The National Endowment for the Arts has terminated a grant supporting the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, museum director Kristy Edmunds said Tuesday.
The cancellation of the grant, a $50,000 award to support Native American artist Jeffrey Gibson’s commission, “Power Full Because We’re Different,” arrived by email Friday evening, part of a nationwide wave of cancellation letters the agency sent out mere hours after President Donald J. Trump proposed abolishing the NEA in his next budget.
“As painful as this is financially, what is more so is the diminishment of our revered national agencies and their staff after decades of service in elevating our national creativity, innovation and cultural contributions,” Edmunds wrote in an email to supporters. She added that the grant cancellation “will throw us into greater financial struggle.”
Edmunds included a section of the termination letter, which said the agency was shifting its grant-making “priorities to focus funding on projects that reflect the nation’s rich artistic heritage and creativity as prioritized by the President.”
“Consequently, we are now terminating awards that fall outside these new priorities,” it stated. “Funding is being allocated in a new direction in furtherance of the Administration’s agenda.”
It remains unclear how many organizations have had their grants cut. A crowd-sourced document circulating among arts administrators nationwide showed Tuesday that nearly than 200 organizations — including many in New England — have reported losing more than $5 million.
Numerous Boston-area arts groups have also reported receiving similar cancellation notices, including ZUMIX, Castle of our Skins, Boston String Academy, and Project STEP. Many of the grants support education programs for students who are low-income or come from diverse backgrounds.
“This piece of federal money is a big deal,” said Emily Ruddock, executive director of the arts advocacy group, MASSCreative. “In some cases it is the decision of whether or not you’re going to do a project.”
The cancellations follow earlier grant terminations from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. On Friday, president Trump suggested eliminating those three agencies, along with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, in his budget proposal.
Gibson, a Choctaw and Cherokee artist who represented the United States at last year’s Venice Biennale, created “Power Full” to inhabit Mass MOCA’s sprawling Building 5.
Mass MoCA’s Edmunds said that the IMLS had previously sent a grant termination notification for an award for staff training on technology. She noted that the earlier letter said the grant was being cancelled because it “is no longer consistent with agency priorities and no longer serves the interest of the United States.”
“Please take a moment and read that last sentence again: ‘…no longer serves the interest of the United States,” she wrote. “These actions in combination with their rhetoric are unnerving, and are but one of many challenges at hand and to come.”
Malcolm Gay can be reached at malcolm.gay@globe.com. Follow him @malcolmgay.
