May 5, 2025
Last Friday, I was informed via email that The People’s Music School’s National Endowment for the Arts award had been terminated effective May 31, 2025.
Fortunately, we had already completed all the requisite reporting and received the funds from the award in full for the project that the grant intended to support. However, it was a jarring and disappointing message to receive, and it made me feel in solidarity with other organizations that were relying on the funding that had been committed for their winning projects.
In part, the message reads:
The NEA is updating its grantmaking policy priorities to focus funding on projects that reflect the nation’s rich artistic heritage and creativity as prioritized by the President. Consequently, we are terminating awards that fall outside these new priorities. The NEA will now prioritize projects that elevate the Nation’s HBCUs and Hispanic Serving Institutions, celebrate the 250th anniversary of American independence, foster AI competency, empower houses of worship to serve communities, assist with disaster recovery, foster skilled trade jobs, make America healthy again, support the military and veterans, support Tribal communities, make the District of Columbia safe and beautiful, and support the economic development of Asian American communities. Funding is being allocated in a new direction in furtherance of the Administration’s agenda.
Your project, as noted below, unfortunately does not align with these priorities:
Purpose: To support a free instrumental music instruction program for youth.
The mission of The People’s Music School is to deliver access to the benefits of high-quality, tuition-free music education. Ninety-four percent of our seniors go on to attend college, including minority-serving institutions, when only 65% of CPS students do the same. Our alumni become doctors, tech executives, community leaders, accomplished musicians, and more. Fifty-five percent of our students are Latino, and 28% are Black. Seventy-five percent of our students come from households with less than $50,000 in family income. This year, our students have secured full scholarships to extremely competitive colleges on the basis of their merits. A representative quote from a parent of one of our seniors: “The People’s Music School has challenged my daughter to do new things, hard things – and grow and mature in ways I never could have imagined.”
The landing page of the NEA, accessed today, states:
Established by Congress in 1965, the National Endowment for the Arts is an independent federal agency that is the largest funder of the arts and arts education in communities nationwide and a catalyst of public and private support for the arts. By advancing opportunities for arts participation and practice, the NEA fosters and sustains an environment in which the arts benefit everyone in the United States.
It is my hope that the NEA will, in the future, re-center its essential mission to foster and sustain an environment in which the arts can benefit everyone. We are very grateful for the NEA’s past support and recognition of our work.
We remain grateful also for the steadfastness of our philanthropic supporters, who recognize the value of 100% tuition-free, high-quality arts education. Your support is more essential now than ever.
In service,
Miriam Goldberg Owens
President and Chief Executive Officer
The People’s Music School