As NEA Cuts Hit Hard, Arts Groups Are Readying Their Fundraising Pitches

Last year, the three federal grantmaking agencies that award funds to arts and culture groups received a total of $708.8 million to award in a nation of 340 million people—or just over $2 per resident. When Deborah Block, artistic director of Philadelphia’s nonprofit theater company Theatre Exile, received word last November that a $25,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts had been approved for the development and production of R. Eric Thomas’ play Glitter in the Glass, she immediately set to work on getting this dramatic piece up and running. Fifteen people—including a stage manager, an assistant stage...