The National Endowment for the Arts revoked federal grant funding for the Varsity Cinema and other art organizations on May 2. The announcement came following a proposed budget by President Donald Trump that would eliminate the NEA.
According to Ben Godar, the executive director of the Varsity Cinema, the lost grant money totaled $20,000. The Varsity had been receiving that money for two years, but that money was just 2% of the Varsity’s budget.
“The loss wasn’t catastrophic for us,” Godar said. “We’ve really had to lean into asking the community for help to match the funding loss, though.”
The Des Moines community answered, and the Varsity was able to exceed the funding loss. Through donations, they raised $25,000.
The grant money that the Varsity lost was intended to be used for various community partnerships, which have included Q&As, panel discussions and even musical performances.
“These events serve as an opportunity to provide programming to the Des Moines community that fulfills and enhances each organization’s mission,” according to the Varsity’s website.
One of these events was the Des Moines Latino Film Festival, which was hosted by the Latino Center of Iowa from April 15-18. This celebration of Latino culture and film featured showings of award-winning documentaries as well as community discussions. One Drake student, Kristin Neary, attended the festival.
“I decided to go [to the festival] so I could expose myself to Latin culture,” Neary said. “I’m minoring in Spanish, so it was great to be immersed in the film festival. It was even better to see how many people showed up. I think that speaks a lot to the community we have here at Drake.”
These community partnerships help the Varsity remain a nonprofit theater. The Varsity gets most of its funding through ticket and concession sales, and the rest through grants and its membership program. The Varsity recently hit 1,000 members who donate on a regular basis.
“The Drake community can help the Varsity stay open by coming out to see movies and to our events,” Godar said. “If they’re coming regularly, students can look into our membership program, which is a lower price than our student prices. If people want to donate, this also helps a lot. If someone is a fan of what we’re doing, they should be vocal about it. We hope to build a community, which we see long-term value from.”
Other programs in the Des Moines area also lost their NEA funding, including Des Moines Performing Arts. However, much like the Varsity, DMPA has been minimally impacted.
“In May, we received notice that NEA had withdrawn our application for funds in support of DMPA’s Dance Series,” Erica Harper, the communications director for DMPA, said. “The requested funds would have helped cover expenses for a previous season. NEA changes will not impact our current season and programming.”
