Guest post by Jason330
Well, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is on the chopping block. That means 100% of its funding to Delaware for FY25 is probably gone. That’s right – poof! Zeroed out. Vanished.
In 2024, the NEA granted the Delaware Division of the Arts a modest $950,000. Not exactly a king’s ransom, but that was leveraged up into a whopping $4.5 million in support for arts organizations across the state. That’s a 374% return on investment. Wall Street wishes it had those numbers.
But now, thanks to the brilliance of Elon Musk, we’re likely looking at severe cuts and layoffs in 2025. Let’s break down what this means:
• The Delaware Art Museum ($328K), Grand Opera House ($322K), and Freeman Arts Pavilion ($341K) are staring down the barrel of significant shortfalls.
• Smaller groups like Bootless Stageworks ($5K), Milton Arts Guild ($4K), and Children’s Theatre of Dover ($3.6K) might as well start selling lemonade to stay afloat.
• Essential capital projects – lighting systems, safety upgrades, flood prevention – are now wishful thinking.
This isn’t just a funding cut; it’s a cultural lobotomy. The arts aren’t a luxury; they’re the soul of our communities, the heartbeat of our collective identity. But hey, who needs a soul when you can have a flying palace from Qatar?
So, bravo. You’ve managed to turn a thriving arts ecosystem into a cautionary tale. And to our local leaders: Time to step up. The arts community has done more with less for years. Now, they need more to do anything at all.