The Michigan Shakespeare Festival had big plans for its 30th season, prepping productions of “Richard III” and “Much Ado About Nothing” for a summer run at Wayne State University’s Hillberry Gateway theatre in Detroit.

But shortly before it was set to begin, lackluster ticket sales, a decline in donations and corporate sponsorships and the loss of key grant funding forced organizers into a premature curtain call. 

The longstanding festival’s abrupt cancellation came as arts organizations around the state scramble to host fundraisers, pare down programming and make other adjustments amid state and federal funding uncertainty. 

The group is among hundreds of direct grant recipients in Michigan and across the country to be notified in May of funding terminations by the National Endowment for the Arts, part of President Donald Trump’s ongoing efforts to reduce or eliminate what his administration contends is wasteful spending through the Department of Government Efficiency.

Trump’s administration also proposed a full elimination of the NEA in its fiscal year 2026 budget recommendation, arguing additional cuts would be “consistent with the president’s efforts to decrease the size of the federal government to enhance accountability, reduce waste, and reduce unnecessary governmental entities.” 

“A lot of people who are large donors and big supporters were all going, ‘We have to see how this shakes out before we can donate for this year,’” the Michigan Shakespeare Festival’s artistic director, Janice Blixt, told BridgeDetroit. 

Collectively, Michigan museums, theaters, galleries and other arts groups were granted at least $3 million in NEA funding for fiscal year 2024, and the first round of grants for fiscal year 2025 were announced in January before Trump took office.

In terminating existing grants, the Trump administration primarily focused on projects they claimed promote diversity, equity and inclusion or “gender ideology.” Some existing NEA grants survived the cuts and some other organizations were able to withdraw the remaining funds they were initially promised. 

But the scope and scale of the federal funding cuts — and their likely impact on state arts spending — sent shockwaves through the arts community and have prompted court challenges nationally. 

Earlier this month, a federal judge in Oregon found the abrupt elimination of humanities grants approved by Congress “unlawful.” A separate lawsuit, filed by four arts organizations in Rhode Island challenging the NEA’s restrictions on funding projects promoting “gender ideology,” remains pending. 

Budget plans circulating in Congress indicate the Republican majority is supportive of ongoing arts funding reductions. The US House-proposed version of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies budget bill recommends a 35% cut to both arts and humanities funding, which would reduce the NEA budget from its current $207 million to $135 million in the next fiscal year.

Already, performing arts organizations across Michigan are feeling the impact. 

The Detroit Opera canceled its fall production, citing cost concerns, and smaller theatres like Detroit Repertory and Northville’s Tipping Point are adjusting production plans in anticipation of fewer opportunities for state-level grants. 

Rip Rapson, president and CEO of The Kresge Foundation, posted on social media in July about the elimination of federal arts and humanities funding, saying the government is sending a message to Americans that the arts are a “nice community amenity, but not a critical one.” 

“Whether it’s the (National) Endowment for the Arts or the (National) Endowment for the Humanities, both of them symbolize this country’s embrace of how important the vitality of our democracy is,” Rapson told BridgeDetroit. “When our federal government takes a swipe at them and cuts them out of its budget, I think that’s just a monumental period of readjustment of the nation’s priorities that I just don’t agree with.” 

Going into recovery mode 

In addition to direct grants to organizations, the federal arts budget funnels dollars to state arts agencies, which then disperse funds to local groups. 

The Michigan Arts and Culture Council, housed under the state’s Michigan Economic and Development Corporation, typically rolls out grant programs for the next fiscal year each spring. But the arts and culture council delayed that announcement amid state and federal budget uncertainty and it is still awaiting further clarity.

Michigan lawmakers blew past a July 1 deadline for finalizing the state budget, and disagreements between the Republican-majority House and the Democratic-majority Senate persist as the Oct. 1 deadline for avoiding a state government shutdown looms. 

House Speaker Matt Hall, R-Richland Township, has advocated for slashing state arts funding to cover other budget priorities, including additional money for roads. 

During a Thursday press conference, he called arts council funding “an example of waste,” citing examples of grants he believed don’t warrant state backing, including barber shop quartets, glass blowing and Detroit-area puppet art programs. 

“When I started looking at some of these grants, I realized they’re worse than the pork projects that the politicians put in there,” Hall said.

Otie McKinley, spokesperson for the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, told Bridge in an Aug. 14 email that investing in arts and culture programs “is vital to the health, prosperity, and identity of our state.” 

“Arts and culture are not only sources of inspiration and education; they are also powerful economic drivers,” he said. “The creative industries here in Michigan generate jobs, attract tourism, and support small businesses, contributing significantly to the state’s overall economic vitality.”

The Michigan Shakespeare Festival usually receives $15,000 annually from the arts council. It’s a small but significant chunk of the festival’s budget, Blixt said. 

Blixt said she was considering declaring bankruptcy and shutting down the Michigan Shakespeare Festival. But then she came up with other possibilities to raise money and brought them to the festival’s board. 

They came up with a recovery plan, which includes the addition of four new board members, more off-season events, increased energy toward business and foundational fundraising and a return in summer 2026 with the season they had promised this year.

The first fundraising event is “Inside the Classical Actors Studio” Sept. 27. The unscripted event will feature company actors telling their stories in an interview format. Tickets are available to purchase at the WSU Theatre and Dance Box Office. 

In addition, the board has pledged to raise at least half of its approved 2026 festival budget by January. Blixt said the goal is $150,000. 

“All arts organizations are looking for a way to get ourselves in front of people again, to get people thinking about us and remembering that we exist,” she said. 

Diversifying revenue sources 

Another arts organization looking to pivot is the Detroit Opera House. The institution had to cancel its 2025-2026 season opener, Puccini’s “The Girl of the Golden West,” which was set to premiere next month, due to a decline in revenue and steep losses in both personal donations and government funding, according to tax documents. 

In 2024, Detroit Opera generated $17 million in revenue, but had $19.5 million in expenses, with a big chunk of it – $6.9 million – going toward salaries and wages. The biggest source of revenue was $9.1 million in contributions, which also includes grants. 

In 2023, Detroit Opera also spent more than it brought in, with $21 million in expenses and $20.7 million in revenue. 

A representative from Detroit Opera said it received a $40,000 NEA grant last year for its production of “The Central Park Five,” which ran in May. Since the organization already received those funds, it didn’t have to send the money back, according to the opera house. 

The opera house usually receives around $40,000 in funding every year from the Michigan Arts and Culture Council. It has not received grants from the agency this year. 

Despite the financial strain, Detroit opera’s other productions for the season – December’s “Highways and Valleys: Two American Love Stories,” March’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” adaptation and May’s “Apartment House 1776” –  are still on the schedule. 

“It doesn’t mean we won’t receive additional funding. It’s just there’s shifts in timelines, shifts in priorities for funders, so there’s less certainty around the philanthropic environment and a lot of that is due to changes in cuts in federal funding to all kinds of services,” Detroit Opera President and CEO Patty Isacson Sabee said. 

Detroit opera is now looking to diversify its revenue sources. The institution is hosting a sold-out fundraiser, Opera in the Garden, Sept. 6 at the Dorothy G. Turkel House in Palmer Woods. The organization will also begin its Detroit Opera House Highlights Tour Sept. 13, where people can take an hour-long tour of the theater for $10. Other upcoming events include Detroit Story Fest Oct. 9, a national festival that features the best local stories told live on stage, and a concert Oct. 11 featuring Grammy Award-winning R&B artist Raphael Saadiq. 

“You’ll see us being more entrepreneurial and using our opera house to bring more programming to the community,” Isacson Sabee said. “We do four operas a year and four dance presentations, but we have the ability to bring a lot more programming with that beautiful stage and facility to our community.” 

The Detroit Repertory Theatre is also facing financial hardships. While the organization received a $15,000 grant from the NEA earlier this year for its actors workshop and a grant from the Arts and Culture Council to support its previous performance season, the theater is looking at a potential loss of at least $50,000 that it counts on every year, said Executive Artistic Director Leah Smith. 

“A little less than half of that generally supports our actors workshop and the rest of it is operating, general operating costs,” she said. 

Detroit Repertory kicks off its 69th season Nov. 7 and Smith is continuing to look for ways to cover those operating costs, she said. 

For the month of August, the theater is participating in the Rocket Community Challenge, a fundraising competition organized by Dan Gilbert’s Rocket Companies that supports nonprofits across the country. As of Aug. 15, the theater raised $26,927 of its  $100,000 goal. Additionally, Detroit Repertory’s season launch party Sept. 27 will serve as a fundraiser. 

“We’ll continue on as we always have,” Smith said. “We are not stopping our mission to produce the finest professional theater while democratizing the arts and fighting the disturbing level of racism that still exists. That’s been our mission since 1957, and we’re not going to stop.”

‘A place of not knowing’

For many smaller theatres throughout Michigan, the uncertainty is keeping showrunners on their toes — but it’s not stopping them from forging ahead. 

Emily Sutton-Smith, co-founder and executive director of the Williamston Theatre in Ingham County, said the group’s budget currently assumes no funding is coming from either the state or federal level. 

Williamston Theatre got its first NEA grant last year for the production of “Thirst,” a commissioned play dealing with water availability and scarcity. Showrunners were able to collect on that funding, though Sutton-Smith said a loss in grant funding from Michigan’s arts council would mean dipping into savings to help cover the projected shortfall. 

“I don’t have confidence that the current legislature will preserve the funding for the arts at the level it’s been in the past several years,” Sutton-Smith said. “It will be a big blow to our sector if they don’t.” 

In Northville, the Tipping Point Theatre is “operating from a place of not knowing,” placing an impetus on individual donors and ticket sales, said Julia Glander, the theatre’s producing artistic director.

While the Tipping Point hasn’t lost any previously awarded funding, the federal and state funding uncertainty presents a lost opportunity for ongoing boosts, Glander said. 

They’re planning for smaller casts in upcoming productions to save money and are looking at creative ways to raise awareness. That includes marketing the first production of the season — “The Shark Is Broken,” based on the behind-the-scenes filming of “Jaws” — in movie theaters to find new audiences in pop culture fans. 

“We value artists, and we have to pay our artists to be able to do this,” Glander said. “We’re pretty good with staying on our budgets. We have to.”

Sutton-Smith and her Williamston Theatre colleagues are optimistic that they’ll be able to weather the storm and also are testing out new revenue-generating ideas for the upcoming season, including adding musical performances to the schedule and staging productions with broader audience appeal, like comedies and thrillers. 

But it’s hard to plan for the future, she said.  

“We already operate so close to the bone, so there’s not that much to cut,” she said. “We’re just going to keep doing it until we can’t do it anymore.”

At Plowshares Theatre Company in Detroit, artistic director Gary Anderson said last year was the first time he applied but did not receive any arts council grants. 

Anderson has had to readjust the budget and delay some programming. Plowshares’ last production was the original play “Freedom Days,” which wrapped up in July. The organization hasn’t announced its upcoming season yet. 

“It’s also devastating to the general public, because the powerful experiences that they have when they engage with art are lost,” he said. “You can’t measure what the impact of that is until you start seeing the results of it in society–less educated, inquisitive, adventurous young people and adults and more intolerance, more cruelty. That’s the result of not having the arts in your life.”