By FINN HARTNETT

Staff writer

It has been a tumultuous few months for Marion County’s art institutions.

In late March, the Kansas Senate proposed eliminating funding for the Kansas Arts Commission.

Sunflower Theatre, the Peabody-based organization which hosts the majority of the county’s art projects, is largely dependent on KAC grants.

While elimination of KAC did not pass the Kansas House, more was to come.

On May 3, the federal government cut hundreds of National Endowment for the Arts grants that did not align with “new priorities” of President Donald Trump, according to an email sent out to those who lost their grants.

Trump then suggested eliminating the endowment in 2026 as part of a budget request sent to Congress.

NEA money makes up slightly less than half of KAC’s budget each year. Over the past few years, the amount has hovered around $800,000.

“It historically has represented a big part,” KAC director Curtis Young said. “By federal law, 40% of the money that Congress provides to the NEA has to be distributed to state arts agencies.”

While KAC’s NEA money will not be cut this year — the funding was already approved by Congress in 2024 — NEA’s existence could be threatened in 2026, in turn threatening KAC’s survival.

Funding questions already have led to delays in KAC approving grants this summer and left organizations like Sunflower Theatre in limbo.

“These grant programs that we applied for in February are supposed to start in July, so everything is on hold,” theater director Susan Mayo said. “We’re all just kind of left hanging.”

This summer, Sunflower Theatre hoped to commission Erika Nelson, a visual artist based in Lucas, to build a temporary sculpture commemorating Peabody’s long-running July 4 fireworks display.

Flint Hills Counterpoint, another county arts organization that Mayo leads, planned to sponsor a fall event with music and prairie education workshops at Camp Wood in Chase County.

It’s now unclear whether either project will occur.

“The longer we wait to hear about the funding, it becomes harder to get people to hold those dates,” Mayo said.

County art institutions have benefited from KAC money in the last five years.

Flint Hills Counterpoint has received $55,000 since 2019, using the money to create movies, art installations, and live concerts.

Sunflower Theatre received $62,000 over the same time span. Its projects included two murals, seasonal banners, and a plethora of musical performances.

The theater has partnered with organizations such as the county extension office, Tabor College, and local museums and libraries to create projects.

“We have an extraordinary amount of funding for such a small county,” Mayo said. “We’re very lucky.”

But that could change quickly.

Mayo said that without NEA, her arts organizations would be forced to either scale back or shut down.

“The Brownback administration had similar ideals, cutting what they saw was unnecessary from the budget,” she said. “They felt like the private sector could pick that up, but it didn’t work.”

After Kansas’ arts infrastructure was gutted during Sam Brownback’s unprecedented veto of funding for KAC in 2011, NEA money which helped restore the program two years later.

Kansas ranks 41st in funding the arts nationwide, well behind nearby Missouri (3rd), Oklahoma (15th), and Nebraska (16th), according to Jane Gates, director of the Stiefel Theatre in Salina.

Advocates for funding public arts say programs help with tourism, economic development, and quality of life.

“The arts in Kansas are a major player in the economy and are a $4.6 billion industry, ahead of utilities at $3.8 billion and just behind agriculture at $5.7 billion,” Gates said. “The arts industry is 2.21% of the state’s GDP and supports 41,643 jobs. … You have to trust that supporting the arts means that Kansas will continue to grow.”

Mayo had a more aesthetic argument.

“We’re bringing people into our town,” Mayo said. “We’re making it look nicer. We’re giving the community pride, enhancing life, and deepening their experience of what it means to be a human.”