From the Western Slope to the Front Range, Colorado creatives sweat the future of arts funding
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GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — County Road 46 meanders around the northern edge of Rangely, curving next to the White River before bending toward the oil and gas infrastructure that's a major part of the town's identity.
One piece of industrial equipment — a decades-old, 75-foot-tall water tank — looks right at home on CR 46. But The Tank Center for Sonic Arts isn’t part of the oil and gas industry. It's a renowned recording space for music and other performing arts with a one-of-a-kind reverb and echo that signer Cameron Beauchamp describes as the space collaborating with you.
"If I’m singing a long tone that would last 20 seconds, I can take a breath in the middle and you won’t notice it at all in the room, because the room carries your voice for so long,'' he said.
His vocal ensemble, Roomful of Teeth, has recorded two projects at The Tank, and rely on thousands of dollars of National Endowment for the Arts money to create their art, year in and year out.
Just north of town, The Tank Center for Sonic Arts has sunk into the hillside, becoming a permanent creative resource in Rangely. Video Courtesy Ben Gondrez
Artists and small endeavors like The Tank are concerned about the future, as many of their projects depend on NEA grants directly. The NEA was one of the many programs thrown into chaos during the Trump administration’s short-lived federal funding pause earlier this year. Future funding is uncertain.
President Donald Trump previously called to eliminate federal arts funding, and the Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank behind Project 2025, has called NEA endowments “wasteful.”
The Tank also receives money from Colorado Creative Industries, the state arts and culture office. That office has a total budget of $4.2 million for 2025. The NEA contributed $948,000 to the budget, according to the Colorado Office of Economic Development, of which CCI is a part.
Governor Polis and the state legislature increased funding for CCI last year, possibly making Colorado eligible for more federal money, but it’s too early to know what NEA funding will look like next year.
NEA and CCI also provide funding to organizations like the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance company in Denver, the Blue Sage Center for the Arts in Paonia and a program that develops new American plays at the Creede Repertory Theatre, located in the town of less than 300 people tucked in Colorado’s San Juan mountains.
It's not just the former Rio Grande railroad equipment that makes The Tank special -- it's rural Colorado.
"The Tank couldn't be anywhere else. It's a very sensitive instrument for sound, if it were next to the freeway, no one would ever go in there. It'd be a howling mess," said James Paul, executive director of The Tank.
Paul is counting on continued funding from NEA for a residency program at The Tank during which CU Boulder students will use the space to record their work before performing at the university’s Black Box Experimental Studio.
For a few days in January, when the Trump administration froze federal grants and loans, the check for that residency program wasn’t going to be paid. The freeze was rescinded in late January, and the graduate students have gotten underway on their recording.
Paul and Beauchamp both said arts funding is always in a state of uncertainty, regardless of the administration, but said there's so much to lose if the creative ecosystem created by these grants is severely reduced or taken away altogether.
Su Teatro, the performing arts center focusing on Latino culture on Santa Fe Drive in Denver, is part of that larger creative community, receiving funding to put on a play from Knoxville artist Linda Parris-Bailey. That funding, an NEA grant, was $15,000.
“In the end the biggest loss is to the country, as so much of the texture and beauty that makes us interesting and inspiring will disappear. Some people think they are silencing the ‘others,’ but inevitably in silencing the NEA we will silence ourselves,” wrote Tony Garcia, executive artistic director at Su Teatro, in a statement to Rocky Mountain PBS.
Garcia says that funding hasn’t been cut. There’s a chance it could be, as NEA now requires grant applicants to abide by an executive order that targets anyone promoting diversity, equity and inclusion.
Hundreds of artists signed a protest letter against the new rules in February. Last week, the ACLU filed suit against the federal arts agency about a similar rule that says grant applicants can’t promote “gender identity” in their art.
Cleo Parker Robinson Dance has a long history with the National Endowment for the Arts; Robinson was on the National Arts Council in the 90s and early 2000s. This fiscal year, the dance company received a $25,000 grant for their 55th anniversary season.
“So much of who we are and the notoriety and what allows us to do our arts and education work is really because of the quality of dancers that we have and the type of projects that we're able to do with support from the NEA,” said Malik Robinson, CEO of CPRD.
Once property of the Rio Grande railroad, this 75-foot-tall water tank is now a unique recording space in Rangely, Colorado. Video Courtesy Ben Gondrez
In Rangely “a multi-level chandelier of microphones” hung 30 feet above Beauchamp and company as they recorded in The Tank last year, for an album where each song is sung in the tuning frequency of a different planet in the solar system.
“Governments on our planet that support the arts in a meaningful way have a great respect for humanity, and for kindness, and for beauty,” said Beauchamp. “Some countries really succeed at this and some don't at all.”
Rocky Mountain PBS multimedia journalist Carly Rose contributed to this report.
Rocky Mountain PBS multimedia journalist Carly Rose contributed to this report.
Type of story: News
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
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