Topsy Turvy

No. 195: NEA, NEH, and Artist Resources; Jeffrey Gibson, We Are Makers, Helen Wells, Jo Cruz, Keka Enriquez, Maxo Vanka, Rhiannon Giddens, and Madelyn Grant

Jun 09, 2025

Ink drawing on paper, 2024. By Jean Vengua.

This issue will be a bit shorter than usual, with my focus primarily on funding and other types of support for artists and writers.

RABBIT HOLE

Artist Resources

A recent article in Artnet.com reports on “All the Arts Organizations Impacted by NEA Funding Cuts.”1 For example, NEA’s “sister organization,” the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), “has seen a 70–80 percent reduction in its staff and has canceled more than a thousand grants. Trump has justified the cuts as part of his mission to root out “woke” influence in public life” (Artnet.com). Other organizations that have been affected by these cuts include The Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, BOFFO (an LGBTQ-focused nonprofit arts organization), Classical Theatre of Harlem, and many more.
Americans for the Arts calls for the need to “defend and restore the NEA” and provides guidance to artists who lost their grants this year.
All about negotiating publication contracts (from Authors Alliance).
“The real reason artists love residencies,” from the Just Make Art Podcast.
Illuminations Grant for Black Trans Women Artists. Applications now open, deadline July 2nd.
The Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant ($40k. Next grant period begins in February).
LAND (Los Angeles Nomadic Division) is a member-supported arts organization located in the L.A. area that “connects people and places through art to deepen a sense of belonging by commissioning site-responsive free public art and programs.” An example is Felix Quintana’s “La Sal de la Tierra” exhibit at the L.A. County Hall of Records.

Artists & Writers

In 2024, the Portland Art Museum and Site Santa Fe, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, presented installation artist Jeffrey Gibson as the first indigenous artist to represent the United States at the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. In 2025, Gibson’s (NEA funded) $50,000 grant to present an exhibition at Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art was terminated, although it was awarded in 2024. The reason given was that his work did not “reflect the nation’s rich artistic heritage and creativity as prioritized by the President.”
Interview with Jeffrey Gibson:
We Are Makers, a new Substack newsletter, podcast, and print magazine about artists and craftspeople around the world.
Artist Helen Wells on her gentle sketchbook ritual for low energy days.”:
Empower Jo Cruz on his Balit sa Dagat bangka journey (thanks to Leny Mendoza Strobel for pointing this out):
Artist Keka Enriquez started out by painting expressionist interiors based on images from elegant British design magazines. She started experimenting, focusing on interiors closer to home, and incorporating her own intuitive sense of movement and dislocation. When Enriquez describes migrating to San Diego, “swallowing my pride” and taking service jobs, and how the migration process interfered with her momentum to paint, I think of how my father’s internship as a sign maker and graphic artist was curtailed by his migration and work in the U.S. during the 1930s. Enriquez now works as a recreational therapist for the homeless in a rough neighborhood in San Francisco; but she has returned to painting.

Inside a historic church painted with murals by Maxo Vanka that reflect searing social commentary (article in link from AP News):

SOUNDINGS

Uncovering the history of the banjo, with Rhiannon Giddens:

Banjos were made and played:

. . . not just for the enslaved to gather with one another across ethnic lines, but also to connect with ancestors and gods. Its role was not just sonic, but also spiritual. And the musicians who played it occupied roles not just as performers, but as individuals who convoked and channeled the spiritual. —Laurent Dubois, The Banjo: America’s African American Instrument

Rhiannon Giddens singing “Julie”:

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted something funky from Scary Pockets. Here’s a good one: Madelyn Grant covers John Meyer’s hit “Vultures” with the Scary Pockets gang:

Eulipion Outpost

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