Standing With the Arts: Navigating Federal Cuts to Cultural Funding
In recent months, the cultural sector has experienced a series of devastating blows. Through a series of executive orders and agency directives, the current administration has led efforts to dismantle key federal arts programs and shutter initiatives specifically designed to support historically underserved communities. As a result, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) have withdrawn or terminated funding for hundreds of organizations nationwide, including many here in New York City.
Brooklyn Arts Council is deeply concerned by these developments and stands in solidarity with the artists, collectives, and organizations impacted by these cuts. In the face of uncertainty, we are more committed than ever to empowering and investing in artists through our programs and services and striving for racial, gender, and ethnic justice and equity.
While some grants have been reinstated following legal challenges, many remain in limbo or have been permanently eliminated. To support our community through this turbulent time, we will be compiling and sharing resources in our monthly newsletters to help support cultural workers in Brooklyn and beyond. You’ll also find spotlights on advocacy tools, opportunities for civic engagement, and spotlights on organizations working tirelessly to protect arts and culture across the nation. To start off, you will find some key organizations and resources below offering legal aid, policy updates, advocacy support, and ways to take action.
We encourage you to stay informed, uplift each other, and continue to fight for an equitable and thriving arts ecosystem. The arts are essential. We must not allow them to be dismantled.
Americans for the Arts Action Fund works to mobilize citizens to join in advocating for the arts and arts education around the country. Their Arts Action Center is your go-to platform for taking direct action on the issues that matter most to you in the field.
Lawyers Alliance for New York is a team of legal professionals who are dedicated to improving the quality of life for people in low-income communities throughout New York City. Each year their legal staff serves thousands of nonprofits working in all five boroughs. Check out their resources.
Nonprofit New York champions and strengthens nonprofits through capacity building and advocacy to cultivate a unified, just, and powerful sector. Check out their advocacy initiatives including advocacy campaigns, monthly policy updates, and city and state legislative trackers.
National Council on Nonprofits provides nonprofits with the tools, research, and resources needed to operate more effectively, efficiently, and ethically. View their key resources including a chart of executive orders, a federal funding risk assessment checklist, and myths vs. truths about executive authority relating to nonprofits.
The National Humanities Alliance works with members and humanities advocates around the country to bolster undergraduate humanities enrollments, promote public engagement with the humanities, and increase funding for the humanities. Learn what steps you can take to help save the NEH, access case-making resources, and take action by contacting your members of Congress and local policymakers.
The NEA Grant Termination Tracker is a public tracker, created by Annie Dorsen, to help document the scope of the cuts across the arts and humanities field.
BAC Grantee & Partner Events
Iviva Olenick: Prospect Park Pollinators tour for Brooklyn Embroidered Oral History Garden Tours
Iviva Olenick is a 2025 BAC Grantee.
August 7 | 6pm | Lincoln Rd & Ocean Ave, BK
Join local herbalist and horticulturalist Danielle Moore and artist Iviva Olenick for a tour of native and introduced flowers, grasses and herbs that attract bees, butterflies and other animals in one of Prospect Park's Newly Planted Landscapes. Danielle will help identify plants and share some of the ways they interact with local ecosystems. We encourage participants to share their stories associated with these plants. Following the tour, Iviva will lead a botanical embroidery lesson. Iviva will provide sketchbooks and colored pencils for participants who might want to sketch during and after the tour. She will also provide embroidery supplies.
DuKode Studio: SYEP Pride Career Exploration Event - Creative Technology
DuKode Studio is a 2025 BAC Grantee.
August 8 | 1:30pm | 370 Jay St, BK
Through the SYEP Pride initiative, NYC's Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) is proud to support SYEP participants who identify as LGBTQ+ through special programming and career exploration events. SYEP community partner Children's Arts and Science Workshops and SYEP employer DuKode Studio invite you to a free Career Exploration Panel in Creative Technology on August 8! Meet a talented group of LGBTQ+ creative technologists, including creators supported by Brooklyn Arts Council, who will share their work and journeys as game developers and designers, 3D animators, AR/VR/XR designers, synth composers, and much more.
Althea Dance Company: RE•GARD
Althea Dance Company is a 2025 BAC Grantee.
August 8 | 7pm | 198 24th St, BK
RE•GARD is a collaboration between choreographer Théa Bautista and photographer Catherine Walsh. This cross-disciplinary project brings together a dance performance and photographic exploration to question how perception shapes what we see as beauty or flaw. The title plays on the French regard (a gaze) and the English re-garding (looking again). RE•GARD invites artists and audiences to reconsider presence, control, and self-image, and to explore how vulnerability can coexist with confidence.
Brooklyn FAM: Canarsie FAM 2025
Brooklyn FAM is a 2025 BAC Grantee.
August 9 | 12pm | Canarsie Park House - East 88th St, BK
Brooklyn FAM is excited to present the 3rd annual Canarsie Festival of Arts and Music on Saturday, August 9th, 12-4 p.m. in Canarsie Park at 86th St and Seaview. Don't miss THE festival in South Brooklyn!
This FREE, family-friendly event features music and dance performances, workshops, crafts, food, giveaways, a tie-dye station with local nonprofit Project Us, and a participatory mural with nonprofit the H.E.S. on our 2025 theme of “Nourish,” which encompasses wellness, personal and collective healing, and mutual care.
Outside:IN: Gallery BQE art walk + opening party at Brooklyn Art Haus
Gallery BQE is a 2025 BAC Grantee.
August 9 | 3pm | 24 Marcy Ave, BK
You are invited to join us on a unique art walk experience with the artists of Gallery BQE. We will meet under the BQE at Metropolitan and Meeker Ave (across from the famous Birrialandia taco truck) at 3pm SHARP! The tour will explore brand new art under the highway and then conclude at Brooklyn Art Haus (24 Marcy Ave) where the original artwork by Gallery BQE artist will be on display.
MEGUMI & Friends
MEGUMI & Friends is a 2025 BAC Grantee.
August 13 | 7pm | 376 9th St, BK
MEGUMI & Friends premieres Grenades on the Dance Floor, a new suite of compositions by violinist and composer MEGUMI, commissioned by the American Composers Forum, and hosted by Brooklyn Maqam. Each piece is a vessel for the stories of women from Egypt, Syria, Palestine, and Japan -- voices once silenced, forgotten, or buried beneath wars and distorted experience, yet leaving footsteps in our bones. Forged in silence and remembrance, these compositions trace what history could not hold --what sank beneath the noise, but never disappeared. Infused with elements of jazz, Arabic maqam, and Japanese lyricism, the compositions are shaped by asymmetrical rhythms that mirror the tension between erasure and endurance.
Divine Times Collective: The Pan-Afro Wisdom (POW) Fest
Divine Times Collective is a 2025 BAC Grantee.
August 17 | 12pm | 670 Lafayette Ave, BK
Join Divine Times Collective for POW Fest — a day-long, intergenerational celebration of Black and Black queer inner-child healing, creativity, and cultural brilliance across the African diaspora. This free, immersive festival features live performances by Laraaji (leading a laughter meditation), Cleo Reed, Rocki Ozai, and DJ Kara Roselle. Come for the music, stay for the transformation — with offerings like:
Healing workshops by therapists
Community yoga & holistic wellness resources
Creative expression zones -A community altar (you're invited to bring an offering)
And more! Let your inner-child shine!
Events, Workshops, & Professional Development
BLACK VEGFEST OPERATION: CLEAN HOUSE 2025
August 9 | Lincoln Terrace Park - E New York Ave, BK
Welcome to the 8th Annual Black VegFest — the ultimate celebration of vegan food, culture, and Black community empowerment!
What’s In Store on Saturday, August 9, 2025?
Live music and performances from dynamic artists.
Wellness workshops & powerful talks from leading voices in the community.
People’s Assemblies — where your ideas and voice matter.
Epic vegan marketplace featuring Black-owned businesses, plant-based foods, products, and merch.
Family-friendly fun for all ages, including kids’ activities and wellness tents.
Abolition Block Party
August 10 | Brower Park - Prospect Place, BK
Join abolitionist organizers from across NYC for the fourth annual Abolition BlockParty on Sunday, August 10, 2025 from 1pm to 6pm in Crown Heights’ Brower Park! There will be free food, music, performances, speakers, workshops, and more. 🎪
The Abolition Block Party also will also kick off #JSFest2025 (August 11–15, 2025) five days of programming and mutual aid to celebrate the one-year anniversary of @bkjailsupport (120 Schermerhorn St, Downtown Brooklyn) 🫱🏾🫲🏿
The Laundromat Project Create Change Open Studios: Keshad Adeniyi
August 13 | 35 Meadow Street, BK
Join Keshad Adeniyi as he facilitates this art show comprised of work from the young people that went through The Story From Within curriculum – whose goal is to inspire artworks that speak to healing, community building, and the sociopolitical conditions of youth who fall on the spectrum of criminal legal system involvement.
Red Hook Initiative: Back to Block
August 15 | 767 Hicks St, BK
Join us for RHI’s 10th Annual Block Party as we bring back the games, energy, and fun from summers past.
Featuring:
Youth Showcases
Double Dutch Competition
Ice Cream Truck
BBQ, Games, Raffles, and More!
East New York Community Land Trust Block Party
August 16 | 248 Arlington Ave, BK
ENYCLT is hosting a block party to celebrate summer and community. The event will feature free food, music by DJ Crowne, a double dutch performance and demo by Ms. K's Dance and Double Dutch Academy, and face painting and balloon animals by Fun Faces by Brenda.
Brooklyn Black August Free Book Fair
August 16 | Lincoln Terrace Park, 350 Rochester Ave, BK
Our Black August Free Book Fair will be an afternoon of FREE BOOKS for the people, political education, and community-building. We’ll have performances throughout the afternoon, facilitated reading groups, acupuncture, and a chance for local organizations to share their materials and local happenings.
2025 South Slope Derby
August 23 | 117th Street between 5th Ave and 6th Ave, BK
For 18 years and counting the Annual South Slope Derby has thrilled Brooklyn every August, becoming a beloved celebration of creativity and innovation. The Derby is the culmination of KoKo NYC’s summer programming and features gravity-powered soap box racers made from recycled materials and built by kids. During week-long workshops, kids develop their building and engineering skills and express their natural ingenuity as they imagine and construct their sustainable cars. Together with our Teaching Artists and Counselors, kids learn to design the functional elements of the car, such as steering and brakes, troubleshooting and testing along the way. Throughout the build, kids let their imaginations run wild – who’s to say a car can’t also be a dragon?
In the South Slope Derby, the kids put their creations to the test in a race down 17th Street in South Slope, Brooklyn. They are cheered on by over 500 friends, family, and fans who travel from all over the city every year. Our panel of esteemed judges includes elected officials, business owners, community leaders, and artists who evaluate the cars of over 100 kids on creativity, design, engineering, and speed.
Summer Streets: Brooklyn
August 23 | Eastern Parkway between Grand Army Plaza & Buffalo Ave, BK
Summer Streets is an annual celebration of New York City's most valuable public space – our streets.
This year Summer Streets returns with more streets than ever before! Celebrate New York City’s 400th anniversary by exploring over 400 blocks of car-free fun, fitness, and live entertainment as the city’s streets transform into playgrounds for all to enjoy.
On select Saturdays from 7am to 3pm, the usual traffic noise and honking horns will be replaced by open streets teeming with walkers, bikers, runners, and performers. Discover a wealth of free cultural programs, performances, fitness classes, interactive art, giveaways, and much more as you experience the city in a whole new way.
These are the bodies that have not borne. Premiere
August 23 & 24th | Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden - 1000 Richmond Ter, Staten Island
We are thrilled to announce that the premiere of These are the bodies that have not borne. will be the weekend of August 23-24, 2025 at Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden, in Staten Island, NY.
These are the bodies… is a performance ritual centering the womb journeys of Black and Brown folks who are contending with not yet bearing a child through their own body–whether they expect to do that in the future or not.
Stay tuned for ticket information. We hope to see you there!
Paul Anthony Smith: Melodies from a running spring
On View Until September 9 | Multiple Locations
Paul Anthony Smith (b. 1988, Jamaica) is known for works that trace the movements and memories of the Caribbean diaspora. Smith punctures the surfaces of his photographs with a handmade tool to add texture and pattern. This signature technique, which he calls picotage, is a meticulous process he derived from his early training in ceramics. The use of picotage serves as an exploration of photography’s creative potential, transforming each image into a layered, textured object.
Opportunities
New York Live Arts’ Fresh Tracks Residency & Performance program
Deadline: August 10
A season-long residency for emerging movement-based artists in support of new work creation and professional development.
Four artists will be selected through an in-person interview style audition process. The residency includes:
An Artist Fee of $5,000 and 50 gratis studio hours to support the development of a 15 minute performance work.
Professional development workshops led by renowned professionals from the field.
Live Core Artist Membership
Guidance from choreographer Juliana F. May, as Artistic Advisor.
Support from New York Live Arts’ communications, development, production and programming staff towards a fully-produced shared program in New York Live Arts theater.
Assembly District 57: Bklyn ROOTS Training Sessions
Deadline: August 15
Bklyn ROOTS is a series of training sessions designed to help residents of Assembly District 57 develop and build the skills important for becoming strong community leaders. We encourage all interested residents of AD57 to apply, whether you are a veteran community leader or just getting interested in organizing. The sessions will help all participants sharpen their skills as well as develop relationships with each other and with our office.
Over the course of four sessions, we will cover topics including organizing, relationship-building, power mapping, state government 101, and the local context.
Bklyn ROOTS is free and open to anyone with a connection to AD57. Our goal is to cultivate a strong base of leaders within the district and to create strong relationships between participants that will lead to community action.
Lower East Side Printshop – Keyholder Residency
Deadline: August 15
The Keyholder Residency Program offers emerging artists free 24-hour access to printmaking facilities to develop new work and foster their artistic careers. It takes place in the shared Artists’ Studio, including the solvent/etching area and the darkroom.
Keyholders work independently, in a productive atmosphere alongside other contemporary artists. Artists from all disciplines are eligible to apply; printmaking skills are not required, but some familiarity with the medium is recommended. Basic instruction in printmaking techniques is available for new Keyholders. Technical assistance is not included in the program, but is available at additional cost.
Applications are evaluated by an invited panel of artists, critics, curators, and art professionals. Artists based in the New York City area and without access to a studio space are encouraged to apply.
Brooklyn Poets Fellowship
Deadline: August 22
We award fellowships to promising students in need to enroll in one of our workshops for free. We also offer partial fellowship awards to finalists and semifinalists. Since the inception of our fellowship program in the fall of 2015, we’ve awarded 230 full fellowships and offered 197 partial awards to students from historically underserved communities to enroll in our workshops and retreats for free or at reduced cost. All together these students have saved over $109,000 in tuition.
We strongly encourage writers from historically underserved and marginalized communities to apply, including (but not limited to) writers of color, LGBTQ+ writers, writers with disabilities and women writers.
PhysFestNYC 2026
Deadline: August 28
PhysFestNYC is a community-focused festival that celebrates, enriches, and envisions our field of physical theater. As an annual gathering, it provides space for practitioners, audiences, and the physical-theater-curious to share in presented works, diverse workshop offerings, and community-building events. Applications for performances and workshops are now open!
Teaching Artist Program Signature Program
Deadline: September 1
Teaching Artist Project is a comprehensive training and internship program for working artists who desire to incorporate social justice and social emotional learning into their teaching practice. Queer/Black/Indigenous/Trans/People of Color (QBITPOC) and teaching artists living with disabilities are strongly encouraged to apply.
IndieSpace: The Little Venue that Could Grant
Deadline: September 2
The Little Venue That Could Grant Program was created to provide unrestricted general operating support to New York City based indie theater, dance, and multidisciplinary performance venues with expense budgets under $500,000. Due to size, fiscal structure, staffing arrangements, and unconventional leasing and ownership structures, these homes for artists are often excluded from city, state, and federal funding and may not meet financial thresholds to get significant support from private foundations. Despite this historical absence of consistent financial support and the growing affordability crisis in NYC, small-budget indie theater, dance, and multidisciplinary venues continue to play a critical role in the creative ecosystem by providing artists with affordable performance and presenting space.
Strong Rope: Open Call for Artists
Deadline: Rolling
If you are a local artist or know someone who would like to display their work in our Red Hook and/or Gowanus taprooms, let us know! We love to highlight local creativity, be it in the form of painting, photography, etc.
We are currently booking artists through the rest of 2025 for First Fridays Monthly Art Installation programming.
Asian American Writers' Workshop: Call for Submissions
Deadline: Rolling
The Margins seeks pitches and submissions to Open City, its journalism section devoted to chronicling the pulse of Asian America. Through articles, features, interviews, and profiles, Open City covers Asian immigrant and Muslim communities with an emphasis on social, racial, and gender justice issues.
Since its inception in 2010, Open City has told the lived stories of Asian communities in the boroughs of New York City. Starting in 2025, we are expanding our coverages to cities and towns all over the United States.
We welcome shoeleather reporting, hybrid essays, personality and place profiles, features, narrative storytelling, and … you get the drift.
We pay all writers and translators.
Foundation for Contemporary Arts: Emergency Grants
Deadline: Rolling
Created in 1993 to further FCA's mission to encourage, sponsor, and promote work of a contemporary, experimental nature, Emergency Grants provide urgent funding for visual and performing artists and poets who:
Have sudden, unanticipated opportunities to present their work to the public when there is insufficient time to seek other sources of funding
Incur unexpected or unbudgeted expenses for projects close to completion with committed exhibition or performance dates
Emergency Grants is a year-round, multi-disciplinary program that offers immediate, project-based assistance to artists living and working anywhere in the United States, for projects occurring in the U.S. and abroad.
Each month FCA receives an average of 100 Emergency Grant applications and makes approximately 15-20 grants in the range of $500 to $3,000 each. Applicants may request any amount in that range and, if granted, may receive full or partial funding. The average grant is currently $1,900.
The Creative Center: Hospital Artist-in-Residence Program
Hospital Artist-In-Residence Carmen Rios at BronxCare Health System, Family Medicine, and her art cart.
Deadline: Rolling
The Creative Center's Hospital Artist-In-Residence (AIR) Program serves patients, families, caregivers, and healthcare staff in the New York City Area and beyond. The 10 current Hospital AIRs serve over 3,000 patients each year at multiple hospital sites and develop supportive relationships with countless staff and caregivers. AIRs are professional artists trained by The Creative Center to work in a multitude of healthcare settings.
JFNY Grant for Arts & Culture
Deadline: Rolling
This program provides support to non-profit organizations in the U.S. that organize projects that will further the understanding of Japanese arts and culture within the 37 states east of the Rocky Mountains, plus Washington D.C.
Successful projects generally take the form of performances, exhibitions, film screenings, and workshops. This grant also supports online projects related to Arts & Cultural Exchange that incorporate issues pertaining to the COVID-19 global pandemic such as virtual exhibitions, virtual performances, film streaming, online conference as well as webinar. Priority will be given to those projects that have secured additional funding from sources other than the Japan Foundation, as well as projects that take place in areas where access to Japanese cultural events are relatively limited.
Art On Loop & New York Open Art: CALL FOR ARTISTS
Deadline: October 28
This is a unique and extraordinary chance for artists from every corner of the globe to showcase their work to an international audience. Whether you're an emerging artist or an established one, this exhibition is a platform for all forms of artistic expression—from painting and photography to video art, sculpture, mixed media, poetry, and beyond!
The Theme: OPEN!
There are no limits to what you can submit—this is your opportunity to express your artistic vision in the way that feels most authentic to you. Submit your work that reflects your creativity, passion, and style!
Resources
BPL: NY Housing Resources: Affordable Housing
Whether you are looking to rent, buy, or hold on to housing, these resources will help you take advantage of affordable and low-income opportunities. Below you will find information on city, state, and federal housing assistance programs. In addition, the community resources box lists Brooklyn and citywide tenant associations and advocacy groups that provide a wide range of assistance in support of tenant rights and fair housing.
Creatives Care: Mental Health REsources
Creatives Care is a community of artists, providers, and supporters securing the future of the arts by providing free services to help artists access affordable, high-quality mental healthcare.
What We're Reading
“Amy Sherald’s Trans Lady Liberty Painting Graces New Yorker Cover”
by Isa Farfan | Hyperallergic
“Visa Denials Create Hurdles for Artist Residencies”
by Maya Pontone | Hyperallergic
“A Brooklyn Afrofuturist Art Exhibit Explores a New World With Reparations”
by Brianna Robles | BK Reader
“A horse with one name: Cleo Reed’s Black Folk Revolution”
by Bryndon Cook | BK Mag
Cover Image: Wabafu Potrait of Dancer. Brooklyn FAM: Festival of Arts and Music, 2025 BAC Grantee. Photo: Gregory Horan.
Empowering Artists. Empowering Communities.
The arts are a lifeline to sustain wonder, inspiration, healing, and a sense of community in our lives. Please join Brooklyn Arts Council in our mission to empower Brooklyn artists and arts organizations that bring life and joy into our home borough.