Washington is pulling back from the arts. Gen Z is producing itself.
A new federal earnings test and a wave of cancelled grants are squeezing the institutions young artists relied on. The next generation is doing the work itself.
Nearly half of the country's visual arts, music and performance programs are projected to fail a new federal earnings test. Programs that fail it twice in three years lose access to federal student loans.
The rule
As of July 2026, a degree program has to out-earn a high school diploma to keep its federal loans.
Undergraduate programs are measured by what graduates earn four years out, compared with workers in the same state who only finished high school. Graduate programs are measured against bachelor's holders.
Fail two years out of three and the program loses Direct Loan eligibility.
The first results come out in 2027. The Education Department says the goal is to stop taxpayers from subsidizing degrees that don't pay off.
Programs that would fail under early data include Yale's MFAs in visual arts and music and Juilliard's graduate music programs.
The grants
On May 2, 2025, the administration's budget proposal called for shutting down the National Endowment for the Arts. That night, grants that had already been awarded started getting pulled. Hours after the proposal, hundreds of theaters opened a cancellation email.
One tally counted roughly 560 grants and more than $27 million canceled.
Philadelphia Theatre Company lost $50,000 it was counting on for a production. Paper Mill Playhouse lost funding for its autism-friendly performances.
Eliminating the NEA outright still needs Congress. For now, the agency is open, and much of the money is gone.
The shift
The next generation of artists is taking on the work that institutions used to do: casting, producing and marketing themselves.
A short film gets cast through a group chat. A pilot gets shot over three weekends with friends from class. An EP gets its rollout on TikTok before any label hears it.
Making things and getting them out there have never been cheaper.
But making work without an institution means finding your own crew. That's the part Clubs is built for: post the project, say who you need, and let the people who want to make it with you find it.
Adapted from the Clubs Instagram post "Washington Is Pulling Back From the Arts. Gen Z Is Producing Itself." (@clubs.create).