Executive Director Rachel Alfaro said the Taube has been notified of grant awards from entities that pass through federal dollars, but the money has been held up at the federal level.

“A lot of it has been up in the air. We don’t really know what’s going to happen, specifically because they don’t know what’s going to happen,” she said of the granting agencies.

“General expenses are going up, too, and then funding sources are becoming more limited,” she said.

Some grant sources the Taube might traditionally apply to are not making funds available at this time or are more narrowly focusing grants to areas not applicable to the mission of the Taube, Alfaro said. The Taube did have one grant come through, which came from a private foundation.

Jill Schramm/MDN Aryana Sink checks out the Sketchbook Exhibition on display in the Taube Museum Friday.

Additionally, private donations are down as people consider their own financial situations at this time, Alfaro said.

She noted the Taube normally would be focusing on the Great Tomato Festival, a major summer fundraiser that ended a 35-year run with its final event last year.

“Having inconsistent grant sources now in addition to having to find new funding to replace a fundraiser has been challenging,” Alfaro said.

The Taube employs just one full-time and one part-time staff member but also pays teaching artists on contract. Continuation of those contracted art classes into the future will depend on grant funding and any fees from program participation, Alfaro said.

“We try to offer reduced costs or free programming,” she added. “We can’t do that if we don’t have a way to fund it.”

The Taube has a painting program offered to senior living facilities that it has hoped could become grant-supported, enabling the art program to expand to more senior facilities and other centers helping people with addiction or homelessness, Alfaro said. The program’s benefits for seniors include social interaction, manual dexterity and brain health.

Although the fee to participate in the painting program is low, the Taube has seen participation decline due to cost, Alfaro said. A grant scheduled to be issued in August will help if it comes through as expected, she said.

Over the longer term, without stable funding, Taube’s free open studios for artists and the free exhibitions and receptions also could be in jeopardy, Alfaro said.

The Taube welcomes public support as it plans a block party and its 55th anniversary celebration for Saturday, Aug. 9, from 2-8 p.m. The fundraiser will include live music, a silent auction and an event in which art will be sold anonymously and artists revealed after the purchases.