Despite her agency finally winding up with a budget for the new fiscal year that's essentially flat, Oklahoma Arts Council Executive Director Amber Sharples said visitors to the state Capitol will see blank walls in some places that would normally showcase eye-catching works by Sooner State artists.
"In this particular climate, we are grateful that we ended up pretty much with level funding," Sharples told The Oklahoman. "We seem to be in the clear for now and are able to move forward, but there also is still, I would say, an undercurrent of uncertainty ... about what is to come and what obstacles or challenges we will face — both as a sector and as individual organizations — in the future."
The Oklahoma Arts Council is the official state agency for the support and development of the arts, as well as the state partner for the National Endowment for the Arts, or NEA, the independent federal agency that is the country's largest funder of the arts and arts education.
How delays on the federal level led to the delay in approving the Oklahoma Arts Council's budget
After a turbulent spring that saw hundreds of arts organizations nationwide — including some in the Sooner State — have their NEA grants canceled, the Oklahoma Arts Council's governing body, which is comprised of 15 governor-appointed Oklahomans representing communities statewide, approved the state agency's fiscal year 2026 budget on July 15.
That's two weeks after the fiscal year actually started on July 1.
"We typically find out what our federal funding, our state partnership grant, is going to be from the National Endowment for the Arts in early April. And this year, we didn't find out until June. Therefore, we had to move our annual June council meeting into July, just so we would have enough time to build a plan that was responsive," Sharples said.
"Luckily, we've done this for numerous years, and we're very good, I think, at building a strong plan and looking at the different options. But it does have probably more of a domino effect ... in that you have hundreds of organizations not finding out what the potential state and federal investment is going to be in their work (until) 45 to 60 days after the normal time frame."
So, Oklahoma Arts Council staffers are working under a condensed timeline to process more than 250 grant applications for fiscal year 2026, while closing out in excess of 600 grant awards from fiscal year 2025. Organizations that applied for fiscal year 2026 grant funding from the state Arts Council have been warned to expect a delay in award notifications.
"That is difficult on organizations that are already strained, and we want to recognize and acknowledge that. We know that is compounding the uncertainty they're facing (regarding) various other resources, whether it's federal, state or even just in the private sector," Sharples said. "We're probably going to see the repercussions of that for quite some time, in terms of organizational planning, their ability to move projects forward or operate themselves with certainty around their personnel and other decision-making."
Grant notices are expected to go out in August, while the awarded grants will cover the period of expenses that started July 1.
How much in state and federal appropriations did the Oklahoma Arts Council receive for fiscal year 2026?
For fiscal year 2026, the Oklahoma Arts Council's state appropriations totaled $4,308,180.
That's a net increase of $355,855 over fiscal year 2025.
The state agency received $405,855 in one-time funding, including $100,000 for state Capitol artwork risk mitigation measures and $305,855 for specialized museum collections storage equipment at the Jim Thorpe Building. A nearly century-old office building in the state Capitol complex, the Jim Thorpe Building is undergoing extensive renovations.
Through its National Endowment for the Arts State Partnership Grant, the Oklahoma Arts Council has been awarded more than $1 million for the second year in a row.
The $1,118,938 awarded to the state agency through its NEA partnership grant represents an increase of $116,838 from fiscal year 2025.
As with its state funding, the boost in the Oklahoma Arts Council's federal appropriation is largely due to one-time funding from the federal arts agency through the America250 and Arts and Health grant opportunities.
To mark the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, President Donald Trump's administration is planning a full year of festivities across the country that will culminate on July 4, 2026, exactly 250 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Each state arts agency could garner as much as $25,000 in NEA grant funding under the America250 initiative, and the Oklahoma Arts Council applied for and received the maximum funding.
The state Arts Council also applied for and garnered the maximum NEA grant funding — $75,000 — for Arts and Health.
"We're going to put together a statewide summit around bringing leaders that want to leverage the arts and health together for a professional development opportunity. Then, we're using a portion of the funds for our Creative Aging Initiative, since it serves older adults and really supports the idea of arts and health overall," Sharples said.
Launched in 2021, the Oklahoma Arts Council's Creative Aging Initiative was created to build capacity across the state for community-based arts education programs serving older adults in an effort to improve quality of life for the fast-growing segment of the population.
Aside from the one-time funding for Arts and Health and America250, the state Arts Council received a 1.68% increase to its fiscal year 2026 federal funding compared to the previous year.
"The Oklahoma Arts Council’s FY26 budget is modest — less than one dollar per Oklahoman. Yet, that investment yields a $50 million economic return each year. Over 80% of those dollars flow directly into local communities, supporting jobs, expanding access to the arts, and enriching education," said Danielle Ezell, executive director for Oklahomans for the Arts, a nonpartisan arts advocacy group, in an email to The Oklahoman.
"We must increase, not decrease or merely maintain funding, at both the state and federal level. We know investment in the arts is a smart investment that yields enormous economic benefits while enriching communities."
How is uncertainty over future federal funding leading the Oklahoma Arts Council to take cautionary measures?
Despite a small gain in federal funding, concerns remain in the state arts sector about the coming budget negotiations on Capitol Hill and how those might affect the Oklahoma Arts Council's fiscal year 2027.
In May, President Trump unveiled a budget proposal that included $163 billion in spending cuts to non-military programs as well as plans to eliminate the NEA, National Endowment for the Humanities and Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Shortly after the president's proposal was unveiled, arts organizations nationwide, including the Oklahoma City-based Oklahoma Arts Institute and Sunny Dayz Mural Festival as well as the Tulsa Glassblowing School and Theatre Tulsa Inc., had their NEA grants canceled.
In July, the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee recommended a 35% cut to the NEA, which would set its budget at $135 million, down from $207 million. But the Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittee followed by including $207 million for the NEA in its funding bill recommendations for next year.
"Even a partial loss would be deeply felt — especially in rural communities with limited access to private funding. These dollars fund teaching artists, small-town theaters, and local festivals. They create jobs, drive tourism, and bring the arts into schools," Ezell said. "Cuts at the federal level mean fewer opportunities for Oklahomans, particularly those who already face barriers to access. In many rural communities, there are no major donors or corporations ready to step in if this support vanishes."
In September, following the August Congressional recess, both the House and Senate Interior Appropriations bills will go to the floors of their respective chambers, and arts advocates, organizations and agencies will be watching closely.
Still, Sharples said the Oklahoma Arts Council is already taking cost-cutting measures, including scrapping the 2025 Oklahoma Arts Conference and suspending its program of rotating exhibitions in the Oklahoma State Capitol galleries. The latter is due to attrition at the curator of state Capitol exhibitions position, which will remain unfilled for the time being.
"Unfortunately, there will have to be (some) blank walls at this point, as we literally don't have the human power in order to fill those spaces, to keep those areas fresh with new artwork and make connections in studio visits to artists. We've had to cancel a really robust and exciting exhibition schedule with numerous artists from across the state that we had planned out for 18 months, and I know it was devastating to those individual artists," Sharples said.
"But out of an abundance of caution, we have pulled back and made some hard decisions to suspend certain programs so that we can see where the dust settles."
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma Arts Council's flat budget means blank walls at Capitol
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