The Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Just Buffalo Literary Center and the Buffalo Arts Studio are just a handful of local arts organizations that have received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in the last decade.
But last week, the prestigious national arts fund changed its compliance guidelines in response to two Trump-signed Executive Orders (EO 14173 and EO 14168).
From 2026, NEA grants will not be awarded to those operating programs "promoting Diversity Equity and Inclusion", or “gender ideology,” according to the updated rules.
The fund has awarded grants to 22 Buffalo arts organizations since 2015.
"It is the most prestigious arts funding to secure and has been absolutely critical to Just Buffalo Literary Center," said Just Buffalo's Executive Director, Barbara Cole.
NEA grants have partially funded Just Buffalo Literary Center's Babel series over the years, which brings internationally renowned authors to Buffalo.
Names of literary behemoths pepper the list of past speakers, including Edna O’ Brien, Colson Whitehead, and the Nobel Prize winning Toni Morrison.
Since 2015, Just Buffalo has received a total $332,000 in separate NEA grants. That cash has also funded the center’s Civil Writes project which celebrates the legacy of prominent Black writers who have called Buffalo home.
It is not yet clear how the new rules will impact arts groups, but Cole says the center’s goals will remain the same.
"We remain absolutely committed and steadfast to to our mission: fostering creativity and understanding," she said.
Fellow local arts leader, Shirley Verrico, is also unswerving in the face of the updated rules.
"We're going to continue to fulfill our mission, and I feel very strongly about that. If it means that we're no longer eligible for NEA funding, so be it," Verrico said.
Verrico is the Director of Visual Arts and curator at the Buffalo Arts Studio which provides affordable studio space for working artists.
The nonprofit has received NEA funding for past projects, some of which have dealt with issues of identity, cultural heritage, and race, "because those are issues that people are dealing with in the real world and in our own community," Verrico said.
She outlines the source of worry and confusion in the new stipulations.
"Part of what I find troubling in these trends is there aren't clear definitions," she said.
"It feels as though a lot of labeling that's being thrown about doesn't have a legal definition, much less a literal definition. So I find it disconcerting that folks are supposed to react to this. I think one person's DEI is another person's daily life."
The NEA did not return WBFO’s request for comment or respond to questions seeking a definition of terms in the updated guidelines.
The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra's Executive Director, Daniel Hart, was digesting the changes when he spoke with WBFO.
"I don't know how it will impact us," he said. "I guess we'll have to see. It's an evolving situation - there's a lot of uncertainty about it, and I guess we'd have to have time to really kind of evaluate it.
The BPO has received NEA grants totaling $202,500 since 2015, with each grant award amounting to between $15,000 to $50,000 each year. Those numbers may pale in comparison to the organization's $14 million annual operating budget, but Hart emphasizes even relatively small amounts matter.
"Any loss of revenue is going to be felt, for sure, even on a $14 million budget every penny counts I can guarantee you. We are run on razor-thin margins at best, and mostly deficits. So anything that goes away would be not good."
New York arts organizations have received more than $190 million in grants from the NEA since 2015, with $2.4M of that going to Buffalo-based groups.
U.S. Senator for New York, Kirsten Gillibrand did not mince words when WBFO asked for her take on the changes.
“I think the new rules are deeply uninformed and are bigoted," Gillibrand said.
"I think the purpose of the rules is to divide the nation, to harm people and to undermine the strong work the national endowment of the arts have done to bring arts and understanding across the globe.”
Along with the new legal requirements, the NEA announced it has also shelved its Challenge America funding starting 2026, which awarded grants for projects for underserved communities.
Buffalo's Shakespeare in Delaware Park received a $10,000 Challenge America grant in 2024, which the theater organization used to provide free educational programming in schools and community centers.
"We were able to go into five different schools, four community centers, some senior centers, to work doing educational programming revolving around Shakespeare," said Lisa Ludwig, Executive Director at Shakespeare in Delaware Park.
Ludwig added that the schools and centers visited were unlikely to have been able to pay teachers or workshop leaders for the classes, so the grant funding facilitated increased access to the arts for underserved audiences.
"So to hear that other people might not be able to partake in a grant like that is, of course, always very disheartening," she said.
Right now, local arts leaders are confounded by the changes. The crux is - how will arts organizations deliver their mission if the nature of the mission itself means no more NEA funding?
Cole is in the midst of working that out.
"It is always necessary but especially when we see that stories are trying to be silenced, voices are being silenced, we need to dig in and figure out a way to keep going and keep making sure that we are hearing all of the different voices and stories in the community, not just a few."
