The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has awarded more than $16 million to nonprofit organizations across the U.S. in the first round of grants during its 2026 fiscal year. All of the funded projects are tied to celebrations of America’s 250th birthday.
Among the recipients is Cedar Summerstock Theatre in Saint Ansgar, which received an $18,000 grant to support a series of musical theater productions and educational programming highlighting American history.
The grant will support the productions, along with panel discussions, lectures and an interactive lobby display designed to provide historical and social context for American storytelling through musical theater.
Each summer, the northern Iowa theater company runs an internship program that brings college students from across the country to Saint Ansgar to train as professional actors and technicians. The organization produces four full shows each season: three productions focused on college-age performers and one junior production for local youth.
Nancy Nickerson Lee, the theater's executive artistic director, said this summer’s lineup features musicals that either focus on real-life events and figures in American history or celebrate American life and culture through the decades.
The shows include Disney's Newsies Jr., inspired by the real-life Newsboy Strike of 1899, Grease, which is set in the late 1950s, and Sister Act, which takes place in the early 90s, as well as a musical comedy called The Hormel Girls, inspired by the real-life Hormel Girls Caravan. In addition, the theater will present an America250 celebration showcase of comedic patriotic scenes featuring stories about Benjamin Franklin, Betsy Ross and the four Mount Rushmore presidents.
“Musical theater has been a way to really tell a lot of the stories of our culture and our history, so connecting those two was really important,” Nickerson Lee said. “All of these stories, I think, uplift the best of the character of the United States."
The NEA has encouraged grant applications for projects that celebrate America's cultural heritage in its annual guidance for several years and continued to do so in its 2026 grant guidelines, issued last year. Nickerson Lee said her organization previously applied for the same grant two years ago, but the planned project ultimately fell through.
Some of the 2026 guideline updates generated uncertainty among arts organizations nationwide after they eliminated funding for projects promoting diversity, equity and inclusion. The changes led to several previously awarded grants being placed under additional review, including in Iowa.
Last spring, President Donald Trump introduced a federal budget proposal that would eliminate the NEA entirely, along with an announcement that the agency would shift its funding focus to align with new presidential priorities. Those include supporting projects that celebrate American heritage, support military communities, promote Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Hispanic-Serving Institutions, encourage AI education, aid disaster recovery and bolster the skilled trades. Grants not matching these themes were terminated, including at two independent Iowa cinemas, though recipients were given seven days to appeal.
