Baltimore-based Wide Angle Youth Media receives only about 2 percent of its budget from the federal government, but that doesn’t mean officials there were alarmed any less by the news that President Donald Trump is looking to slash federal arts programs.

The loss of federal funding could be just the start of a downhill slide, officials at Wide Angle and many other local arts organizations fear.

“If you start pulling out the national piece, then the state piece starts to fall apart,” said Susan Malone, executive director of the group, which provides arts education for Baltimore youths. “There’s just not enough resources there, if you start to dismantle the funding pyramid we have put together.”

And it’s not only the actual loss of dollars that organizations fear. For many groups, federal funding — through the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, all of which would be eliminated under the president’s budget proposal — serves as a seal of approval, a signal to other potential donors that the group is legitimate and the project is viable.

“That money provides the validation you need as an organization,” said Malone. “It says that you are an organization of value.”

Michael Ross, managing director for Center Stage, agreed: “The NEA is saying, ‘We are supporting this great project,’ and then we can use that to leverage other dollars to also support that kind of work.”

Trump’s budget proposal, which included a $54 billion increase in defense spending, is preliminary and must be approved by Congress.

The total funding for the NEA, NEH and IMLS in the current budget is $526 million. Trump’s proposal would also eliminate the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and its $445 million budget.

In 2016, groups in Maryland received 19 grants from the NEA, worth a total of $520,000. That same year, 11 grants were awarded to Maryland groups and individuals by the NEH, worth over $1.46 million. The IMLS sent almost $2.9 million to the state.

Arts organizations are urging supporters to contact their legislators, post on social media and otherwise raise their voices against the proposed budget cuts. “We all just need to be incredibly vocal and not just sit back and be paralyzed by what could be devastating,” Wide Angle’s Malone said. “There’s too much on the table right now for us to be quiet.”

Locally, the Maryland Institute College of Art received $200,000 from the NEA for the current fiscal year to assist with four programs. Center Stage received $90,000, to help fund two projects. Wide Angle received $15,000 from the NEA.

At the Baltimore Museum of Art, recent NEH grants have included $750,000 to support conservation, while the NEA has provided $40,000 to support the recent “Matisse/Diebenkorn” exhibit and $25,000 for the just-opened “Off the Shelf: Modern & Contemporary Artists’ Books” exhibit. The NEA also approved a $2 million indemnity program for “Matisse/Diebenkorn.”

This year, Highlandtown’s Creative Alliance received $15,000, part of its operating budget of $12 million.

Since 2010, the Walters Art Museum has received $289,000 from the NEA, $1.7 million from the NEH and $1.2 million from the IMLS.

“We’ve really been able to capitalize on government support and leverage private philanthropy against it,” said Julia Marciari-Alexander, executive director of the Walters, which has a current operating budget of $14.6 million.

“Everything is dependent on the amazing grants that we get from these institutions.”

chris.kaltenbach@baltsun.com

Twitter.com/chriskaltsun