Beloved island arts education program is among NEA cuts

Allison Halstead Reid, executive director of Vashon Center for the Arts, was heading to an exhibition opening at the arts center on Friday, May 2, when she opened a late-afternoon email from the National Endowment for the Arts.

What she read was a double-whammy — the NEA has not only canceled a previously approved $15,000 grant for VCA’s long-running Vashon Artists in School program for the 2025-2026 school year, but also terminated, effective May 31, a $10,000 grant for programs in 2024-2025, most of which have already taken place.

Vashon Artists in School (VAIS) has long received modest funding from the NEA — around $10,000 annually in recent consecutive years. In 2024, the NEA spotlighted the program in an article on its own website in 2024, still visible at press time at tinyurl.com/774aeh67.

Founded in the late 1980s, VAIS pairs local artists with educators in island public schools for residencies that help students explore subject matter in all grades, and has lately expanded to include occasional free, walkable field trips to VCA for local students to see productions performed by notable touring companies — providing for many, Halstead Reid said, their first experiences in seeing live performances.

In the 2024-25 school year alone, the program served more than 1,000 students in all grade levels on Vashon, with 25 residencies overseen by 20 teaching artists and 26 classroom teachers, said Elizabeth Shaw, who manages the program for VCA.

It is now unclear, said both Halstead Reid and VCA’s grantwriter, Cyra Jane, whether the NEA will honor VCA’s billing — hastily submitted last week — to reimburse VCA for costs already incurred in presenting this year’s programs.

In a May 7 email to the VCA community, Halstead Reid called the cancellation of the grants “a devastating blow, not just to VCA, but to our children and community.” She vowed to move forward with the program.

“We cannot build a future with artists in it if we don’t nurture the youngest artists amongst us,” she wrote, asking islanders to consider donating to the program.

VCA is one of many arts organizations throughout the state and country that received similar emails from the NEA on May 2, canceling already approved funding.

At least 30 Washington nonprofits — including cultural mainstays such as Northwest Folklife Festival, Town Hall, Seattle Theatre Group and the Burke Museum — told The Seattle Times that their NEA grants ranging from $10,000 to $55,000 had been canceled that day.

Most, like VCA, received a similarly-worded email, which came from an address that recipients were told was not monitored.

The email said the NEA was updating its grantmaking priorities to focus on projects “that reflect the nation’s rich artistic heritage and creativity as prioritized by the President” and that, consequently, it was terminating awards that fell outside those parameters.

New priorities touted in the email included “elevating historic Black colleges and universities and Hispanic Serving institutions, celebrating the 250th anniversary of American independence, fostering AI competency, empowering houses of worship to serve communities, assisting with disaster recovery, fostering skilled trade jobs, making America healthy again, supporting the military and veterans, supporting Tribal communities, making the District of Columbia safe and beautiful, and supporting the economic development of Asian American communities.”

And yet, also on May 2, President Trump announced his intention to abolish the NEA as well as the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences. The elimination of funding for these agencies, contained in a budget document, were justified in a narrative that said the action was “consistent with the president’s efforts to decrease the size of the federal government to enhance accountability, reduce waste, and reduce unnecessary governmental entities.”

By Monday, May 5, more news had broken: The New York Times and the Washington Post reported widespread resignations of top officials at the NEA, including directors overseeing grants in dance, design, folk and traditional arts, museums and visual arts, and theater. Also departing, according to The Times, were directors of arts education, multidisciplinary works, and its partnership division which oversees work with state and local arts agencies.

The NEA’s budget — $207 million in the last fiscal year — has long represented a fraction of total federal government spending, which was $6.75 trillion in 2024.

According to reporting in The Seattle Times (tinyurl.com/y23tfxwh), the NEA sends roughly $4 million dollars to Washington state every year.

In her email to the community, Halstead Reid also urged islanders to contact their legislators, and join in efforts by advocacy groups, to protest the dismantlement of the agency.

Vashon Artists in Schools

Since its launch in the late 1980s, VAIS has provided hundreds of interactive and intersectional learning experiences to Vashon students, while also providing meaningful employment for local artists.

One notable VAIS project, completed in 2021, resulted in an installation of artworks by 90 5th grade students, depicting salmon painted on cedar, in Heron Meadow, located in the restored wetlands area to the east of VCA.

The project, led by artist Britt Freda, was designed to impart awareness in youth about protecting and improving watershed habitat, and presented in collaboration with Vashon Nature Center.

Elizabeth Shaw, the program’s current manager, hailed the way that VAIS programs resulted in what she called “embodied learning” for students.

Shaw described one residency for 5th grade students that has been presented consecutively for 20 years by artist Ivonne Escobar de Kommer, who leads the students in making copper bowls — a practice that incorporate lessons in history and chemistry as well as giving the students the opportunity to make a joyful noise in the classroom as they hammer out their bowls.

Bruce Morser’s annual 4th grade birds project, she said, is another example of a learning experience that transcends the technical art skills being taught in the residency.

“The students have all done research into the habitat, diet, and [other characteristics] of the birds they draw, and Bruce encourages them to bring that information into their drawings,” she said.

Shaw also supplied a list of testimonials by local teachers praising VAIS.

“These residencies are incredibly valuable, not just for the experiences they provide to students, but also for the creativity and skills modeling they provide to teachers,” said Stephanie Detweiler, a McMurray Middle School teacher.

Vashon Schools Foundation board member Kennedy Leavens lauded the program. The Schools Foundation currently contributes $15,000 to the program, she said.

“This is an incredible program and a signature part of the unique education our district offers,” Leavens said. “For students, working alongside real artists throughout their years in our schools, making pieces like baskets or copper bowls, is a powerful experience. So much learning happens in these projects — not just art, but fine motor skills, math, social studies.”

”My son did a unit on Rube Goldberg machines that tied in beautifully with his multiage science curriculum. What an amazing way to get kids creating and thinking about physics, too.”

According to Halstead Reid, the total budget for VAIS’s programs in the coming year is $74,500 — with about $40,000 earmarked for compensation to teaching artists. All income for the program is raised through grant and community support, from organizations and businesses including Vashon Thriftway, Washington State Arts Commission, the school district (via Vashon Schools Foundation), Partners in Education, and, until now, the NEA.

The program has also received grants in recent years from other sources, including the Harvest Foundation, Garneau Nicon Fund, Allison Foundation, and the Kelly Foundation, among others. Since VCA added in school assemblies to the program, the list has grown to include a portion of Mid Atlantic and Creative West funding to cover performance fees.

Last Friday, Halstead Reid said her May 7 appeal to the community has already resulted in just over $10,000 in pledges and commitments to VAIS to make up for the loss of the NEA grants. A fundraising event at the end of May will also help close the gap further, she added.

Vashon Artists in Schools will continue, she said: “This program is too important.”