The Coolidge Corner Theatre received an ominous email from a government address on May 2, informing it that its National Endowment for the Arts award would be terminated at the end of the month, according to a recent post on the theater’s Instagram account.
The NEA, an independent federal agency, is “the largest funder of the arts and arts education in communities nationwide,” according to a fact sheet on the agency’s website. The Coolidge is one of hundreds of arts organizations in the U.S. affected by the Trump Administration’s sweeping cuts.
The $20,000 NEA grant helped fund Coolidge Classroom, the theater’s free youth education program.
Ultimately, the Coolidge did not lose money due to this termination because it had already requested and received reimbursement funds for the project in February, according to its associate director of development Hannah Schockmel. But the theater’s leaders and other arts organizations in Brookline say the threat posed by the cuts is serious.
Among other challenges, the theater has not heard back from the NEA about a pending application for next year’s version of the same project, said Schockmel.
“We had finally been successful with this one, which was so exciting,” she said. “And it’s a mark of validity for your project, being able to say this project is NEA-funded, because it’s so helpful when it goes out to other funders.”
The theater launched Coolidge Classroom last fall. Its purpose is to “support existing curriculum in a variety of disciplines including STEM, world language, and the humanities, while simultaneously engaging media literacy skills and foundations of cinema studies,” according to the theater’s website.
In its pilot year, the program served about 2,000 students – mainly from Brookline and Boston, but also other districts like Northborough, Southborough, Weymouth, Newton and Cambridge – who visited the theater for educational programming.
“During the day, our theaters are pretty quiet, and now we have busloads of high school and junior high schools showing up,” said Katherine Tallman, CEO of the Coolidge. “The whole place is lit with energy.”
The theater provides transportation and food, while Blum, a former high school teacher, tells students about the theater and program, offers context about the films and facilitates discussion.
The teachers chose films addressing topics that aligned with core curriculum subjects. In its first season, these films included “Persepolis,” “Didi,” “Pan’s Labyrinth,” “Coded Bias” and “Throne of Blood,” said director of education Sophie Blum.
The most exciting aspect of the program, Blum said, is the interaction between students from different classrooms and districts. When they started teaching film to high school students, Blum felt like they had to justify its importance as a subject.
“What’s been really inspiring since launching the Coolidge Classroom program is I don’t have to justify it anymore,” they said. “The interest and the passion is there, not just from the community and our generous donors, but also from teachers and students and administrators who are in consensus that film is not just a worthy study in itself, but truly a valuable teaching tool for all disciplines.”
Blum said they weren’t surprised when the award termination email arrived. It had become clear a few months ago, they said, that federal funding for the arts was at risk. While Schockmel said it’s difficult to lose the credibility provided by an NEA grant, Tallman said the cut will not hinder the theater’s ability to offer the program.
The Coolidge also receives funding from the Mass Cultural Council, which in turn receives some of its funding from the NEA, according to the council’s website.
“Is the state going to have to shift their funding priorities elsewhere, are foundations going to be shifting their funding, and is the arts going to be left to fend for itself?” Shockmel said. “I think a lot of organizations are going to be thinking about that.”
‘Not sure what we can count on’
Puppet Showplace Theater, a Brookline village institution, received a $10,000 NEA grant in 2022 to support the production of the interactive puppet show “My Night in the Planetarium.”
“A grant … like the one that we received is a really big deal in terms of supporting the creation and dissemination of high quality artistic works that engage children and grown-ups together in a cultural conversation,” said Veronica Barron, the organization’s executive artistic director.
Part of the purpose of the NEA grant was to provide field trip access to students “with economic or geographic barriers,” according to the NEA website.
“If we had to charge the full cost of what it costs to produce a puppet show and things were not funded by grants and individuals as well, the cost would be entirely out of reach to all but the very wealthiest families,” Barron said. “So if we all believe that it’s important for arts and culture to exist in our community … it’s really difficult when we are not sure what we can count on with regards to funding.”
To Schockmel, the federal funding cuts represent “a general attack on the arts.”
“One of the key tenets of the [Coolidge Classroom] program is teaching media literacy,” she said. “We want students from middle school and up to be able to understand what they’re seeing, and reading and listening to. I don’t think it’s a surprise that’s not something that’s prioritized.”
Coolidge Classroom will offer two additional programs next year and hopes to extend its scope to include middle school students.
“It seems like folks are really stepping up – and not just big donors,” Blum said, adding that memberships at the theater have increased. “People from all walks of life are stepping up the way that they have in the past for the Coolidge, because they believe in it.”