TAO is NOT waste, fraud, or abuse – #ThisIsArtAtWork
You may recall that in the Fall of 2024, TAO was honored by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (only 100 organizations from over 4,000 applicants received this award) to increase our capacity to deliver healing arts programs to older and isolated adults in our region for years to come. Additionally, TAO usually receives about 3% of its operating budget directly from the National Endowment for the Arts’s project funds.
To make a very long story short, that funding is cancelled as of this month. TAO had already incurred expenses and completed about 66% of the project. It is likely over $50,000 of these funds will not be realized. You can read more on the federal funding impacts on TAO here: (LINK)
To be abundantly clear – this grant and its supported projects were designed to increase our resilience and make TAO less reliant on any singular funding source. It is the definition of smart investment and the opposite of wasteful.
TAO is a beloved community resource with staff, artists, board members, and volunteers who work tirelessly to achieve the mission efficiently and effectively.
Art works INCREDIBLY hard at TAO.
In that spirit, we are moving forward with our #ThisIsArtAtWork campaign. We will stabilize our funding both immediately in the wake of this funding cancellation and for the future of our operations to ensure the ultimate goal of sustainability and resilience is achieved. We will not give up on the older adults in Hampton Roads who count on our programs to combat harmful isolation and loneliness or on the caregivers who rely on these services to keep their loved ones well and whole.
Please visit our #ThisIsArtAtWork campaign page to see how you can get involved. No matter your method – monetary gifts, calling your representatives, promoting our upcoming June 5th fundraiser, or sending us your story – we invite all of you to join us for TAO’s next chapter.
We promise the future can be bright and invite you into it (and encourage your friends and family to do the same).
As always – thank you, thank you, thank you.
