TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — The Southwest Folklife Alliance, which produces the Tucson Meet Yourself festival, recently learned its $45,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) was revoked. The funding loss represents about 9% of the festival’s total budget.
“If you've never produced an event, you don't realize what goes into it in terms of labor and cost,” said Kimi Eisele, a folklorist with the Southwest Folklife Alliance.
For the past decade, NEA support has helped cover lighting, sound, infrastructure, and artist pay. The festival typically features various performances, demonstrations, workshops, and cultural experiences across multiple stages and locations downtown.
Without that funding, organizers now face a challenging road ahead.
“9% doesn't sound like a lot. But, I mean, it's a big loss,” Eisele said. “We'll have to find that money elsewhere.”
The NEA’s decision is part of a broader shift under the Trump administration, which has been moving away from supporting certain arts initiatives. In its letter to the Alliance, the agency cited a new focus on funding projects that “reflect the nation’s rich artistic heritage and creativity as prioritized by the president.”
Eisele disagrees with the implication that the festival — which she says attracts around 120,000 visitors every year — no longer fits that mission.
“How much more American can you get by bringing every culture into the public square and allowing people to bump into one another, taste each other's food, watch each other's dances?” she said. “It feels like a little bit strange to have that be viewed as somehow not worthy of arts funding.”
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However, Eisele said the setback is representative of what the festival is made of: resilience.
“It's about celebrating the ways that we make beauty amid challenging times,” she said. “That's what people from the desert here have done since the beginning of time.”
To bridge the funding gap, the Alliance is now hoping for more support from sponsors and donors.
“Hopefully people will have, you know, kind of an understanding of the arts funding landscape and, you know, may chip in a little extra this year,” Eisele said.
The free 3-day festival will be held October 17 through 19.
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Maria Staubs joined KGUN 9 as a multimedia journalist and producer in July of 2024. Her passion for writing and storytelling stems from anchoring her middle school’s news show and editing her high school’s yearbook. She holds a bachelor's degree in journalism and mass communication with a minor in film and media production, as well as a master's degree in mass communication. You can email Maria at maria.staubs@kgun9.com or reach out to her on X/Twitter or Instagram.
