EDGECOMB — For years, grants from the National Endowment for the Arts have supported Watershed Ceramics.

Then on May 2, Executive Director David East, along with other arts organizations, got termination notices for grants for 2024 and 2025. Watershed had already spent its $35,000 grant for 2024 and is not being asked to reimburse the government, East said.

But the 2025 grant — which supports one of their artist in residency programs — is “under review.”

“It’s in a limbo phase,” he said of the $30,000 grant. “Historically, it would have been just a formality. We can’t get any answers. We already have expenses associated with this project.”

Statewide, 11 grants totaling $345,500 have been terminated as part of cost saving initiatives announced by the Trump administration, according to the Maine Arts Commission and Cultural Alliance of Maine.

Mollie Cashwell, director of the cultural alliance, said that total could go higher as she waits to hear from a few other organizations that may have been impacted.

In addition to the NEA grants, Cashwell said eight National Endowment for the Humanities grants headed to Maine were canceled totaling $1.3 million and nearly $300,000 in grants to groups who get funds from the Institute of Museum and Library Services have also been terminated.

In total, that’s $1.67 million in cultural grants lost, she said.

The termination notices came after President Donald Trump released his proposed budget, which would eliminate small agencies such as NEA, the NEH and museum and library sciences institute.

The rationale offered by the administration is that eliminating small agencies is “consistent with the President’s efforts to decrease the size of the Federal Government to enhance accountability, reduce waste, and reduce unnecessary governmental entities.”

Amy Hausmann, executive director of the Maine Arts Commission, said the arts generate $2.5 billion annually in Maine, which is 2.7% of the state’s gross domestic product.

“Art and culture is something that impacts all generations in our state and all communities across the state from York County up to Aroostook, out to Oxford out to Washington County,” she said. “We know that the work that’s being done by the cultural workers in the state is so important.”

She said she’s working with the state’s Congressional delegation to ensure that they know how important the grants are to local groups in Maine and noted that the arts have received strong bipartisan support in the past.

One of the organizations to receive a termination letter is Portland Ovations, which is set to lose $55,000 — the largest federal grant ever approved, said Aimee Petrin, executive and artistic director.

“We’ve already done half of the programs in our grant,” she said. “I had to recognize a substantial loss to our operating budget.”

The grant supports performances by groups like Contra-Tiempo, a dance theater company that highlights Latin culture and Omar Offendum, who performed hip-hop and Arabic poetry.

Petrin said NEA grants are like the “Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval” — a signal to other donors that the organization is worth supporting.

Beyond the grants, Petrin said she’s worried about ripple effects on arts organizations if federal support continues to dry up. Although funding for the Maine Arts Commission wasn’t cut in this round, she wonders what message is being sent when support erodes for the arts.

She also hopes that the “NEA is not eliminated 100%” so it can be revived at some point.

“The arts are central to who we are as human beings, how we come together as community,” she said. “It’s beautiful and how we need to exist. I worry the arts will have to take a back seat.”