As Houston performing arts institutions begin their 2025–2026 season and visual arts organizations launch new exhibitions, much of the attention is focused on what’s in it for audiences. It’s true: From world and regional premieres to exhibits of both local and renowned international artists, there is plenty to look forward to. However, viewers may not consider how an arts season and international exhibits get here in the first place.

Aside from all the hard work and intensive planning, it also requires a significant amount of money. Arts organizations, large and small, rely on a complicated matrix of funding sources to help pay for everything from executive salaries and utility bills to performance rights and actors’ equity contracts. Some of it comes from ticket and admission sales and donations, but most of it comes from grants.

That's where the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) comes in. For the 2025 fiscal year, the federal agency announced just under $37.8 million in grant funding for arts initiatives around the country, according to a release. But much of that funding is now in jeopardy.

Earlier this year, arts organizations around the country received notices terminating their grants after the Trump administration proposed in May to eliminate the NEA from the federal budget in efforts to “decrease the size of the federal government” and “enhance accountability, reduce waste, and reduce unnecessary governmental entities.” Now, Houston artists and organizations are scrambling to figure out what comes next and whether funding they once relied on will disappear completely. Though the concern is palpable, many within the city’s arts scene are reluctant to speak publicly, worried that doing so could jeopardize their organizations further. One arts presenter, who requested anonymity out of concern for retaliation, said the revocation of NEA funds is bound to have an impact on their organization and programs around the country.  They noted that their group’s next move is to research other grants and avenues of funding, including seeking help from long-term funders to fill the gap.

Chris Kiley, executive director of Texans for the Arts, a nonpartisan organization that advocates for arts funding and works with arts groups around the state, says 60 percent of NEA grants are issued directly. “Those are generally project-driven. They’re very restricted funds for very specific purposes,” he adds. The remaining 40 percent is allocated through state and regional arts agencies via the Partnership Agreement Grants program. In Texas, much of that money flows to the Texas Commission on the Arts (TCA), which then combines those federal dollars with its own resources to fund local grant programs—a process sometimes called re-granting. “That’s how some of those resources end up making it into the hands of our arts organizations,” Kiley explains. But now, arts organizations are considering what they’ll do if the funding is eliminated.

ROCO, the River Oaks–based 40-piece professional chamber orchestra, received NEA funding from subgrants funneled through the Houston Arts Alliance (HAA) and similar organizations. Records show NEA also awarded $25,000 directly to ROCO during the 2025 fiscal year. Alecia Lawyer, ROCO’s founder and artistic director, says that $25,000 award was used to commission a new work by an American composer about Freedman’s Town here in Houston, as a way to showcase the city’s history, while also demonstrating how classical music is alive and thriving in the twenty-first century. The funds also made recording and livestreaming the concert possible. Lawyer believes that Houston’s philanthropic community will help affected organizations rise to this challenge, and she emphasizes that conversations about funding touch all areas of people’s lives. “[Cuts to] NASA or the National Institutes of Health have dramatically changed our landscape here in Houston,” she says. “But I think one of the best things about Houston is that the philanthropy community here is one of the best.”

Ninety-five percent of ROCO’s budget comes from donations, including those from individuals, foundations, grants, and government funding. Of that 95 percent, only a small fraction is from government funds. The rest of the orchestra’s $2.4 million annual budget comes from ticket sales, and the orchestra is dedicated to using a pay-what-you-wish ticketing model to make its concerts available to anyone, regardless of income. However, Lawyer knows losing any money can negatively affect an organization.

“It’s not going to be great,” Lawyer says, but there is some hope. “We definitely will have individuals [who] will step up more to continue this creation of new art and connection through music,” she says. “I know what’s harder are the rural communities that get the re-granting or those that don’t have access to the level of philanthropy we do in Houston.”

Even as some of the early cuts to federal arts funding have been reinstated, the landscape is hardly growing more predictable, says Marci Dallas, founder of Cultural Launch, a Houston-based arts consulting firm. “The only clear message that we’ve gotten this year is that there’s uncertainty around what’s going to happen with the National Endowment for the Arts,” Dallas says. “ I think that no one is broadly relying or counting on the fact that they’re going to receive funding from them.”

In addition to NEA dollars and private donations, Houston arts organizations also get a portion of the local hotel occupancy tax (HOT), a fee guests pay when they stay at any of the area’s hotels. Dallas says all of these interconnected sources—including corporate sponsors and the Texas Commission on the Arts—are crucial building blocks. “It’s a complicated system to fund the arts and the nonprofit sector, and so, if any of those building blocks are removed, it destabilizes the structure,” she says.

There may be hope on the horizon. Kiley points to successful lobbying by Texans for the Arts for the Texas Legislature’s approval of an additional $7.9 million over the next two years, which will help fund the Texas Commission on the Arts. That could mean more grant dollars.

In the meantime, as the saying goes, the show must go on. As Houston arts organizations of all sizes adapt to the unpredictability, audiences have an opportunity to consider how important they are to the fabric of our city. Perhaps it’s a chance to reach out and support them, either by attending a show or exhibit or by making a donation.