La Jolla Playhouse and Bodhi Tree Concerts are at least two La Jolla-based arts organizations among several around San Diego and hundreds nationwide that recently received email letters from the National Endowment for the Arts stating that their federal grants had been terminated or withdrawn because they don’t meet the Trump istration’s new funding criteria. Most recipients were given a week to file an appeal.
The NEA has not issued a list of all the grants that were canceled, but La Jolla Playhouse and Bodhi Tree were among eight San Diego-area organizations that told The San Diego Union-Tribune that they lost their 2024-25 NEA grants, ranging from $10,000 to $40,000.
The others are Project Blank, San Diego Opera, San Diego Ballet, Center for World Music, Sacra/Profana and the Playwrights Project.
The local grantees have filed appeals, but many say they’re pessimistic of success because their missions don’t line up with the new federal funding guidelines. The NEA’s new grantmaking policy priorities focus on projects that “elevate the nation’s HBCUs [historically Black colleges and universities] and Hispanic-serving institutions, celebrate the 250th anniversary of American independence, foster AI competency, empower houses of worship to serve communities, assist with disaster recovery, foster skilled trade jobs, make America healthy again, the military and veterans, tribal communities, make the District of Columbia safe and beautiful and the economic development of Asian American communities.”
La Jolla Playhouse lost a $20,000 grant to help pay for its 2025 Without Walls Festival, which was held April 24-27 on the UC San Diego campus, a week before the grant cancellation notice arrived. The festival, presented mostly free of charge to the public, attracts tens of thousands of visitors each year.
Playhouse Managing Director Debby Buchholz said in a statement that she and her staff are devastated for all the organizations that lost NEA grants, saying the arts are vital for society.
“Since its inception, the NEA has stood as a testament to the principle that the arts are an invaluable public good worthy of federal and should be accessible to all Americans, in every state and in every congressional district,” Buchholz wrote. “The mass defunding of arts and cultural institutions doesn’t just take a budgetary toll, it is an attempt to undermine the very existence of the NEA and to invalidate the incredible cultural expression, economic opportunity and community-building that the arts provide.”
Bodhi Tree Concerts finished its 2025 season of Mexico-themed performances May 3 and will participate in Music en la Calle, a free international music festival in City Heights on Saturday, June 14.
That will lead up to the world premiere in January of “Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote,” a bilingual children’s opera written by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Anthony Davis and librettist Allan Havis.
Bodhi Tree commissioned the opera in 2017 and has received three NEA grants over the years for its development. The third, now-canceled, $15,000 grant was earmarked to fund education and outreach activities for “Pancho Rabbit” at a Chula Vista school.
Bodhi Tree, founded in 2011 by Diana and Walter DuMelle, says it is dedicated to diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and donates all of its concert profits to anti-poverty and social justice charities.
Diana DuMelle said she filed an appeal with the NEA aiming to rescind the grant cancellation because the federal criteria mentions elevating “Hispanic-serving institutions,” and 90% of the artists associated with “Pancho Rabbit” are Latin Americans.
But she’s not optimistic her appeal will succeed.
“I don’t have a lot of hope,” DuMelle said. “But I’m more determined than ever to do the program. The premiere will happen. I’ll find the money. I believe in the project with my whole heart, and we’re going to make it happen.”
— Pam Kragen ♦
