The Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) stands in deep solidarity with our national and local partners as the arts and culture sector faces yet another wave of uncertainty—this time at the federal level. We have learned that DOGE has made its way to the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), and a reduction in force is anticipated. With that comes the real concern of significant cuts to the NEA’s grants budget.
As with our partners, we encourage all organizations that hold an NEA grant agreement, we encourage you to log into your grants portal immediately and request any outstanding disbursements or reimbursements.
At a time when we’re already seeing shifts in state-level support, the potential loss of federal investment is particularly alarming for our small and mid-sized organizations—many of which are led by BIPOC, immigrant, LGBTQIA+, and disabled creatives who’ve long been doing the grassroots work of cultural stewardship. These are the organizations keeping our region vibrant, connected, and evolving. All our arts, culture, and heritage organizations need our collective support more than ever.
In this critical moment, we also want to amplify the effort by Americans for the Arts (AFTA) to gather data through its National Pulse Survey, which seeks to understand how federal and state policy decisions are impacting your work, your organization, and your community.
Take the survey by May 9, 2025:
https://surveys.AmericansForTheArts.org/s3/ImpactOfFederalPolicies
It matters:
- It will give voice to local challenges and provide nationwide insight into how policies are affecting communities like ours.
- Results will be publicly available and sortable by geography, discipline, and organization size.
- The survey takes only 6 minutes to complete and is available in Spanish to expand accessibility.
Your voice is essential. The more voices from Portland and across our broader region that include Clackamas, Washington, Multnomah, and even Clark Counties to respond, the clearer our shared story becomes.
We see you. We’re with you. And we will continue advocating for the support you deserve at every level – local, regional, state, and federal.
With gratitude for all that you do,
The RACC Team