To Nita Win, a South Shore mom of two, there’s a freedom of expression that the arts provide that’s refreshing. It’s a feeling, that as much as she can, Win tries to expose to her 8-year-old daughter and 14-year-old son.
On Tuesday night, Win and her family did just that, attending the opening performance of this year’s Rhythm World, the country’s longest-running tap dance festival that for 35 years now has called Chicago home.
She left the performance, a free showcase at downtown’s Studebaker Theater, amazed. She enjoyed every bit, though she thought it bittersweet, knowing she could have seen more.
Amid federal funding cuts, this year’s Rhythm World is nearly half as long as originally planned, spanning six days instead of 10.
“What a shame,” Win said following Tuesday’s performance, noting it was her family’s first time at the festival. “Me being able to come here and experience this free performance is wonderful. And without … funding, this is not possible.”
Organizers opted to shorten the 35th anniversary programming so they could weather changes without losing the heart of the festival, they say. But their choice is becoming a familiar one these days, as federal downsizing places pressure on arts organizations across the Chicago area to make do without funding.
On May 2, the White House released President Donald Trump’s budget proposal, which called for billions of dollars of sweeping cuts, including the elimination of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the largest funder of arts and arts education in the country.
Candace Jackson looks forward to Rhythm World, which has long received NEA grant funding each year, the Edgewater resident said ahead of Tuesday’s opening performance.
“I live for this week,” she said.
A novice tapper herself, Jackson has been an avid attendee of Rhythm World for more than a decade, she said. Usually, she goes to every festival performance possible. Jackson, who remembers Rhythm World in full form, said news of the NEA cuts “saddened” her. And even still, she didn’t anticipate the cuts affecting the festival as much as they did.
“I thought it was just going to be maybe a day or so,” she said. “But they cut performances, they cut some training.”
Over the past three years, some 192 organizations and institutions have received funding from the NEA across Illinois, according to data compiled by Arts Alliance Illinois. Shortly after Trump’s budget plan was released, NEA sent notifications to hundreds of grant recipients across the country terminating and withdrawing awards in progress.
The Chicago Human Rhythm Project (CHRP), the nonprofit behind Rhythm World, received a termination notice on May 2. “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,” the emailed notice stated. “Consequently, we are terminating awards that fall outside these new priorities.”
In and of itself, the notice was a moot point. CHRP had already received funding, distributed on a reimbursement basis, for the in-progress award that NEA cut short, according to Lane Alexander, founding director of CHRP. The award, in part, was used to fund last year’s Rhythm World. The bigger question was what the notice meant for future funding, Alexander said.
CHRP starts planning Rhythm World a year in advance, said Jumaane Taylor, its artistic director. Organizers need the time to arrange programming and especially funding. “It takes months of finding the money for it,” Taylor said. “You know, how are we going to pay for all of this?”
For this summer’s Rhythm World — originally a $165,000 venture — CHRP had applied and planned for NEA funding to cover about $30,000, some 18%, of total festival expenses, Alexander said. However, after the upheaval in May, the status of that hopeful funding was left uncertain. CHRP has reached out to NEA for clarification but, to date, has only received a short response from the endowment saying funding was still under evaluation.
NEA did not return multiple requests for comment.
When Taylor, who’s been CHRP’s artistic director since 2021, heard about the NEA cuts hitting home, he took a step back for an hour or two and worked out what he was feeling in the dance studio, he said. Born and raised on the city’s South Side, Taylor, 39, started tap dancing when he was 7 years old. He was first introduced to CHRP as a student at 13, he said.
Now tasked with directing Rhythm World, Taylor found himself deciding how he could still authentically and proudly put on the festival despite frozen NEA funding this year.
It took some fine-tuning, he said. In light of uncertain funding, CHRP canceled all festival programming originally scheduled from July 9-13. That meant cutting an opening concert at the Jazz Showcase, one of the city’s oldest jazz clubs, in the Loop, a free concert at the DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center and a slate of master classes.
Instead, the nonprofit abbreviated the festival to a second week of master instruction plus three performances. But ultimately, what was important was ensuring that less funding didn’t entail a lesser product, Taylor said.
“Even if (the festival) does have to be scaled down a couple of years,” he said, “at least we’re all up here at the top putting our best efforts forward.”
Sarah Savelli, a performing artist in this year’s Rhythm World, lingered at the Studebaker long after Tuesday’s performance ended. Attending the festival since she was a teenager, Savelli, 48, said every time she returns gives her “warm fuzzies.” From the get-go, Savelli wasn’t slated to be a part of any canceled programming this year but feeling the weight of NEA cuts, even tangentially, was sobering, she said.
“Many of these organizations are built on these donations and they’ve just grown to expect it. Their seasons are already planned, people have commitments,” she said. “You’re just left with, what do you do?”
Seeing Rhythm World press on despite it all, though, is encouraging, Savelli said.
“These moments, this connection, this feeling,” she said, “is why we all do it.”
Local arts programs plow ahead without funding
Other Chicago area arts organizations echo the sentiment.
In January, the NEA announced that Midnight Circus, a beloved Chicago company that promotes theater and circus arts, had received a $20,000 grant. The award was poised to help the nonprofit underwrite the costs of this year’s tour of performances, set to start in September, so that ticket prices could remain affordable, according to Jeff Jenkins, the circus’ founder and executive director.
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Midnight Circus member Isabella “Bella” Díaz dances in the final act during a performance at Humboldt Park on Oct. 1, 2022, in Chicago. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)
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Midnight Circus member Isabella “Bella” Díaz dances in the final act during a performance at Humboldt Park on Oct. 1, 2022, in Chicago. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)
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Where that funding stands is unclear. Though Midnight Circus didn’t receive a formal termination notice per se, the nonprofit hasn’t been able to discern whether pending grant dollars will come through, Jenkins said. The nonprofit has been operating under the assumption that they won’t.
With the money crucial to ensuring that programming, which Midnight Circus intentionally brings to underserved audiences, stays accessible, the nonprofit decided it wouldn’t take the loss lying down, Jenkins said. Instead, the circus turned to the community, making up the dollars lost through a fundraising campaign.
Still, there’s the looming possibility that cuts are long-standing, especially after a few difficult post-pandemic years, Jenkins said.
In 2023, a change in eligibility requirements for arts programs to receive Chicago Park District funding and resources as well as additional permit fees forced Midnight Circus to cut back programming.
“If that NEA money is gone for good, that is additional funds we’re going to have to raise,” Jenkins said. “It’s hard for a small arts organization. We’re a mom-and-pop shop. … So it’s a huge amount of pressure. (But) as we say, the show will go on.”
Also charging ahead despite withdrawn NEA funding is the Hyde Park Jazz Festival. The free two-day festival, in its 19th year, was counting on $30,000 from the NEA to finance artist fees for this year’s event, set for Sept. 27-28. That is, before the festival received a withdrawal notice in May, according to Kay Dumbleton, its executive and artistic director.
Dumbleton said $32,000 accounts for just under 30% of the festival’s artist fee budget. Losing that money, she said, was a “gut punch.”
To manage the loss, Dumbleton shaved off expenses, took on extra work and combined powers with other area organizations so the show, like Midnight Circus, could go on. But Dumbleton is also weary of what a future without as much NEA support looks like.
“People will muddle through this year, but it’s the future that’s really challenging,” she said. “To take that kind of percentage out of your budget year after year.”
Cuts are “being deeply felt by our communities,” said Andrew Schneider, senior director of government affairs for Arts Alliance Illinois.
“The key words that keep coming up in our conversations are devastating, catastrophic. … It’s our belief that art is not a luxury, so we’re losing important infrastructure to ensure that everyone can benefit from the arts,” Schneider said. “And it is extremely difficult.”
And yet, he’s resolute. “(While) we’re dealing with the devastation and feelings of catastrophe … (we’re) picking ourselves up, dusting each other off and moving forward,” Schneider said.
On Monday, House Republicans released draft fiscal 2026 funding legislation for the Department of the Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency and related agencies, including the NEA. Under the bill, the NEA would get about $135 million, a 35% cut for the agency.
After watching CHRP’s opening performance Tuesday night, Win found herself thinking about what her family missed out on with a shortened Rhythm World this year.
“(The arts are) the heartbeat of a community,” she said, pausing to look at her two kids, the three of them standing in the foyer of the Studebaker.
“Anybody being able to express themselves through the arts,” she said, “is so important.”
The Associated Press contributed.
tkenny@chicagotribune.com