Dear Friend of The Cherry,
I saw it on Reddit. Because you joined r/Theater: “Check your emails from the NEA.”
The email is anonymous, from “no-reply@arts.gov.”
The funding recommendation is Withdrawn by the Agency and the National Endowment for the Arts will no longer offer award funding for the project.
And like that, $15,000 that had been committed to the Cherry, funding we had relied on, was gone.
Hundreds of arts organizations across the country received this email Saturday night. The emails didn’t cancel new applications in the pipeline—they withdrew awards that had been granted seven months ago. The Cherry, along with our peers, had made real budgeting decisions based on a firm commitment of support made by the federal government.
If it’s within your capacity to donate now, you can help undo one small part of the damage done by this administration, now well-known for its willingness to dishonor promises made by our country.
Since decades of political attacks have shrunk the NEA’s budget, relatively few organizations receive federal arts funding. So last summer, when we found out we’d been honored with our very first NEA grant, the Cherry was bursting with pride! The funding was in support of our world premiere of Saviana Stanescu’s Ithaca Fever, and we danced in the office when we got the news.
If you saw Ithaca Fever, you know why the Endowment was so enthusiastic about it. The play dived into Ithaca’s local history to tell a deeply personal—and deeply political—story about media ethics, about public vs private ownership, and about the dreams of the immigrants who make our country who we are.
The email says: “Funding is being allocated in a new direction in furtherance of the Administration’s agenda.” You don’t say. If you know anything of the Cherry Arts, you know that our international, innovative work has always stood for everything that is opposed to “America First.” We only have to look at recent tariff debacles to see that isolation from the rest of our world leads to no economic good—and that more importantly, spiritual and intellectual impoverishment is found there too.
We understand that many thousands of people, in our country and around the world, are suffering very real hardships brought on by this administration. I am writing to assure you, our beloved community, that we stand with those people, and we will continue to perform the role that has been assigned to us as artists. We have an agenda too, and it is unchanged. We will not adjust our voice. We will continue to make work that celebrates plurality, generosity, openheartedness and joy, and that resists with all our hearts the forces of narrowness, xenophobia, and fear. We will steadfastly support our partner artists and companies, who share these values to the bottom of their spirits.
If everyone who reads this were to donate $25, $50, or $100, we would raise far more than Saturday’s email pulled away from the Cherry Arts’ mission. And we will put every last dollar we receive into newly emboldened, joyful work. We are energized, and we have no fear.
We believe that the forces now running our country will be defeated. Until then we will continue to resist with all the tools at our disposal, doing our part to bring together a joyful community of open spirits, in creative spaces that lift and expand all of our souls.
We are honored and grateful to have you with us.
In defiance and in hope,
The Cherry Arts Family