(RNS) — Last November, after five years of unsuccessful applications, Los Angeles resident Mona Kotecha and her husband, Rupesh, got a call giving them the good news: Their Indian classical music nonprofit, the Festival of Tabla, would be granted $30,000 from the federal government for the 2025 fiscal year through the National Endowment for the Arts.
The NEA had seemingly recognized the importance of the festival, which convenes some 70 amateurs and masters of the 18th-century hand drums known as the tabla for a two-day networking and performance weekend in Southern California.
The Kotechas didn’t publicize the award right away because nothing official had come in writing. “I’m glad I didn’t, because things just turned sour mid-January,” Mona Kotecha told RNS. “We were all just in shock.”
In an email, the NEA told the Kotechas that they, along with other grant recipients in the Folk and Traditional Arts sector, would not be receiving the money. Major cuts and cancellations to the NEA were announced shortly after the start of President Donald Trump’s second term, following a proposal to eliminate the institution entirely.
“You’re basically trying to put a stop to the arts,” said Kotecha. “You’re not funding us, so b …