Playbill: Last week, the National Endowment for the Arts posted new guidelines for any grant recipients, saying that any recipient of a grant from the federal agency needs to comply with current executive orders, including those signed by President Donald Trump. In particular, any grantees must certify that they will not promote diversity and gender expression in their work. This news has been met with outcry in the artistic community.
4 comments:
Absolutely insane how the government is trying to censor one thats not a cis het white man. Seriously cohersion through promise of reward is just as bad as coercion through punishment. The way this order is worded as “Defending Women” while simultaneously barring us from any program that may depend on government funding is absurd. It’s only the first month of his presidency, I fear we’re going to see a lot more of this in the future.
It is so ridiculous that DEI is being wiped from the face of the USA at this point. I can understand the legality of making companies and programs that are receiving government funding comply with anti DEI, but it is not right for places that receive NEa grants to have to comply with this executive order. They are receiving a one time grant, not continual federal funding. They are private companies which can make their own decisions about whether to include DEI in their company policy or not. Trump is holding funding and money over people’s heads in order to make them submit to his policies. This really feels like an overreach of power. I wish more people would get out in the streets. I also love the articles point that the hope of NeA is probably that by complying they can continue to do their work, but really all that does is feed into this semi authoritarian law. It’s really none of the governments business whether a company has DEI or not
It is insane to me that the federal government's language is this explicit and people are still in denial of this country's descent into authoritarianism. I think the NEA's decision is appaling and it is disheartening to see members of the arts world succumbing to such a blatant public manipulation tactic. This guideline is a violation of free speech, and not only discriminatory, but a clear indicator of where this country is headed. Make America follow the constitution again.
I absolutely despise what is happening to the arts on a federal level. The Trump administration is cranking out executive orders that harm so many people, and organizations are crumbling beneath its boot. The National Endowment for the Arts is one of those organizations that arguably stood no chance from the beginning- and has now stated that grantees must confirm that they won’t promote diversity nor gender expression in their artwork. This is ridiculous. I’m glad that there is an outcry against this, but I’m so afraid it won’t be enough to cause change. After all, the NEA holds little power against the federal government, and the federal government won’t change its bigotry unless the outcry is louder than big mouthed Trump and his cronies in his administration. I wonder how this will impact not only the art itself we see over the next four years, but also arts administrations.
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