Passage Press CEO Jonathan Keeperman Urges Overhaul Of Agencies Like The NEA And NEH To Promote Conservative Culture
Jonathan Keeperman, the CEO of Passage Press, issued a statement urging conservatives not to seed national culture to the left, labeling it “an act of surrender.”
In recent days there has been a large cultural discussion of what should be done with institutions like the National Endowment for the Arts and others, which have been shown by DOGE to have engaged in wasteful activities, promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as foreign nationalist ideals.
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While many in conservative culture have spoken saying these programs should be removed entirely, Jonathan Keeperman has been fighting the good fight with Passage Press to preserve and create culture on the right. He has a different take, that these institutions shouldn’t be abandoned in wait for the next Democrat to get into office and reinstitute them, but instead, we should be using the offices to create conservative culture now to have an influence on society.
Keeperman penned “A Blueprint for American Cultural Renewal,” detailing a plan for saving the NEA and NEH and how they should be utilized rather than abandoned. In the post, he had this call to action:
However, withdrawing from the cultural battlefield is not a neutral act; it is an act of surrender. Public investment in the arts and humanities is crucial not only for preserving a shared national identity but also for countering the forces that seek to divide and redefine the country according to their own ideological imperatives. The absence of government engagement in culture does not mean the absence of cultural formation—it merely cedes the ground entirely to entrenched private interests, academia, and legacy media, all of which have demonstrated a relentless commitment to zeroing-out the remaining balance of our cultural heritage.
The notion that eliminating public funding will lead to a more organic or ideologically neutral cultural environment is a naive illusion. The institutions that currently dominate cultural production will persist, more or less unchallenged, advancing their agenda with little regard for their popularity or the continued divestment from cultural life by the general public. Abandoning the fight is not the same as winning it. If conservatives wish to reclaim and restore American culture, they must actively engage with the institutions that shape it. They must have a clear vision, a concrete strategy, and the resolve to use the tools available—including the NEA and NEH—to enact that vision.
This is not simply an opportunity for the Trump administration; it is an obligation. Reclaiming the NEA and NEH from their current leadership and redirecting them toward a cultural program that truly serves the American people is as essential to the MAGA agenda as any economic, immigration, or foreign policy initiative.
The statement echoes what science fiction writer Brian Niemeier has said about neopatronage being an important model for the arts for some time. While Keeperman wants to set up the NEA and NEH to, in essence, be a neopatronage supporter of conservatives in the arts, Niemeier has been calling for such patrons to support artists for a long time.
In a blog, he details how creators can engage with potential patrons,
Enter Neopatronage, a concept that advocates the return to a more direct and personal relationship between creators and their audiences. Neopatronage empowers readers to take up the mantle of Renaissance patrons, actively funding the content they want to see and participating in the creative process alongside their favored artists.
No longer need authors rely on Amazon alone. By launching a Patreon, they can invite readers behind the scenes while offering them exclusive benefits like free books, first access to new works, and avenues for direct interaction like private group chats and Discord Q&As.
As the name suggests, the core of the Neopatronage model is direct patronage. Not only do patrons gain early access to works-in-progress, they have the chance to give feedback and shape the final product. And services like Fiverr directly connect patrons with artists to commission the works they want without having to wait for creators to extend specific collaborative opportunities.
This direct engagement between creator and audience not only fosters a sense of solidarity, it ensures that creative decisions are driven by reader preferences rather than corporate agendas. By embracing neopatronage, audiences can transcend the limitations of mainstream media and actively contribute to the cultivation of a healthier, more organic cultural landscape.
Keeperman and his Passage Press are using this model with Peter Thiel and his investment group acting as patrons to their operation, keeping their arts sustainable to build something bigger. With conservatives in the government, they do need to get into the mindset of how to build, not just how to cut, if we are going to win the culture war.
What do you think of Jonathan Keeperman from Passage Press advocating an overhaul of endowments? Leave a comment and let us know.
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Keeperman is cribbing from 2018-2019 Brian Niemeier on "Neopatronage", but he's stealing from some of the best.
The problem is that bureaucratic patronage organizations like the NEA and NEH will always drift left.