(BALTIMORE, MD) -- On October 27, 2020, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation (MAAF) announced $1,594,340 in support of 38 organizations through the Mid Atlantic Arts Regional Resilience Fund. Recipients include four organizations based in New Jersey - Institute of Music for Children (Elizabeth), Jazz House Kids (Montclair), Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company (Fort Lee), and Newark Arts (Newark).
MAAF collaborated with the five other U.S. Regional Arts Organizations - Arts Midwest, Mid-America Arts Alliance, New England Foundation for the Arts, South Arts, and the Western States Arts Federation - to form The United States Regional Arts Resilience Fund in response to the COVID-19 pandemic with generous support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Mid Atlantic Arts Regional Resilience grants will support mid-Atlantic nonprofit arts and cultural organizations as they build resilience and look to the future with programming, planning, and reimagining their work. The program was designed for organizations with visionary leadership and whose work is critical to the region, primarily supporting those making a statewide, regional and/or national impact. Grant awards can support general operating expenses and associated relief and resilience expenses.
In an effort to address long-standing structures that have led to inequity in the field, and, in alignment with MAAF’s new strategic plan and vision to implement equitable practices, the Mid Atlantic Arts Regional Resilience Fund prioritizes organizations led by or serving BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, Persons with Disabilities, communities whose primary language is not English, and/or rural and remote communities. Learn more about the Mid Atlantic Arts Regional Resilience Fund program here.
MAAF's Executive Director Theresa Colvin said "It was gratifying to work with our sister Regional Arts Organizations and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to design and implement the U.S. Regional Arts Resilience Fund. We all know the need is great and hope that by supporting these visionary organizations, the impact to the field and the communities they serve will reach far beyond their own walls."
Here are the Mid Atlantic Arts Regional Resilience grant recipients:
1Hood Media, Pittsburgh, PA, $60,000
Art 180, Richmond, VA, $32,470
August Wilson African American Cultural Center, Pittsburgh, PA, $32,470
BlackStar Film Festival, Philadelphia, PA, $32,470
Christina Cultural Arts Center, Wilmington, DE, $70,000
Classical Theatre of Harlem, New York, NY, $32,470
Contemporary American Theatre Festival, Shepherdstown, WV, $32,470
Cool Culture, Brooklyn, NY, $32,470
Creative Alliance, Baltimore, MD, $32,470
Dance Place, Washington, DC, $60,000
Delaware Shakespeare, Wilmington, DE, $60,000
Flushing Town Hall, Flushing, NY, $32,470
Friends of Ganondagan, Victor, NY, $60,000
Gala Hispanic Theatre, Washington, DC, $70,000
Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, WV, $40,000
Institute of Music for Children, Elizabeth, NJ, $32,470
Jazz House Kids, Montclair, NJ, $40,000
Kulu Mele African Dance & Drum Ensemble, Philadelphia, PA, $32,470
The Laundromat Project, Brooklyn, NY, $40,000
Mind-Builders Creative Arts Center, Bronx, NY, $70,000
The Musicianship, Washington, DC, $40,000
Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, Fort Lee, NJ, $50,000
Newark Arts, Newark, NJ, $70,000
Peale Center for Baltimore History and Architecture, Baltimore, MD, $32,470
Pregones Puerto Rican Traveling Theater, Bronx, NY, $32,470
Richmond Triangle Players, Richmond, VA, $32,470
Sitar Arts Center, Washington, DC, $32,470
Weeksville Heritage Center, Brooklyn, NY, $32,470
Soundscapes, Newport News, VA, $32,470
Split This Rock, Washington, DC, $32,470
Step Afrika!, Washington, DC, $32,470
Theatre of the Oppressed NYC, New York, NY, $32,470
United Jazz Foundation, St. Thomas, USVI, $50,000
Urban Artistry, Silver Spring, MD, $32,470
Urban Bush Women, Bronx, NY, $32,470
viBe Theater Experience, Brooklyn, NY, $32,470
Wide Angle Youth Media, Baltimore, MD, $50,000
Youth FX, Albany, NY, $50,000
Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation develops partnerships and programs that reinforce artists' capacity to create and present work and advance access to and participation in the arts. The Foundation was created in 1979 and is a private non-profit organization that is closely allied with the region's state arts councils and the National Endowment for the Arts. It combines funding from state and federal resources with private support from corporations, foundations, and individuals to address needs in the arts from a regional, national, and international perspective.
Founded in 1969, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation endeavors to strengthen, promote, and, where necessary, defend the contributions of the humanities and the arts to human flourishing and to the well-being of diverse and democratic societies by supporting exemplary institutions of higher education and culture as they renew and provide access to an invaluable heritage of ambitious, path-breaking work.
