Project 2025 signaled major risks to arts funding, and federal actions have already reduced public support: the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was shuttered, National Endowment for the Arts grants were terminated, and efforts surfaced to control the John F. Kennedy Center. More than 80 Bay Area arts nonprofits saw grant losses, with nearly 30 confirming partial or total cuts, affecting groups such as San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose Taiko and Opera San Jose. With government spending dwindling and corporations tightening contributions amid tariffs and AI-driven uncertainty, community donors must increasingly sustain theater, music, dance and visual arts programming in the Valley. Local venues continue to present new works and familiar favorites to audiences despite financial pressures.
In May, Bay Area News Group reported that of the more than 80 Bay Area arts nonprofits that received grants from the Biden administration, nearly 30 confirmed they had lost all or a portion of the grants, including San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose Taiko, Opera San Jose and the artist collective Local Color. Despite all this, Silicon Valley arts groups continue to stick to their mission statements, bringing thoughtful, challenging and-yes-entertaining works of music, theater, visual art and literature to their supporters.
But just in case it isn't already obvious, these groups need those supporters more than ever before. Not only has government spending dwindled; large corporations, faced with the uncertain effects of tariffs and the economic disruption of the AI revolution, are more cautious with their cash. (One acknowledged casualty is Día San José, which has cancelled its annual October event for 2025, citing an inability to secure corporate funding.)
So that leaves the job of supporting the arts squarely in the hands of those who can't imagine a world without theater, music, dance and the visual arts. Valley residents are lucky enough to be able to see three plays by Lauren Gunderson, including 2018's Ada and the Engine (produced by Pear Theatre) and the brand-new Little Women (TheatreWorks, which is doing two of the playwright's works). City Lights looks on the lighter side of Bram Stoker's protagonist with Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors.
Collection
[
|
...
]