Crosby Kemper III at the Kansas City Public Library in 2019 during his tenure as director
Arts organizations express uncertainty and alarm as the Trump administration slashes budgets and rescinds grants
Crosby Kemper III has loved the arts, promoted the arts and produced the arts for most of his adult life. The co-founder of the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival also led the Kansas City Public Library for several years and at one time was board president of what was then called Missouri Repertory Theatre. In 2019, in the first Trump administration, Kemper accepted an appointment as director of a little-known federal agency, the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Kemper also happens to be a lifelong Republican. So we figured: Who better to speak about the second Trump administration’s assault on any and all arts and culture funding than Kemper?
The National Endowment for the Arts as well as the National Endowment for the Humanities have seen their budgets slashed. That hurts arts funding across the country because NEA funding trickles down — or used to — through state agencies such as the Missouri Arts Council as well as individual arts organizations. Then, in the midst of budget slashing in the name of “efficiency,” Trump added insult to injury by naming himself head of the Kennedy Center.
“It’s not clear, other than a celebration of Pope Donald, what they want to do,” Kemper said. Trump has shown the self-regard of a Roman emperor — as we’ve so often seen in movies about ancient Rome — and voiced his desire for a military parade in his own honor.
“It’s outside of the American tradition,” Kemper said. “George Washington wasn’t like that. Lincoln wasn’t like that. Americans don’t want an emperor. But here they are, cancelling grants — cancelling grants that have already been made. People were awarded the grants and organizations have already committed some of the money. It’s just bad behavior by the administration.”
As Kemper sees it, Trump and his team have sown uncertainty, thanks in large part to Elon Musk’s team of zealots who have attacked the federal budget with chainsaws and flamethrowers in the name of “efficiency.”
“There’s no sense of honor, no sense of duty, responsibility or care in any of this,” Kemper said. “It’s performative activities which this administration seems to want to do by making a ‘big statement.’ The Kennedy Center was created in the (Lyndon) Johnson administration. Some federal funding for library activities goes back to the 1920s.”
From Kemper’s viewpoint, the federal government’s traditional efforts to stimulate and cultivate American culture through the arts is an honorable undertaking.
“What’s really at issue here is what we think of ourselves as Americans and what we think about our culture,” he said. “So far, all we’ve seen is the ego-related stuff from the president.”
Kemper said the Trump crew seems to have little regard for the country’s traditions.
“I grew up as a relatively liberal conservative Republican,” Kemper said. “One thing we thought we were resisting was the Imperial Presidency… Since Obama we’ve expanded and expanded the federal government and especially expanded the power of the President of the United States. Executive orders are now running the government. I can’t believe that people who call themselves Republicans or conservatives can support that.”
Kemper would like to see some appreciation from Trump for the history of the country, which next year will celebrate its 250th anniversary.
“They’re missing in action on that,” Kemper said. “They mainly seem driven by resentment of DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) and stuff like that. But the cause of freedom just doesn’t exist in this administration.”
“What I see, frankly, is the complete dismantling of arts culture and
celebration of true democratic history… From my perspective that is really the
true foundation of our democracy.”
— Dana Knapp, President and CEO ArtsKC
War on DEI
Indeed, the Trump administration declared war on DEI in January, even to the point of removing official portraits of African American leaders from public buildings and scrubbing the Arlington National Cemetery website of any mention of minority veterans.
Trump and his people see expanding rights and opportunities for traditionally underserved groups, including ethnic minorities, as “immense public waste and shameful discrimination.”
The thrust of it is a long-standing notion that white people are the victims of “reverse discrimination.” In May, the Trump administration granted political asylum to a group of white South Africans depicted as alleged victims of genocide by the country’s Black majority. Trump continued what his critics consider meritless claims during a visit to the Oval Office by the South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa. When asked by a reporter what he thought Ramaphosa should do about the alleged genocide of Afrikaner farmers, Trump said he didn’t know.
Dana Knapp, president and CEO of ArtsKC, an arts agency that works with many nonprofit cultural groups, said the Trump administration’s war on diversity and inclusiveness is tantamount to an assault on virtually all nonprofit arts and cultural groups. Minority representation has always been a priority in the cultural nonprofit sector. That includes theater, dance, music and visual arts.
“I think it’s important for us as a community and a nation to really understand that there are assaults from a variety of areas,” Knapp said. “It’s really important for us to keep our eyes on a broader vantage point. It’s all connected. It’s freedom of expression, access to information, a clear and unbiased telling of our human history. Agencies that support that are under assault.”
Now, thanks to the Trump White House’s aversion to DEI, applicants for federal grants are basically warned in black-and-white that they risk, at a bare minimum, getting turned down.
“In italics you will see the change in guidelines based on the executive orders in regard to DEI,” Knapp said. “It suggests that any inclusions of DEI … puts you at risk of investigation for discriminatory practices.”
And that puts applicants in a bind. Choices include not even bothering to apply or diluting the stated need for a grant and waiting to see if your application triggers an investigation.
Knapp pointed out that these threats come at a time when the arts sector is still recovering from the trauma of COVID.
“We are already under-sourced organizations still digging out from the pandemic,” Knapp said. “A lot of organizations have depleted their reserves. It’s just one more complication that makes it harder to complete the mission.”
Reminder: Republican antipathy to arts funding is nothing new. In 1997 Jesse Helms and Missouri’s own John Ashcroft introduced a Senate bill to eliminate all NEA funding. Helms was quoted in the New York Times: “It is self evident that many of beneficiaries of NEA grants are contemptuous of traditional standards . . . phony, self-appointed artists who insist on using the American taxpayers’ money to finance anything they want to drag up from the sewer and declare to be art.”
The current Trump administration takes a different approach, in essence arguing that the NEA and other “woke” arts-and-culture organizations no longer serve “mainstream” Americans.
“The (first Trump) administration zeroed out NEA and NEH funding but it was overridden because Democrats had the House,” Knapp said. “That, I think, is a glimpse of the future. What I see, frankly, is the complete dismantling of arts culture and celebration of true democratic history… From my perspective that is really the true foundation of our democracy. It’s connected to freedom of expression, literacy and culture and the representation of diverse cultures. All of that is really at the basis of who we are as humans and who we are as societies. I lie awake nights. So little of it is within my control. But this has me deeply troubled.”
Missouri Humanities Takes a Hit
One Missouri organization, Missouri Humanities, offers a snapshot of what happens when a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities was approved and then withdrawn.
Ashley Beard-Fosnow, Missouri Humanities executive director, put it succinctly: “$2.7 million is a lot of money.”
That’s how much the Missouri Humanities expected to receive from the NEH this year. But that was before Trump-appointed billionaire Elon Musk and his acolytes from the so-called Department of Government Efficiency began wading into the federal budget with machetes.
Beard-Fosnow said the Trump cuts are “a hit to culture and to history and the humanities.”
“That means that projects already in progress, with budgets previously decided and in some cases hires in place, are halting,” reported the Missouri Independent. “Over the last 10 years, Missouri received $19.4 million in grants from the NEH, an independent federal agency supporting the humanities in every state and U.S. jurisdiction. It is tasked by Congress to provide humanities access to all Americans, and Congress has appropriated funds for that purpose.”
But that was before Trump II decided to unleash people who might generously be described as anarchists to slash, cut and burn the federal bureaucracy, in some cases firing government employees they later had to rehire.
“We were unprepared for this,’ said Beard-Fosnow. “Missouri Humanities is a nonprofit organization. So we’ve been working for years to diversify our funding so that we can remain stable. But $2.7 million is a lot of money.”
The grant would have helped pay for, among other things, a Kansas City Museum Osage cultural history exhibit, a people’s history of Kansas City, a history of Kansas City streetcars, a series of radio programs in partnership with the Truman Library and other diverse projects across the state. In the past Missouri Humanities has sponsored book festivals, traveling exhibits, partnerships with the Black Archives and other local organizations.
“We’re trying to figure out how to get humanities content in front of Missourians in a way that will enrich their lives,” she said. “I want to make sure those life-changing experiences are still available not only for my own children but for the next generation of Missourians.”
Charlotte Street, the nonprofit arts organization that issues grants and commissions to visual and generative performing artists as well as providing free studio and performance spaces, in May issued a formal statement in response to the loss of an already-approved $25,000 grant from the NEA. Interim executive director Lane Czaplinski wrote that a letter from the NEA rescinding the grant claimed that new standards were in place. Arts funding from now on would go to projects that “reflect the nation’s rich artistic heritage and creativity as prioritized by the President,” the letter stated.
Czaplinski’s take: “It was the kind of action that trades principle for showmanship, and public service for political gain. In theatrics, the tokenizing of people and institutions and the pitting of them against one another are nothing more than petulant power grabs with devastating consequences.” You can read Czaplinski’s full statement at charlottestreet.org.
