NEA grants to dance - May 2018

[California]

The National Endowment for the Arts just announced a new round of grants. Numerous awards to dance companies (see pp. 13-20):

https://www.arts.gov/sites/default/files/Spring_2018_discipline_list.pdf

[sandik]

Nevada Ballet Theater will be doing work by Robert Joffrey and Gerald Arpino!

[ABT Fan]

9 hours ago, sandik said:

Nevada Ballet Theater will be doing work by Robert Joffrey and Gerald Arpino!

I missed that! I find it particularly sad that Arpino's work is virtually never seen anymore, it seems.

[CharlieH]

9 hours ago, sandik said:

Nevada Ballet Theater will be doing work by Robert Joffrey and Gerald Arpino!

Nice but they can only do so much with $10,000. It’s a start, though. Hopefully it will inspire Nevada patrons to donate more.

[CharlieH]

16 minutes ago, ABT Fan said:

I missed that! I find it particularly sad that Arpino's work is virtually never seen anymore, it seems.

We used to count on American Repertory Ballet in Princeton to occasionally stage Arpino ballets but that was 3-4 years ago (Viva Vivaldi and Confetti).

[sandik]

3 hours ago, CharlieH said:

Nice but they can only do so much with $10,000. It’s a start, though. Hopefully it will inspire Nevada patrons to donate more.

In general, these grants go to organizations that also have other funding lined up -- they rarely donate as the only support.  Usually the grant is for a specific component of the project, like artists fees.  So I'm pretty sure this has multiple sources in line.

I'm wondering who's actually doing the directing of the project.  I know James Canfield was there till recently -- perhaps this project was started while he was in charge (he staged a couple of Arpino works on Oregon Ballet Theater when he was AD there)

[California]

36 minutes ago, sandik said:

In general, these grants go to organizations that also have other funding lined up -- they rarely donate as the only support.  Usually the grant is for a specific component of the project, like artists fees.  So I'm pretty sure this has multiple sources in line.

Under the Federal authorizing legislation, NEA is actually prohibited from paying more than 50% of the cost of these projects and generally the NEA share is much less than that. There are some provisions for emergency grants for which cost-sharing requirements can be waived, but those are rare.

https://www.arts.gov/sites/default/files/Legislation.pdf (see p. 13 - item (3))

[sandik]

Thanks for doing the homework!

[Helene]

I'm listening to Michael Breeden's and Rebecca King Ferraro's interview of Sofiane Sylve for their podcast "Conversations on Dance," and in the mid-interview promo spot, they said that Dimensions Dance Theater of Miami will perform Gerald Arpino's "Light Rain" at the Joyce Theater on June 26-27 and for Inside/Out at Jacob's Pillow on June 29.

[sandik]

Hadn't listened to that one yet (they really scored with all the interviews in San Francisco), but excellent news about the Arpino.  I think that's one of his strongest later works.

(Which makes me think that we haven't really discussed him much here on BA (will go back and look at archives, but even so) -- perhaps this might be a good topic for another thread.)

Back to the main theme of the thread:  A quick look at the annual report for Pacific Northwest Ballet shows that contributions make up 28% of their total income for the 16/17 fiscal year, with "government" contributions (combination of NEA and regional/local government agencies) around 1%.  It doesn't break down who gave how much in that category, but contributions from individuals far outstripped it at 19%.  I'm not sure if the got any NEA money in that year, but I noticed they weren't listed in this latest round of grants.

[California]

13 minutes ago, sandik said:

Back to the main theme of the thread:  A quick look at the annual report for Pacific Northwest Ballet shows that contributions make up 28% of their total income for the 16/17 fiscal year, with "government" contributions (combination of NEA and regional/local government agencies) around 1%.  It doesn't break down who gave how much in that category, but contributions from individuals far outstripped it at 19%.  I'm not sure if the got any NEA money in that year, but I noticed they weren't listed in this latest round of grants.

But the most important thing about an NEA grant is not the dollar amount, but the fact of receiving an NEA grant. It's the old Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval that can jump start local fundraising. Only a handful of the largest private foundations in this country (Ford, Mellon, Getty, Rockefeller, e.g.) have the infrastructure to administer the sort of elaborate peer review process administered by NEA (and NEH). $10,000 (the typical grant size on that list) doesn't sound like much money, but the fact that it came from NEA is priceless.

[sandik]

Just now, California said:

But the most important thing about an NEA grant is not the dollar amount, but the fact of receiving an NEA grant. It's the old Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval that can jump start local fundraising .... the fact that it came from NEA is priceless.

And you have put your finger on a very important point here.  Whenever some boneheaded congressperson suggests that we axe the endowments, because they really don't give that much money, we have to keep pointing out that a significant part of the service they provide is this vetting process.  (tempted to make a joke about extreme vetting, and choosing not to). 

[miliosr]

On 5/10/2018 at 10:18 AM, CharlieH said:

We used to count on American Repertory Ballet in Princeton to occasionally stage Arpino ballets but that was 3-4 years ago (Viva Vivaldi and Confetti).

American Repertory Ballet performed Gerald Arpino's Sea Shadows in April:

https://www.broadwayworld.com/new-jersey/article/American-Repertory-Ballet-Makes-A-Splash-With-Gerald-Arpinos-SEA-SHADOW-To-Be-Performed-At-McCarter-Theatre-20180413

More companies performing Arpino ballets in 2018:

http://www.arpinofoundation.org/news-performances.html

[sandik]

Thanks so much for the link to the Arpino Foundation -- a happy dive into their video clips!