President Donald Trump’s assault on arts, culture and the humanities has entered a new phase, creating additional challenges for nonprofit organizations that have already lost federal funding but won some important victories in the federal courts.

That includes those in Oregon, where dozens of grants totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars were canceled shortly after Trump took office for supposedly violating his newly announced policy priorities. But in early August the Oregon Council for the Humanities also secured a preliminary injunction in federal court against the termination of grants to state humanities councils across the country.

That setback – and similar court victories in other states – has not stopped the Trump Administration from continuing to impose additional content restrictions on federal grants, however. On Aug. 7, Trump upped the ante by signing Executive Order 14332, “Improving Oversight of Federal Grantmaking.”

The order explicitly prohibits funding for initiatives promoting “gender ideology,” “racial preferences,” or “anti-American values,” which is widely thought to ban portrayals of the displacement of Native Americans, the legacy of slavery, and anything else that portrays the history of the country in a negative light.

Concern is also growing over whether Trump will propose eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities in his next proposed federal budget, and whether the Republican majorities in Congress will go along. In July they eliminated all funding for for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and in October Oregon public radio and television stations were fighting to make up for the lost funds.

The situation is unprecedented and evolving quickly, at the minimum creating uncertainty for organizations that rely on federal grants for much of their programs and operations. All of them will eventually have to decide whether to apply for future federal funding with conditions opposed by many of their employees, board members, donors and patrons. Such decisions may have to be made as the issue is working its way through the federal courts – where it may ultimately be decided by the U.S Supreme Court.

Decisions will have to be made as many governments in Oregon are facing their own financial crises that are impacting the arts, culture and humanities.

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For example, in June the Multnomah County Commission approved cutting $300,000 from the Regional Arts and Culture Council to balance its next budget. RACC is the county’s designated arts and culture agency. Last year it awarded $214,000 in county funded grants to 54 community-based projects, ranging from arts in public parks and classrooms to BIPOC artist retreats and cultural festivals.

“While we recognize the difficult decisions facing our County leaders, we must also speak plainly about what this reduction means: fewer programs, less support, and lasting impact on community access to the arts,” RACC said in response to the cuts.

The Portland City Council slashed $1 million in general fund support from the budget for the Office of Arts & Culture, a cut that took effect on July 1. As a result, some of the nonprofit organizations the city has supported are expected to receive less. Funding was previously reduced to the Oregon Contemporary Arts Center and Northeast Portland Arts Center, both in North Portland.

In late October, Ashland’s Schneider Museum of Art shelved a scheduled $8 million expansion after Southern Oregon University, where it is located, cut all funding for the nonprofit museum for at least three years as part of a Resiliency Plan.

Late this year, the City of Portland will receive a report that is expected to document that the Portland’5 Centers for the Arts need repairs and maintenance totaling hundreds of millions of dollars, for which there is no funding. The three downtown buildings include five venues that are used by numerous organizations that also are in danger of losing federal funding.

And if the Portland Parks & Recreation property tax levy is defeated at the Nov. 4 election, community centers that support the arts could close across the city as soon as July 1, 2026.

“Everything that is happening is so chaotic, sometimes I feel like we’re living in a dystopian future,” Portland Opera General Director Sue Dixon told Oregon ArtsWatch.

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Portland Opera takes a stand

Portland Opera is one of many nonprofit organizations navigating the rapidly changing landscape. Founded as a traditional opera company in 1964, it has worked hard to broaden its audience in recent years, especially after the pandemic temporarily upended its operations. As part of that effort, the organization has embraced a new mission that directly challenges the Trump Administration’s new priorities.

“We are developing a Cultural Equity Plan for Portland Opera that will be our road map to actively confront and dismantle white supremacy, patriarchy, and exclusion in our company, field, and community,” the organization says on its website. “We commit to being inclusive and strive every day to be an anti-racist organization. This commitment has not always been present at Portland Opera, and we believe that is important to acknowledge the pain that our company has caused, especially to BIPOC individuals, as we consider the history of Portland Opera, and endeavor to build an equitable, inclusive, and diverse company for the future.”

General Director Sue Dixon is adamant that Portland Opera will not change its mission, even if that means it no longer receives any federal funds.

“We are committed to creating spaces where all people are welcome. That’s what we mean by diversity, equity and inclusion. We are not going to walk away from our values,” Dixon said.

According to Director of Development Beth Lewis, two previously submitted NEA grant submissions were “kicked back” shortly after Trump took office. A previous National Parks Service grant was approved and accepted after the organization confirmed no new conditions were attached to it. But Portland Opera will not apply for additional federal funding as long as contract restrictions remain possible, Dixon and Lewis said.

“We will continue relying on out individual donors, family foundations, subscribers and individual ticket sales for support,” Lewis said.

Portland Opera moved its headquarters from the east bank of the Willamette River to the World Trade Center in downtown Portland in February 2025. The organization believes continuing support for the arts is vital for the city’s economic recovery.

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“We can’t do this alone, and I am concerned about the arts ecosystem,” Dixon said.

Gender identity is hot-button issue

Gender identity emerged as a flashpoint in the funding fight when Trump took office on Jan. 20, 2025. That day, he signed Executive Order 14168, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.”

Following that, the National Endowment for the Arts imposed a new requirement on grant applicants to certify that they will not use federal funds to “promote gender ideology.” As a result, any application that appears to “promote” what the government deems to be “gender ideology” cannot receive funding, and any funded project cannot “promote” such ideas or messages, the NEA said.

“A significant overhaul of the NEA’s guidelines took place in the middle of an open application cycle, where it was spotted first by people in the middle of writing an application,” Oregon ArtsWatch writer Claire Willett reported on March 11. “And while some changes were announced by press releases and discussed openly in informational webinars, others weren’t; they were buried deep in the fine print, where initially only grant writers could find them. In fact, the NEA quietly embedded a clause in its grant terms which seemed to effectively bar trans or nonbinary artists from applying for grants … and said nothing about it until now.”

The restriction was challenged by several Rhode Island arts organizations represented by the American Civil Liberties Union. The organizations included Rhode Island Latino Arts, National Queer Theater, The Theater Offensive, and Theatre Communications Group, After they first won a temporary injunction (that was soon lifted), a federal judge eventually ruled the restrictions violate the First Amendment and the federal Administrative Procedures Act, prohibiting enforcement of the restrictions on Sept. 19.

“The First Amendment doesn’t allow the federal government to restrict speech based on what the current administration may or may not like. Congress specifically set up the National Endowment for the Arts to insulate it from this type of political meddling in funding the arts,” said Steven Brown, executive director of the ACLU of Rhode Island. 

Oregon U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden responded to a request for comment by Oregon Arts Watch with the following statement on Oct. 31:

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“Last month, a federal judge reaffirmed protections guaranteed by the First Amendment by striking down the National Endowment of the Arts’ discriminatory guidelines restricting artists’ freedom of speech and expression,” Wyden said. “As the son of a journalist, I am keenly aware of the danger that censoring speech poses to Oregonians and everybody across the country. Donald Trump is bending over backwards to weaponize the federal government and subvert the basic freedoms of the American people. While the administration can appeal the judge’s ruling, I am committed to pushing back on any efforts by this administration to deny anybody in this country their basic rights.”

Questions swirl around future federal funding

In Oregon, at least 27 organizations reported by early May having lost NEA and NEH grants totaling a minimum of $590,000. Most famously, Portland Playhouse lost its $25,000 federal grant for a production of August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone just 24 hours before the show opened in May. Additional grants rescinded included ones to All Classical Radio, NW Children’s Theatre, Passinart: A Theatre Company, Portland Center Stage, Profile Theater Project, and many more.

Willett continued covering the story. During a May 14 appearance on Oregon Public Broadcasting’s Think Out Loud, she estimated the total losses at $800,000. That is the most recent estimate available.

Many of the organizations have appealed the cancellation of their grants. It is unclear if any have even received a response, especially during the federal government shutdown that began on Oct. 1. But an additional question now is, how many will apply for future funding, given the additional explicit restrictions in the “Improving Oversight of Federal Grantmaking” executive order?

That will soon include the Oregon Arts Commission, which was created by the Oregon Legislature to support the arts statewide. It has traditionally received NEA funds to distribute to Oregon arts organizations. That amounted to about $1 million in the current fiscal year.

According to Liora Sponko, senior program manager for the Oregon Arts Commission, the Oregon Department of Justice has reviewed those funds and determined they are in compliance with their partnership agreement and state law.

“If there are content restrictions on future NEA partnership agreements, the Arts Commission would review and discuss them, including any impact it would pose on the field,” she told Oregon ArtsWatch.

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