It was a tough year for arts funding, both on state and national levels.
In the spring, the state legislature nearly eliminated the State Council on the Arts, which provides funding to many creative organizations across the Granite State. The decision would have made New Hampshire the only state in the nation without an arts council.
While the legislature ultimately decided to leave the council intact, it pulled its funding. The State Council for the Arts now relies on business tax credits and donations to keep supporting arts organizations and initiatives across the state. Its staff has shrunk from seven people to just one.
The state cuts coincided with the Trump administration’s slashing of federal funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. While these organizations still exist, their financial resources have been significantly reduced.
Sal Prizio, who serves as the executive director of the Capitol Center for the Arts and sits on the board of the advocacy group Arts4NH, said his organization and others have had to adapt.
“It is a matter of kind of coalescing all of these efforts and being smart and strategic about what we do as well,” he said. “I think the federal and state happening at the same time is a turning point for us as an industry, and we need to think outside the box. I think we need to shed some of the old ways. I think we need to be more nimble and dynamic as an industry, but also stand up and fight for it, too.”
Prizio has participated in numerous conversations about the industry’s response to cuts and brought others into the dialogue, as well.
In September, arts organizations from around the state gathered in Concord for the Creative Culture Summit, organized by Arts4NH and hosted at the Capitol Center for the Arts.
The summit brought together representatives from theaters, libraries, music schools, historical societies, a brewers’ association and more to discuss challenges facing their sector, build connections and chart a collaborative path forward. Attendees came from as near as Concord and Manchester and as far as Portsmouth, Keene, Nashua and Boston.
It was the first step in a long process of rethinking how to keep arts organizations alive and thriving. Prizio said he hopes to hold a second summit to continue that work in the new year.
“I think a lot of it revolves around us building a stronger collective, or an alliance, that can speak with a much louder voice and carry more weight when it comes to policy in the state,” he said.
Several prospective bills pertaining to the arts have been submitted for the 2026 legislative session. One would re-establish a commission studying the economic impact of the arts and culture across the state. Another would create a voluntary surcharge program and fund for the Division of the Arts and the State Council on the Arts. A third would form a committee to study past, present and potential funding sources for the Council.
Prizio has mixed feelings about these proposed bills, or Legislative Service Requests. While he supports studies on the impacts and funding sources of the creative industries, he wants to ensure that commitment translates into action.
The voluntary surcharge program, however, is more complicated for Prizio. He explained that venues such as the Capitol Center would add 50 cents to their ticket prices and then that money would go to a fund and be redistributed to organizations across the state.
“I do want to see the arts overall be thriving and supported,” he said. “But why are you asking the folks who need the revenue — you’re essentially taxing those folks for the revenue. It’s like, put something in place that’s a little bit more ubiquitous, and it has to be mandatory. If it’s not mandatory, it’s pointless.”
One of the challenges facing the creative sector is the argument, particularly among Republican lawmakers, that the arts are a “want” and not a “need.” This rhetoric has played out both within New Hampshire and at the federal level.
Arts and culture had a $3.4 billion impact on New Hampshire’s economy and represented 21,000 jobs in 2022, according to data collected by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies.
Data collected by the arts advocacy organization Arts4NH similarly demonstrates the role creative industries plays in the economy.
In the 2024 fiscal year alone, the Council awarded $1.5 million to 180 grantees in over 60 communities. The state invested 73 cents per resident in the arts and culture sector, and the Council’s funding yielded over an estimated $2 million in goods and services and $50 million in earned income by grantee organizations and projects.
Prizio believes protecting the creative sector should be part of legislators’ roles.
“The state’s responsibility is not to just get out of the way,” he said. “It is to make sure, whether through regulation or through strategic investment or responsible governance, to take care of the people in the state and to grow the economy in the state to end to make it attractive to outside businesses.”