Maverick Concerts, host to the nation’s longest-running summer chamber music festival, is seeking local donors and staging a free open house this weekend after losing a key grant from the National Endowment for Arts for the first time in 15 years.
The NEA rescinded its $35,000 grant last month, shortly after the Trump Administration released a 2026 budget proposal that seeks to eliminate federal arts funding for certain cultural agencies. Dozens of organizations across the country, including Central Park SummerStage in New York and the Center for Photography at Woodstock in Kingston received similar notices from the NEA.
Among them was the Ashokan Center in Olivebridge, which had been recommended for its first NEA grant: a $10,000 award under the now-canceled Challenge America program. The funding was intended to support Ariles Son Jarocho Camp 2025, a summer music and dance gathering rooted in the folk traditions of Veracruz, Mexico, scheduled for July 3–6.
“We were planning to run the program regardless,” said Sara Trapani, director of development at the Ashokan Center. “A grant like this helps organizations free up budgets for other purposes.”
The Ashokan Center, a nonprofit with a $4 million annual budget, relies primarily on individual donors and corporate sponsorships, supplemented by small state grants.
Maverick’s lost funding, 10% of the group’s operating budget, had been earmarked for a season-long initiative celebrating women in music.
“Are we able to close the gap another way, or would it mean that we’d have to trim back on some of our program offerings?,” said Susan Rizwani, a longtime board member who writes Maverick’s grant applications. The group was also awarded a $257,000 reimbursement grant from the New York State Council on the Arts, but must raise a dollar-for-dollar match to receive the funds, which will support a nearly completed green room.
Hervey White, a freethinking writer and early Byrdcliffe Colony resident, founded the Maverick Artist Colony in 1915 as a communal haven. A year later, he built the rustic concert hall where conductor Alexander Platt now directs weekend performances from late June through early September.
The NEA suggested Maverick apply for the grant in November, as it has done for the past 15 years. Then, in January, the NEA issued a news release listing Maverick as a 2025 recipient.
Until the NEA’s reversal last month, “It looked like a done deal,” Rizwani said. NEA officials didn’t respond to multiple phone calls and emails seeking comment.
The NEA did offer a seven-day window to appeal. Still, “the likelihood of an appeal being honored is slim,” said LuAnn Bielawa, Maverick’s director of operations. The 2025 season will proceed, and all contractual agreements will be honored, although offerings may be more limited, she said.
Maverick hopes to galvanize support with the open house on June 7. The music for the event is being curated by Brian Mitchell, who will also play with his band, Brian Mitchell & Friends. The Onteora High School Chamber Orchestra and the Bennett Jazz Ensemble will also perform.
Musicians from Bluestone Quarry perform at 2 p.m., while Mitchell, who has played with local musical legend Levon Helm, takes the stage an hour later. Another performer is Jackson Speller, whose grandfather, Bill Sims, used to play with Mitchell.
“That’s what I mean—the generational part of it. It’s like reaching out to younger people and bringing them into what I can help them with,” Mitchell said.
He called Maverick “a listening environment” and “a living performance space,” and lamented the NEA’s decision.
“It speaks to the government and its view on arts,” he said. “The arts are a casualty for people that don’t care about it and don’t prioritize it.”
Rizwani remains committed.
“I’m sort of a junkie,” she said. “I like to go to almost every concert if I can. There’s just something very intimate about the space, you know? And the acoustics are great.”
Noah Eckstein is the editor-in-chief of The Overlook. Send correspondence to noah@theoverlooknews.com.