A few words about our federal funding

And why some SCAC grants and programs are paused

There are some social posts about how the federal grant funding pause is affecting SCAC grants and select programs, and we need to add some context to the discussion.

When the funding pause was announced, the SCAC notified grantees that we were taking the precautionary step of closing some select grant categories about five weeks early. Why? Two simple reasons.

• First… We fund some grant categories (and programs) using our federal award from the National Endowment for the Arts, which was frozen.
• Second, as with most of the grants we award, our NEA grant is reimbursement based. Like many of you, we apply for and receive an award. We then “draw” from that amount periodically as expenses occur from among things funded by NEA grant money. We cannot use federal funds for grants without knowing they will be available to cover those expenses.

Rather than make a promise we might not be able to fulfill (if something unexpected happens longer-term on the federal level), we proactively closed select categories and paused some programmatic funding support.  We are looking at all options for reopening those grants in FY26 (July 2025 to June 2026) because we want to help *all* #SCArtists, arts organizations, and schools and teachers reach their goals.

There are currently no changes to any other grant categories.  We are tracking how events in Washington are affecting our colleagues at the NEA, but there have been no additional federal changes to this point that affect how the SCAC provides grants or services.

We hope that this clears up the “what” and “why” behind our decisions.  The SCAC is nonpartisan and grateful for tremendous support from both political parties. As such, we welcome constructive, relevant, and non-political dialogue in our comments section.