National Endowment for the Arts Awards More Than $27.6 Million Across Nation Includes $15,000 awarded to Dance/NYC

[New York City] — In its first 50 years, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) awarded more than $5 billion in grants to recipients in every state and U.S. jurisdiction, the only arts funder in the nation to do so. Today, the NEA announced awards totaling more than $27.6 million in its first funding round of fiscal year 2016, including an Art Works award of $15,000 to Dance/NYC to support its Town Hall meetings, a symposium, a disability and NYC Dance Convening, a Junior Committee, and continued expansion of the Dance/NYC website.

The Art Works category supports the creation of work and presentation of both new and existing work, lifelong learning in the arts, and public engagement with the arts through 13 arts disciplines or fields.

NEA Chairman Jane Chu said, "The arts are part of our everyday lives, no matter who you are or where you live they have the power to transform individuals, spark economic vibrancy in communities, and transcend the boundaries across diverse sectors of society. Supporting projects like the one from Dance/NYC offers more opportunities to engage in the arts every day.

Dance/NYC's Town Hall meetings will be offered free to the public and will focus on topics such as the state of international touring, the opportunities for digital archiving, disaster preparedness, and models of collaboration among institutions of higher learning and cultural organizations. The symposium is an annual full-day event that focuses on a particular topic relevant to the dance field and will include panel discussions, case study presentations, individual consultations, and workshops. A series of disability convenings will include topics such as integrating disabled artists in dance practice and performance, developing effective communications and program access, and training dance company staff and constituents on disability issues. The Junior Committee provides annual leadership training and professional development for emerging artists, managers, and educators. Dance/NYC plans to develop accessible pages to spotlight local dance artists and companies with productions focused on disability for its web site.

To join the Twitter conversation about this announcement, please use #NEAFall15. For more information on projects included in the NEA grant announcement, go to arts.gov.

About Dance/NYC
Dance/NYC's mission is to promote the knowledge, appreciation, practice, and performance of the dance in the metropolitan area. It embeds values of equity and inclusion into all aspects of the organization. It works in alliance with Dance/USA, the national service organization for professional dance.