The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation have announced their joint commitment to provide $800,000 of funding to 80 small and midsized organizations whose National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Challenge America Grants were canceled in February. The support is specifically for visual arts programs.
Though the Challenge America grantees were announced in January 2025, the following month the NEA announced the granting program, which supports historically underserved communities, was canceled. The move falls in line with President Trump’s January 20 Executive Order Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing, which orders federal agencies to terminate all diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.
In a press release, Joel Wachs, President of the Andy Warhol Foundation, said, “The Warhol Foundation recognizes the essential contributions that small arts organizations make to our cultural lifeblood by giving artists in every corner of the country a platform from which to be seen and heard. We want them to know that we see the extremely difficult circumstances under which they are operating and we value and appreciate their work. We are committed to providing some semblance of stability and continuity during this time of unprecedented upheaval.”
Elizabeth Smith, Executive Director of the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, added, “In times of crisis — whether in response to natural disaster, global pandemic, or financial disruption — foundations do their best work when they come together to assert shared values. … While our missions focus support on the visual arts, our shared hope is that this effort may inspire peer funders to support Challenge America grantees working outside of the visual arts, who remain in urgent need of assistance.”
International Museum of Art and Science in McAllen, Texas.
Six Texas arts organizations will receive funding through this initiative, including the Art Museum of Southeast Texas in Beaumont, in support of a solo exhibition featuring José Villalobos; Cine Las Americas in Austin, in support of its international film festival; Latinitas in Austin, which is working to create a public installation of mosaics honoring local Black and Latina community leaders; the International Museum of Art and Science in McAllen, to support a touring exhibition of Mexican and Latin American folk art; the Old Jail Art Center in Albany, for its exhibitions in historic jail cells; and Shabach Enterprise in Houston, to support a series of master classes for artists.
The Warhol and Frankenthaler announcement acknowledges the federal administration’s proposal to eliminate the NEA completely in 2026. In April, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) recommended drastically reducing National Endowment for Humanities (NEH) staff and canceling grants, which immediately had far-reaching effects on humanities councils across the country.
This larger initiative of defunding the NEA and the NEH has been a part of Republican Party’s political plans since the 1990s. The Heritage Foundation website provides a 1997 report detailing reasons to defund NEA, one being “The arts will have more than enough support with NEA.” The report notes that private funding already makes up a substantial portion of arts funding and that budget cuts to NEA in the past resulted in increased private funding.
Just as the Warhol and Frankenthaler Foundations have stepped in to support some of the funding lost through the Challenge America grant, at the end of April, the Mellon Foundation granted $15 million to the Federation of State Humanities Councils to support humanities organizations that recently lost funding. However, according to the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, it is often rural communities that rely on federal support and are more likely to be underfunded by private funding alone.
In recent days, the NEA has announced the termination of and withdrawal of grant awards from its Grants for Arts Projects program, and a slew of NEA staff have shared their plans to step down from the organization. In email newsletters, high-level employees shared that staff was “given the opportunity to accept an offer to leave the agency through the Deferred Resignation Program or, if eligible, retirement.”
Staff who have announced the upcoming departures include Michelle Hoffmann, the Arts Education Director; Bridget Zangueneh, Museum & VIsual Arts Director; Lei Maahs, Folk & Traditional Arts Director; Greg Reiner, Theater & Musical Arts Director; and Michael Orlove, Director of State, Regional & Local Partnerships, and International Activities.
Disclosure: Glasstire is a recipient of funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and is among the organizations that, late last week, received an email announcing the termination of an awarded grant.
