Every arts director at the NEA exits federal culture agency (2025)

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) saw an exodus of senior leaders and other employees this week, further hampering its operations as the Trump administration has sought to redirect much of the arts funding it distributes and ultimately shut down the agency.

All 10 directors who oversee grants in various disciplines of the arts — such as museums, theater, design, and folk and traditional arts — are leaving the agency, according to a review of emails obtained by The Washington Post as well as three people with close knowledge of the agency, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.

That includes the director of literary arts and three of her colleagues in that division, who wrote, in a co-authored email distributed by the literary coalition LitNet: “We are processing a lot of complex emotions in this moment, as we imagine you are too in light of recent agency developments, but know that we remain unwavering in our overall support of all of you and the critical work you do.”

At least two members of senior leadership also announced their departures: Michael Orlove, director of state, regional and local partnerships, and international activities; and Ayanna Hudson, the agency’s chief strategy, programs and engagement officer. Also leaving are officials in charge of Native arts and grants for Challenge America, a program aimed at “underserved communities” that was canceled in February.

Along with the artistic-discipline directors — who served as the public faces of the NEA in their respective fields — many of the specialists charged with reviewing grant applications and making funding recommendations have also retired or resigned. The full extent of the departures is unclear. When asked by The Post how many staffers had left, an NEA spokesperson wrote in an email: “A few weeks ago, the NEA offered staff the option to accept an offer to leave the agency through either the Deferred Resignation Program or, if eligible, retirement. Some staff accepted an offer. Some did not.”

The American Federation of Government Employees Local 3403, which represents staffers at the NEA, addressed the departures in a statement to The Post: “These coerced resignations are another attempt to dismantle the NEA altogether.”

“The NEA has enjoyed strong bipartisan support from Congress, and the breadth of recipients reflect the breadth of the nation,” said Heather Noonan, vice president for advocacy at the League of American Orchestras, expressing concern about the grant rescissions and Trump’s proposed budget.

Trump’s fiscal 2026 budget plan proposes $163 billion in cuts across much of the federal government and calls for the elimination of several small agencies — including the NEA, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).

“The move would have immediate repercussions for the 56 state and territorial humanities councils funded through NEH — nonprofits that for decades have supported humanities programs in local communities,” stated a news release from the Federation of State Humanities Councils.

“The work of state and jurisdictional humanities councils includes programs that help veterans heal, teach children to read skillfully and think critically, and provide grants to grassroots, volunteer-driven projects that simply would not happen without the resources of humanities councils,” the federation president, Phoebe Stein, said in the release.

The plan follows dramatic changes at the NEH, where about 1,200 grants were canceled and almost 75 percent of its staff removed last month as the agency directed funds to next year’s celebrations for the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and Trump’s proposed National Garden of American Heroes.

About $17 million would be routed from the NEH and another $17 million from the NEA to support the two initiatives, according to a person who was briefed on the plans and spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a confidential matter.

Last month, the NEH announced a public funding opportunity to commission statues from Trump’s 250-person list of “famous American statesmen, visionaries, and innovators.” Potential honorees included President Ronald Reagan, Louis Armstrong, Davy Crockett, Amelia Earhart, Alexander Hamilton, Rosa Parks, Edgar Allan Poe, Norman Rockwell, Frank Sinatra and more.

The founding of the NEA and NEH in 1965 was symbolically as well as financially significant, said Oskar Eustis, artistic director of the Public Theater in New York and a leader of the Professional Non-Profit Theater Coalition.

“In an oligarchy, the rich people are the patrons of culture and art; in a monarchy, the king or queen are the patron of art; and in democracy, it’s completely appropriate for the people’s government to be patrons of art,” Eustis said. “Art has always had patrons. There’s no society we know of in history where the market was sufficient to support the art. The question is just who is going to be the patrons, and what kind of art will they support?”

He added: “In a democracy, the NEA is there to say, ‘The people are going to support the art.’ And I shudder if that goes away.”