much fun. And I haven't seen her in ages, so it was really special. And yeah, that was my Rose for this week.
And then my Thorn is my mental health has been in a rough spot, to be honest with you all. I don't like to come on here and complain or be, like, Sad Girl Hour, and so I'm not going to complain. But I will just say if you're struggling with mental health, if any of you have anxiety or depression, or if you're a PMDD girly like me and you're having a hard time, you're not alone. I'm really struggling right now. Like, the basic human functioning is hard. So if that's true for you too, I love you and I'm thinking about you, and we'll get through this together. This will pass. It's just a wave. So yeah, that's me, Amy, how about you?
Amy: Absolutely. No, and I really appreciate you modeling that, like, sharing that open and honest vulnerability with me and with our listeners. I think our society often encourages us to be like, “How you doing?” “Oh, I'm great!” You know, and it's… We're not always great, and that's cool too. So thank you for sharing.
So my Rose this week is I just, on the weekend, had a terrific reading of my musical CYCLES, which was amazing. It was our first-ever virtual reading. So CYCLES is an original musical about abortion rights, and it's a topic that is very personal and vulnerable to me, and it feels really important. For me personally, the stakes feel really high to get it right, to represent the large spectrum of people who have abortions and who care for people who have abortions in this country, to make all of those people feel seen in this piece.
Yeah, it's a big expectation I'm setting for myself there, but it feels really important. And I was very nervous going into this reading, because it was our first time sharing it outside of myself and my amazing collaborator, Kat Zimmerman. And I'm so proud of the work we're doing on this piece, and I feel like it's so strong and so important. And I was very nervous that we were gonna get in the room, and people were gonna be like, “This is terrible and not important at all.”
And luckily, that was not the case. People were very supportive and encouraging of our work. People offered really helpful feedback to help us improve the piece. And also just kind of validated for us that yes, it is important. So that was an amazing Rose and a great way to start the week off. So thank you to Kat and to all of our readers and everyone who showed up for the reading. It was such a special, magical way to start the week.
My Thorn is that my darling spouse, Keith, is away for work right now. He's doing back-to-back regional gigs, which is amazing. He's gonna be doing Pretty Woman at the Gateway out on Long Island, and then he's going out to Musical Theatre West in Long Beach, California to do The Buddy Holly Story there. He's directing and choreographing both of them.
I'm so proud of him and can't wait to see the shows. And also, I miss him, and I'm going to miss him for a while, 'cause he's gone for a while. And I'm solo parenting for the next bunch of weeks, and that has its joys, and it's really hard at times. So that's where I'm at. That's my Rose and my Thorn today. So Hayley, do you want to tell the listeners about what we're talking about today?
Hayley: Yes, I do, Amy, I'm really excited to talk about this. I feel like this conversation is long overdue. It's a hot-button topic right now. It's something that came up a whole bunch when we did our in-person networking event. It's coming up in all of the conversations I'm having with my collaborators and my friends in this industry.
So today, we're gonna talk about funding and specifically talk about the landscape of funding and how it's changed under the current administration, where we're at right now, and then where we can go from here and what we can do to continue to get the resources we need to continue to make art.
So this is a topic that Amy is much more well versed in than me, and she's done a bunch of really wonderful research to bring forward into this conversation. So Amy, can you just give us a rundown of - when it comes to the National Endowment for the Arts, where were we before and where are we now?
Amy: Yeah, absolutely. This is a topic that I could just talk about for days and days, and unfortunately, the landscape right now is quite grim. I know there have been a lot of articles written about this topic, and I know that a lot of people don't have the time or the interest or the energy to read them all. So I've tried to put together, like, a little helpful summary just to get us all on the same page and set a baseline for this conversation.
The first thing we need to know is the National Endowment for the Arts. What is it? Well, historically, the National Endowment for the Arts is the federal agency that funds arts and art education across the United States. It does that by providing grants to nonprofit organizations, public agencies, colleges and universities, and individual arts organizations. Any funding has historically spanned all 50 states, rural and urban communities.
In the latest year available, which is fiscal year 2022, the National Endowment for the Arts issued more than 2,300 grants, totaling at least $117 million. So it's a good amount of money. Interestingly, unlike in some other industries, federal funding actually accounts for a very small percentage of arts funding. Arts funding, historically, has accounted for about 0.003% of the federal budget. So it's a teeny, teeny, tiny line item. And even though it is so small, it is so vitally important for the arts organizations that receive this funding.
The National Endowment for the Arts usually gives grants starting around $10,000 and going up to $75,000. So it's not a huge amount of money. They do require that the arts organizations have funding to match the federal funds. So for example, if an organization got a $10,000 National Endowment for the Arts grant, it would go to support a $20,000 project, and they would find the matching funds elsewhere. So these aren't giant projects we're talking about. But again, for smaller arts organizations, that can be a good portion of their budget for the year.
So just a quick timeline of what's been happening: At the end of January, shortly after this administration took office, the White House ordered a freeze on all federal agency grants and loans. Everybody freaked out. Two days later, they rescinded the freeze. But that was kind of setting the stage of what was to come.
So then on February 6th, the National Endowment for the Arts announced updates to their fiscal year 2026 grant programs. They said, “If you've already put together and submitted an application, guess what? There's new application deadlines and you have to do the whole thing again.” They canceled one of their big programs, Challenge America. And their other big program, the Grants for Arts Projects, they updated the priorities and said that their priority was to fund arts programming that “focused on America's 250th anniversary”. So projects related to the history, culture, and heritage of the United States. That's their sole funding priority, which was a big shift from in the past when NEA priorities included, like, uplifting underserved communities and cultural diversity.
They also had some really problematic requirements in the language. They mandated that everyone receiving grants had to comply with all federal executive orders. Applicants were not allowed to operate any programs promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion. And federal funds could not be used to promote “gender ideology”.
Hayley: What does “gender ideology” even mean?
Amy: That's an amazing question, Hayley. It was not defined in the requirements. It just said “gender ideology”. The language says: “The applicant understands that federal funds shall not be used to promote gender ideology pursuant to Executive Order number 14168,” which is titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.”
Hayley: Ah, so it's just transphobic nonsense.
Amy: It is transphobic, sexist nonsense, “protecting women”. So yeah, so those were the guidelines released on February 6th. A month later on March 6th, the ACLU, the American Civil Liberties Union, filed a lawsuit against the National Endowment for the Arts, specifically for that requirement about gender ideology. And so on March 12th, they suspended that requirement, probably because they thought it was gonna be declared unconstitutional, which it probably was.
Meanwhile, in parallel, on February 12th, Trump took over the Kennedy Center and announced that he was the new chair and announced a new list of board members, all of whom he had appointed. I grew up outside of DC going to the Kennedy Center, like, that was one of my main sources of professional theatre growing up. And what's happening there, like, on a personal note, just really, really sucks.
Hayley: Can I pop in with a question in the middle of this timeline?
Amy: Please, yeah!
Hayley: So I feel like there was a lot of discourse online, because we saw, as a result of all of the stuff going on at the Kennedy Center, a lot of musicals, like, canceled their performances. A lot of things were canceled also, like, notably, Finn, Michael Kooman’s new musical for children about sharks and fish, was canceled. That's a whole other thing.
But following the cancellations, there was also a bunch of companies, like the company of Hamilton and other big shows said, “We're not gonna perform at the Kennedy Center.” What are your thoughts on this? Because I saw discourse on both sides of the argument. You know, I saw people applauding these companies for saying like, “We're not going to participate in Kennedy Center programming. Like, we're not giving you our art if you're not going to be welcoming and align with our values.”
On the flip side of that, I saw a lot of people talking about how this ultimately wouldn't hurt this administration, but it would hurt, you know, all of the students who go to see the Kennedy Center performances and, ultimately, create a situation where all of the art being performed there was perhaps on a different side of the political spectrum than where many of us who might be listening lie. So I'm just interested in your take on that.
Amy: Yeah. I mean, I see both sides, and I could make strong arguments for both sides. I think when it was first announced that the administration was taking over the Kennedy Center, there was, like, a collective “What??” Like, I think many of us did not see this coming.
Hayley: Yeah. It was a big WTF moment for us. We didn't think that this administration would even bother with the arts, like, wouldn't be interested in engaging with us.
Amy: Right, exactly. Because, I mean, this administration has never before shown an interest in the arts other than in cutting funding for it. So yeah, I think there was a lot of, like, not really sure what that was going to mean at first.
I think as shows started to receive cancellation notices, there was a big blowback from the theatre community, in particular, about valid justified concerns about the way the administration intends to use the Kennedy Center space to promote its own agenda and to make nationalist propaganda.
There's a big argument and a valid argument to be made that, in choosing to present work at the Kennedy Center, we would be promoting that and saying, “Yup, that's okay. You can do that. You can make one of our major national arts organizations into a propaganda center.”
Yeah, I mean, I was in student groups that went to the Kennedy Center growing up to see shows, right? Like, that's absolutely a thing. And also, all of those school groups are going to be touched by this, just like everyone is touched by this. So, you know, there's - I think any time we're dealing with fascism, there's the question of: Do we dismantle the system from within or do we dismantle the system from without? And I think the answer is “Yes, both.” So yeah, those are my thoughts.
Hayley: Totally. It's something that a lot of people are talking about right now, and I think I agree with you that there's a lot of valid arguments on both sides. So let's continue with this timeline. What happened next?
Amy: So on May 2nd, the administration released a 2026 budget proposal that called for the elimination of the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, which are two giant sources of cultural funding in our country. And up until this point, the conversation was about “What are we funding?” Now the conversation is about “Are we funding?” So that's a big, big shift.
So then, on the same day, a bunch of organizations across the country - arts organizations that had received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts for fiscal year 2025, for this year - received notice that their grants were being revoked or terminated. And then at the same time, a couple days later on the 5th, multiple officials resigned from the National Endowment for the Arts following a buyout offer. So these were, like, the directors of the arts program and the dance program and the design program. So these are, like, big bodies of work that now no one is overseeing.
So in terms of, like, the immediate fallout from the grants being revoked, some lucky organizations had already received their grant funding in total, so they get theirs. Other organizations, their grant period hadn't started yet, 'cause it starts later in the year. Other organizations were in the middle of grant periods and might have received some funding and won't get the rest.
An important thing to know is that organizations are required to spend the money and then get reimbursed by the NEA. So a good portion of the grants that were revoked, that funding would already have been spent or at least budgeted. Those programs would have already been scheduled. People would have already been hired. So this is a wild, wild thing to have happened. This is why arts organizations are reeling, trying to figure out how to make up those funds.
And I will say, like, the overall messaging across arts organizations, which won't surprise you 'cause we're theatre people, is “The show must go on, and we are going to find ways to make up that money and still continue with this programming.” So then we have this situation where there are all of these arts organizations around the country that are applying for the same funding opportunities.
In revoking the NEA grants, the administration put out a list of, like, “These are our new priorities for grants,” but the decisions that they made did not always align with those priorities. Like, for example, one of the priorities is to uplift Indigenous communities, and yet they cut a bunch of grants for organizations that work directly with Indigenous communities.
Hayley: So they're just saying stuff and then doing other things.
Amy: Yeah, so that's kind of what's happening with the National Endowment for the Arts. I also wanna point to - because just this week, one of the headlines in theatre news has been that this was the highest grossing Broadway season to date. It was a total gross of $1.89 billion and attendance of 14.7 million people. This beats the pre-pandemic record holder, which was the 2018–2019 season [at] 1.83 billion gross earnings.
So before we started the recording, Hayley, you and I were chatting about this and you made an excellent point, which is that this is very much mirroring what we're seeing in the US economy, of like the top 1% just kind of amassing the wealth. And meanwhile, local smaller arts organizations, regional theatres, are all struggling in communities around the US. I think that's a really important thing to mention in this conversation.
And for me, it brings up a question which I'd like to pose to you, of like: What responsibility do we have to each other as theatre makers and theatre patrons and theatre supporters? Like, what does it mean for our industry that Broadway is thriving and everyone else is struggling to survive? What do you take from that?
Hayley: I think it says to me that - to answer your question about what do we owe to one another, I think for me we owe information sharing. We owe resource sharing. Anything we can do to pool our resources - and resources being - like, we've talked about this many times on the podcast, but - resources being information, resources being people, resources being power and collective organization. I think that that's what I feel that we need in this moment.
I also think that this reimagining of what theatre funding can look like, like, the bill is way past due for that. I know how hard it's been for folks to reimagine this, because like, there's so many issues at play, like real estate, the government landscape… There's all kinds of things that play into these decisions, but I think I'm seeing responsibility amongst our community to hold each other accountable for making those changes.
You know, we said during the pandemic, like, “We can't keep doing it this way,” and it feels like things have gone on. If we can't rely on the government, we have to rely on one another. That's something I said at the networking event, and I'll keep saying it. It's unfortunate that that's a situation that we're in. We can do many things at one time, like hold folks in power accountable and also, like, look to one another and show up. I watched this TikTok, I wish I could credit the creator. “If you want a better village, you need to be a better villager.” And I think we all need to be good villagers to one another right now, like, show up and do the work that needs to be done. Yeah, I'm curious about what your thoughts are about any of that.
Amy: Yeah. No, I think you hit the nail on the head. I mean, I think leaning into community and leaning into collective action is really important for me. A big concern that I have around all this is the scarcity that is being created with regard to funding for theatre. And I know for you and me, as early-career theatre professionals, like, what does this mean for us?
Like, the traditional sources of funding for new projects, new arts organizations, new individual artists, they're going away. They're changing. There are some foundations and individuals that are stepping up to fill those gaps, but the gaps are so vast that, like, I don't see a way out of this for the theatre industry without really rethinking the financial structures and models that we use as an industry. So I think when you are talking about joining together and helping each other rise and thinking in different ways about collaboration - and about funding, too - like, I think that's a path forward.
Hayley: Totally. And I think something I had mentioned to you is: Is there a world in which there's more collective donation? I mean, part of the thing with Broadway, right, is that there's a - I forget what the number is, you probably know this. You have to have a certain amount of money in the bank to even be a part of investing in theater.
Amy: Yeah. So the minimum amount of money to invest in a Broadway show can be as low as $5,000. That's really rare. More common is like $25–50,000. And in order to be a Broadway investor, you have to be vetted as a Broadway investor, which means that you have to have a certain amount of money in your bank account and, like, prove that you're financially capable of making that donation with it being like a blip in your finances. So that, yeah, the way that that limits who can be a decision maker in theatre is, I think, a really important part of the funding conversation.
Hayley: Yeah. Well, and something I had asked you was, like, I look at the way that our government works. We see these giant organizations donating however much to back their candidates, and then you see candidates doing grassroots - like, you know, taking lots of small individual donations. I mean, we saw with the Harris campaign how effective small donations were. And it just makes me think: Is there a different way to fund theatre that is more reflective of the people who are making it and more reflective of the people who need it?
And so like, again, forgive me, I'm not a fancy Broadway producer. I don't have that kind of experience under my belt. I'm just a gal with a vision. But these are things that I've been thinking about and, like, asking people. I'm going to my producer friends, and I'm saying like, “Is there a way to do this?”
The other thing I wanna say to you, Amy, based on what you were just saying, is it feels like we don't just need a radical re-imagining of funding from Broadway's perspective, but it seems like we also need to rethink the process of making and what the rules are. I think that the rules are kind of going out the window now, like, the idea around development. I'm in the new musical landscape all the time, that's my world. Are we putting things up early rather than waiting, doing a bunch of readings and stuff that are closed-door? Are we bringing folks in early? Are we finding space that we can share and putting up the show, like, ourselves? Are we self-producing? Are we trying to do that scrappy and, like, finding the funding that way? Are we building an audience and then asking that audience for everyone to give $5 donations?
Are we doing more, like, video content or pro shots where we can reach more people and have that be a part of building the show, so that the audience is invested from the beginning? I'm not a producer, I'm just asking big questions. And those are things that have been on my mind, based on what you've been saying and just, like, where we are.
Amy: Yeah, I think those are great questions to ask and great thoughts for all of us to consider as we move forward into this new funding landscape. A couple of things that I wanna say in response to what you said: One is that like, yes, there are absolutely folks who are working on ways to get investors who don't have $25,000 laying around that they can throw at a show. And I will say that $5,000 number is new. Up until very recently, it was minimum $25,000 for every Broadway show. So that is a step in the right direction. It's nowhere near enough, but it is something.
I also wanna shout out - I mean, it won't surprise you to know that there are people in the theatre industry across the country who are thinking about creative ways to approach these problems and who are putting those thoughts into action and doing really interesting, innovative things. So for example, the Portland Playhouse in Oregon got notice that their $25,000 NEA grant supporting a show that they were doing was revoked. Their artistic director immediately put out to their community, “This grant was revoked. We need money to make this show happen.” And immediately raised, I think, $75,000 from the community.
That was so successful that he's now created, in partnership with other theatres around Oregon, he's created this GoFundMe where it is, it’s collective donations. People can donate to this fund for the arts and say, “I value having theatre in Oregon.” And they distribute those funds equitably to theatres throughout the state of Oregon that are putting on arts programming. So like, that is a very cool model that I would love to see replicated in other communities around the United States, and that I think speaks perfectly to our thought of, “Can we have collective fundraising? How can we help each other rise?”
Hayley: Love that. Yeah. I think that's gonna be the way forward, is how do we collectively bring money in? There has to be money out there. We're in the entertainment business at the end of the day. Look at how much money people are throwing at giant artists like Taylor Swift, like Beyonce. Theatre is marketable and is commercial. I think that with TikTok and social media, there's a reason that all of these sounds are going viral from Broadway musicals, like the Gatsby stuff was going viral and Death Becomes Her, and we're seeing how that is translating to audiences.
I think it's also about audience development. There are people who want art, and we consume it all the time. Even just on our phones. In these social media apps, you have all these people who are, like, making art. They're like their own little film studio in their bedrooms. There's so many people wanting to consume that content. So how to, like, translate that to theatre and to local theatre, to your point, also. I'm talking about Broadway, but how are we going to engage those communities locally and gain the funds locally? These are all questions I have, but there has to be a way.
Amy: Yeah, I think it's two sides of the same coin. And - I know we've talked about this on the podcast before, but I'll talk about it till the end of time - that there is an economic argument to be made for the arts. Because the arts employs people. In New York City, where we live, it employs a whole bunch of people. And it's a major, major driver of the economy in New York City and in New York State. If you wanna know more about the specific stats, check out our interview with Danielle DeMatteo of SheNYC Arts, which we’ll link in the show notes.
But yeah, the arts is a major driver of New York's economy, and that's true in many cities throughout the country, that, like, arts is an economic industry. We think of it as a frivolous, light, pretty thing. But it also employs a lot of people, because theatre is so collaborative. I mean, musical theatre is one of the most collaborative art forms, right? So there's the economic piece of it.
There's also - as we've talked about many, many times - the values piece of it, which is that art… It's not a “nice to have,” it's a “need to have” for a functioning society. Because the arts are what teach us how to be humans and how to be humans in community with other humans. And that is so fundamentally important. I mean, we are seeing in our current social landscape just how important that is and just how wild things can get in a society that does not value the arts.
Hayley: Absolutely. And I think specifically, theatre is such a communal art form, like you were saying. And I think that, ultimately, a fascist administration wants us to be isolated from one another. And what theatre does is it reminds us what we have in common. And I think that collective experience - we're sitting in like tight quarters with everybody, and we're experiencing something as a group. We're gathering, the way that we have done for thousands and thousands of years.
Theatre is one of the most ancient art forms, and I think that it’s crucial to us surviving this moment and continuing to thrive and continuing to progress societally, is having a thriving theatre community and theatre industry.
Amy: Since we're on a research episode, I was just reading this wildly interesting research about how people who are sharing a collective experience - like sitting and watching a theatre production together - literally, our brains synchronize with each other and our emotional reactions synchronize with each other. It is psychology and biology. It literally brings us together on a cellular level. And the empathy that that builds, and the ability to relate to other people and to have commonality, share common ground with other people, especially in a world that is so very divided, it has so much power. Often, that gets dismissed in our capitalist society that just values money above everything else. But the power of that is really, I don't think should be as easily dismissed as it often is.
Hayley: Yeah. I couldn't agree more.
Amy: Yeah.
(Musical transition)
Hayley: So I have a question for you, Amy. As we're having this conversation, we said at the beginning that we would talk about where we are and also where we're going. So in an ideal world - like let's dream for a second. 'cause that's what we do here at Women & Theatre…
Amy: Gals with dreams!
Hayley: Well, I mean, I do think that hope is also something that the current administration, they're discouraging hope from thriving. And I think hope is a really important piece of freedom for all. So I wanna ask you, in an ideal world, what does the arts funding landscape look like? Like, how does this look different? I know we were just talking about ideas and stuff, but fundamentally, how is the new world different from what it is now?
Amy: Yeah, that's a terrific question. In an ideal world, we live in a society that values the arts and reinforces those values through funding. I think in an ideal world, like many other places around the world, we have national funding that supports the arts, as well as state and local funding that supports the arts.
We also lean more into community-level arts projects, art that reflects the needs of the community and reflects the people who live in the community. And that is made by the people who live in the community. Like, homegrown art, I think, is a great direction. If I am a part of a community, I want to be creating art for and about that community that is supported by that community. In an ideal world, we don't need to reach out to random rich person over here who has no connection to our community. In an ideal world, we can support it ourselves. We can build it ourselves, and we can fund it ourselves, and it can be for us. Those are my thoughts on it. What are your thoughts?
Hayley: Yeah, I think my question about that would be: How does that work in terms of the landscape of the global or the broader community? Localization in terms of art is really important. And also, when I think about my village comment, when I think about like individuals, if they're all operating in isolation… I think that different communities have a lot to learn from one another. And I think that the art that is reflecting the community is important.
And also I think that - like, for instance, in communities with a bunch of white people, I think that there's value to be had learning about other cultures and seeing other types of art. So I think that there's a balance. I agree with you, I think that, like, the art should serve and reflect the community. And I also think broadly, I'm interested in getting out of a culture that is, like, “Me, me, me”-based and more about us.
Amy: Yeah, I mean, I think the local piece is the first part of it. And then, there's art as a means of self-expression, and then there's also art as education, and they're connected. And so it can be touring productions from one local community to another. It can be arts exchanges, cultural exchanges. We do that on a global level. Let's do that on a national level, and have people from different communities change places and participate in the arts and learn about the arts in the host community and share the arts from their home community with the host community. I think there are so many possibilities for arts exchange, but I think it all starts from valuing the arts as a societal mechanism, right?
Hayley: Yeah, totally. Totally. Yeah. So if our listeners wanna get involved and start being a part of more collective action, what are some steps that folks can take?
Amy: Yeah, I mean, I think what's needed right now is money. Not everyone listening to this podcast is in a position to give, and that's cool. Ways that we can funnel more money into the arts that don't involve us personally giving…
I think each of us has to think a little bit like a producer right now, right? Like, if I don't personally have money, who do I know who has money? Who I can talk to and say, “Hey, here's why the arts is important to me. Here's why I think you should support it.” We can be contacting our local businesses and asking, “Hey, how are you supporting the arts? Like, here are some great local arts organizations that I would like to draw your attention to that could really use corporate support right now.”
If you work for a corporate business, a lot of businesses do matching funds. So if you are able to contribute $5, your employer may be able to double or triple that. And I think that's important too, is that every little bit helps. So like, if you wanna get a bunch of friends together for a cocktail party and say, “Hey. I will give you all the drinks and the fancy little snacks, and all you have to do is donate $5 to a local arts organization, and that's your cost of entry to this fabulous party.”
Like, I think we can all - each of us - think creatively about what impact we can have, not just through our own personal bank accounts, but through our communities and through talking to people in our communities about this. Do you have other thoughts, Hayley, that you wanna share?
Hayley: I go back to the comment that we've made a lot of times, that resources is more than money. So if you don't have money, you might have time to volunteer at some of these organizations. If you don't have time, your knowledge and your opinions and your visions. One of the things I'm most passionate about in this project is that we're about uplifting the wisdom that each individual brings to the conversation. And so, if you're like me and don't know a lot about producing necessarily, but you have big ideas, like, share them with your people. Because you never know who you're gonna be talking to who knows somebody who could effect change in that way.
You may not be somebody who is a visionary, but you might be a connector of people, like, bringing people into a room together. What is your place in the movement and understanding your role in caring about the arts and and arts funding?
Amy: Right!
Hayley: And how you can help and what your strengths are. Like, it doesn't have to be something that feels really hard for you. You might not be somebody who wants to stand with your megaphone and yell about stuff. You might just be a person who's really good at, like, organizing and writing emails, so maybe you can reach out to a theatre organization who might need help reaching out to folks about funding. There are different ways that you can support the movement.
Amy: Yeah. What is your zone of genius, and how can you use it to help? Also, stay informed. Read the articles. If you don't have time to read the articles, write to me and I'll tell you about what's in the articles.
Hayley: Well, and I mean, this podcast is like meant to, you know, democratize this information.
Amy: Absolutely.
Hayley: Make it a bite-sized thing that you can throw on while you're on the subway. We're not the only people who are putting out information like this.
Amy: Absolutely. We're gonna link in the show notes, because the information that we're sharing here did not come from us. This was shared by amazing organizations. I wanna specifically shout out to the Pittsburgh Arts Council, which has a super comprehensive timeline on their website of all of the arts-related policies going on this year and, like, a good analysis of them. I also wanna shout out Cara Joy David at Broadway World, who did a fantastic, in-depth, super well-researched article about the NEA funding cuts and their impact on individual theatres around the country.
There are also some great organizations that have compiled lists of all the arts organizations who have faced funding cuts and had grants revoked. So those are great places to start to see who needs support. And we'll link all of those resources in the show notes. Also, contact your representatives. You can call them, you can email them, you can write them a letter, and tell them that you support the arts and that you would like for them to as well.
Hayley: I don't know if we've said this on the podcast or just in our community spaces, but the Five Calls app is a really good way that you can call your representatives about things that are happening very easily. So I would highly recommend downloading that if you haven't already. It's really good.
Amy: We’ll link it in the show notes.
Hayley: It allows you to call and leave a message for your representatives really easily.
Amy: And it gives you scripts, yeah? For specific topics that you care about. Yes.
Hayley: Yeah.
Amy: It's a great resource.
Hayley: Amy, to finish off this conversation, what do you want folks to take away from it?
Amy: I hope that people leave this conversation with a little more clarity and understanding on what's happening in the arts funding landscape right now. The big takeaway for me is that the landscape is grim, but we have collective power. And theatre people are resilient and creative and innovative, and now is the time to work together and find innovative solutions to help us move forward as an industry.
I don't see a future where the theatre industry doesn't make it through this. It's just a question of how. And we have so many smart, creative, brilliant people in our community who are working on these problems, us included. And like, let's talk to each other. Let's make things happen. That's my big takeaway. What's your big takeaway, Hayley?
Hayley: Ask the big questions. Don't be afraid to sound stupid. I practiced that a lot in this conversation. Throw your ideas out there, because that's valuable. And if you wanna see a change, go and make it, and do so in a way that's achievable for you. Use your strengths and participate in a way that feels authentic to you. Yeah, that's what I would say as a takeaway.
I hope you have some hope, too. Yes, the landscape is bleak out there. And also, to go back to our conversation with Jennifer Ashley Tepper, theatre has been dying since the beginning of time. Like, the theatre is always dying and we have always found a way through. We will make it through this, and it's just a matter of how. And if we want it to look better on the other side than how it started, then we gotta show up and be the villager that we wanna see.
Amy: Yes, absolutely. Fabulous.
(Musical transition)
Hayley: Amy, who is your Trailblazer of the Week?
Amy: Well, my Trailblazer of the Week this week I already started shouting out, so I'll shout her out more. My Trailblazer of the Week is Cara Joy David, who is a reporter for Broadway World and provided a lot of the fantastic statistics and information that we shared in this episode. I've been so impressed with Cara's coverage of NEA funding shifts and the thorough research that has gone into her reporting about it, as well as really clear, concrete action steps for what people can do to help in this moment. So we will link her Broadway World article in the show notes, but I just wanna shout out to Cara for doing the good work in a time that it's really, really needed and doing it really well. So that's my Trailblazer of the Week. Who is your Trailblazer of the Week, Hayley?
Hayley: I wanna shout out Audra McDonald. She's one of the most decorated performers, respected performers, as she should be. She's so fantastic as an artist, but she just shows us how to be a leader in this business.
Amy: Amen.
Hayley: With her positive attitude, with her kindness, holding us all to a standard of kindness and respect in this business. She's such a beacon of light and a great example of somebody who has reached the very top of this industry and has not allowed that to change her class or her kindness or her respect. So slay to Audra. Love her always. I've looked up to her since I was a child and I will continue to look up to her.
Amy: Thanks, Queen Audra! Come on the podcast, we would love to chat with you!
Hayley: That would be crazy. Yeah.
Amy: Yeah.
Hayley: So yeah, that's, that's my Trailblazer of the Week.
Amy: Yay. Fantastic. I wanna hype you up today, Hayley. I know you're going through it with the mental health struggles, and I loved the way that you showed up in this conversation with your big ideas and dreams and your great big questions that are moving the conversation forward. Yeah, I'm really proud of you, friend. Thanks for going down this road with me.
Hayley: That's very sweet. I wanna hype you up, because I'm so proud of you for all of the work you've been doing with your writing and, like, making that happen. The work that you're doing with CYCLES is so important and I'm just so excited that that's finally gonna live in the world. 'Cause I know you've been working on it for a really long time and dreaming about it for a really long time. So I wanna shout you out for that. And like, doing brave work in a scary time is really, really awesome. So shouting you out for that.
Amy: Thank you. Oh my gosh. Well, thank you for joining us today, listeners. I hope something sparked something in you. I hope you're excited to take action and learn more and be part of the change, 'cause I know we are. And yeah, we're proud of you. Whatever you're doing, know that it's enough, and we're proud of you.
Hayley: Yeah. Love you, listeners. See you next week.
Amy: We'll see you next time.
Hayley/Amy: Bye!
(Music)
Hayley: Thank you for listening to the Women & Theatre Podcast. We’re your hosts, Hayley Goldenberg…
Amy: …and Amy Andrews! If you like what you heard, subscribe and give us a 5-star review wherever you listen.
Hayley: You can also follow us on social @womenandtheatreproject to make sure you never miss an episode.
Amy: The music for this show was written by talented Women & Theatre community member Chloe Geller.
Hayley: Thanks again for listening, everyone. See you next time!
Amy: Bye!
