The spending review is an opportunity for the government to make public its fine-tuning of fiscal planning. It’s also an opportunity for theatremakers to make clear to ministers the sector’s financial need. This year feels different – as though there’s more chance for theatre to be heard. - The Stage
According to the report, more than three quarters of arts centres are unable to carry out planned building work amid growing financial pressures. More than 60% of arts centres surveyed reported having had no renovation or refurbishment in the past decade. - The Stage
Deborah Rutter: “I stand by my assertion that at the time of my departure, the Kennedy Center was fiscally sound. … This malicious attempt to distort the facts, which were consistently, transparently and readily available in professionally audited financial reports, recklessly disregards the truth.” - Deadline
“We’re gonna turn it around,” Trump told dinner attendees of the center. He said of running the board, ”When I said, ‘I’ll do this,’ I hadn’t been there” and joked, “That’s the last time I’ll take a job without looking at it.” - APNews
The project, designed by Hood Design Studio (Landscape Architect), Weiss/Manfredi Architecture/Landscape/Urbanism (Design Architect) and Moody Nolan (Architect of Record), creates what Lincoln Center describes as “a new, world-class performance venue that will greatly improve artist and audience experiences.” - Deadline
The items removed as part of what museum administrators call normal rotation include Harriet Tubman’s hymnbook and a first edition of Frederick Douglass’s memoir. And a potential review of the museum by the Trump White House looms. Coincidence? - NBC News
“Richard Grenell, whom President Trump installed as the president of the Kennedy Center, claimed Monday night that the center’s deferred maintenance and its deficit — two things commonly found at nonprofit arts organizations — were ‘criminal.’ He said he would refer the matter to federal prosecutors.” - The New York Times
The House tax bill increases taxes on philanthropies. It was news to me that philanthropies pay any taxes at all; I always thought nonprofit status shielded these groups entirely from taxation. That’s not correct. - The New Republic
“Since PBS reaches an estimated 99% of the country’s broadcast viewers, that gives every child free access to high-quality educational content.” When that goes, rich kids in cities won’t be so hurt - but poorer and more rural kids sure will. - Salon
“Congress approved $65 million for these councils in the 2025 fiscal year, which means that DOGE or any other member of the executive branch spending that money on anything else is doing so under an illegal process called ‘impoundment.’” - Oregon ArtsWatch
“He said if ministers go ahead with plans to allow AI firms to use artists' content without paying, they would be ‘committing theft, thievery on a high scale.’” - BBC
"Sir Nicholas Serota, who runs the body that distributes public funds to arts organisations ranging from national institutions to community-based ventures, said it would be a tragedy if people outside big cities were denied access to the arts.” - The Guardian (UK)
“Since he began his second presidential term in January, President Donald Trump has moved quickly to obliterate a relatively stable and successful system for funding the nonprofit arts, humanities and sciences.” - Washington Post (Yahoo)
Among those amendments, buried on page 380 of the draft, is a section that would enable Trump’s secretary of the Treasury to denounce any nonprofit as a “terrorist-supporting organization” and strip it of its tax-exempt status. - The Intercept
