2006 Grant Awards: Access to Artistic Excellence

[ August 15, 2005 deadline ]

Dance | Design | Folk & Traditional Arts | Literature | Local Arts Agencies
Media Arts | Museum | Music | Musical Theater | Presenting
Theater | Visual Arts

Some details of the projects listed below are subject to change, contingent upon prior Endowment approval.

Folk and Traditional Arts

Alabama Folklife Association, Inc.
Birmingham, AL
$20,000
To support the 2006 Alabama Community Scholars Institute. Participants will be introduced to the skills of conducting field surveys, interviews, and photographic and videeographic documentation.

Alaska Native Heritage Center, Inc.
Anchorage, AK
$20,000
To support the Winter Weekend series of cultural education and performance programs. The programs are offered each Saturday of the winter season and will celebrate Alaska Native arts, dance, languages, and storytelling.

Alianza Dominicana, Inc.
New York, NY
$10,000
To support the Dominican Folk Instrument and Dance Apprenticeship Project. The apprenticeship activities will be enhanced by adding a carnival mask-making component.

Alliance for California Traditional Arts
Fresno, CA
$25,000
To support a consortium project for the Cultural Mapping Initiative. A partnership with World Arts West, the project will identify strategies to strengthen support for traditional dance production in communities of immigrant and culturally-specific dance artists in the Bay Area.

Alliance for California Traditional Arts (Consortium)
Fresno, CA
$25,000
To support the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship program. The project fosters the continuance of significant traditional arts within cultural communities, while providing public visibility for those artists and art forms.

Anila Sinha Foundation for Promotion of Arts and Culture of India (aka Anila Sinha Foundation) (Consortium)
Elk Grove Vlg, IL
$10,000
To support a consortium project for the touring of a new work of the music and dance of Rajasthan, India. A partnership with International House at the University of Chicago, the project will include lecture-demonstrations and concerts and will feature master musicians, the Rajasthani Ensemble.

Arlington County Cultural Affairs Division
Arlington, VA
$20,000
To support expansion of Hereabouts, a folk arts education program. Activities will include training both traditional artists and K-12 teachers in presenting traditional arts in classrooms.

Arts Center of Cannon County
Woodbury, TN
$20,000
To support a CD and exhibition showcasing the ethnographic studies of musicologist Dr. John Wesley Work, III. Work documented the changing rural culture of the Mississippi Delta before World War II and produced significant recordings of African American music from the era.

Asian Improv aRts (on behalf of Gen Taiko)
San Francisco, CA
$7,500
To support the creation of a new work incorporting Odori (dance), Taiko (drums), and shinobue (Japanese flute). The project will explore the concepts of loyalty, honor, truth, and purpose and will culminate with an 11th Anniversary Concert.

Association of Performing Arts of India Inc. (aka APAI)
Pembroke Pines, FL
$5,000
To support performances by Indian bansuri (bamboo flute) player, Hariprasad Chaurasia. According to ancient scriptures, the bansuri is one of the three original forms - vanni (vocal), venue (string) and venu (flute) - of rendering Indian classical music and was the instrument for Lord Krishna.

Bayshore Discovery Project, Inc. (Consortium)
Port Norris, NJ
$15,000
To support a consortium project for public workshops, presentations and exhibits on traditional Lenape arts in collaboration with the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Cultural Center.

Black Storytellers of San Diego (aka BSSD)
Chula Vista, CA
$10,000
To support the youth component of the 24th Annual National Association of Black Storytellers Conference and Festival. Elementary and middle school students will receive instruction in the art of storytelling and creation, including performances at a community presentation.

Bowery Arts and Science, Ltd. (on behalf of Urban Word) (Consortium)
New York, NY
$20,000
To support a documentary film titled DeAf Jam and an accompanying DVD. The film will trace the journey of a group of deaf teenagers as they discover and explore American Sign Language poetry.

Brooklyn Arts Council, Inc. (aka BAC)
Brooklyn, NY
$20,000
To support Folk Feet IV: Celebrating Traditional Dance in Brooklyn. The festival will include concerts and workshops and will feature artists from Brooklyn's traditional dance communities.

California Indian Basketweavers Association (aka CIBA)
Nevada City, CA
$20,000
To support an annual basketweavers gathering. The event will provide opportunities for weavers to educate the public, exhibit and sell their work, and discuss issues relevant to their traditions.

California Indian Storytelling Association (aka CISA)
Fremont, CA
$10,000
To support Storytelling Festivals 2006/07 Inside the Roundhouse. The project includes a series of events featuring indigenous storytellers from California and Hawaii.

Cambodian-American Heritage, Inc.
Fort Washington, MD
$10,000
To support instruction in Cambodian music and Cambodian classical and folk dances. The project will culminate with a concert in observance of the Cambodian New Year.

Center for Southern Folklore
Memphis, TN
$10,000
To support preservation of the Multimedia Archives. Core activities will include indexing the Center's library of recordings, interviews, and performances, and transferring to digital format all of the 16-mm film footage, audio discs, and photographs contained in the Reverend L.O. Taylor Collection.

Center for Traditional Music and Dance, Inc. (aka CTMD)
New York, NY
$25,000
To support continuation of the Community Cultural Initiatives (CCI) in Peruvian and Chinese communities. The project is designed to nurture and preserve community-based artistic documentation and the presentation of projects in immigrant and ethnic neighborhoods throughout the New York metropolitan area.

Center for Traditional Music and Dance, Inc. (aka CTMD) (Consortium)
New York, NY
$20,000
To support a consortium project for the New York World Festival 2007. A partnership with World Music Institute, Inc., the festival will celebrate the musical traditions of communities surrounding the Mediterranean and their New York counterparts and will feature international artists and local community-based ensembles as part of Central Park's Summer Stage series.

City Lore, Inc. (Consortium)
New York, NY
$20,000
To support BreakOut, a consortium project. In partnership with The Point, the project is a celebration of grassroots breakdance and freestyle rap traditions to take place at Lincoln Center Out of Doors.

City Lore, Inc. (on behalf of National Network for Folk Arts in Education)
New York, NY
$30,000
To support a national inititive to foster the inclusion of folk arts as a basic element of K-12 arts education. The effort will integrate folk arts and artists into school curricula by connecting educators and students to folklorists, folk artists, and folk arts materials and training.

City Lore, Inc. (on behalf of Trova, Inc.) (Consortium)
New York, NY
$10,000
To support the eighth International Troubadour Celebration. Trovadores, improvisatory singer-poets, will perform Puerto Rico's traditional jibaro music.

City of Somerville (aka Somerville Arts Council) (on behalf of Somerville Arts Council)
Somerville, MA
$10,000
To support fieldwork within Portuguese and Brazilian communities. Fieldwork will result in a booklet titled Traditional Arts of Somerville's Brazilian and Portuguese Communities and will provide context for a culminating festival.

Cultural Resources Council of Syracuse & Onondaga County, Inc. (aka Cultural Resources Council) (Consortium)
Syracuse, NY
$20,000
To support Heartland Passage, a consortium project. A collaboration with the New York Folklore Society, the project will consist of field research documenting the living cultural heritage of communities along the Erie Canal, culminating in a series of presentations at the Canal Days Festivals.

Cultural Resources, Inc.
Rockport, ME
$10,000
To support a Creative Community Workbook. The training manual will focus on fieldwork, asset-based planning, community organizing, cultural tourism, and ethnographic marketing.

Curators of the University of Missouri at Columbia (Consortium)
Columbia, MO
$25,000
To support the Missouri Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program, a consortium project. In collabortion with the Missouri Arts Council, the project will bring together masters and apprentices who are committed to conserving their artistic traditions and cultural heritage.

Davis & Elkins College
Elkins, WV
$25,000
To support the Traditional Arts Program. Activities will include the West Virginia Folk Arts Apprenticeship Program, concerts, and the Old-Time Fiddler's Reunion.

Delta State University
Cleveland, MS
$20,000
To support the first phase of a statewide Blues Trail. A partnership with the Mississippi Blues Commission, the project will honor and preserve the indigenous art form of the blues and the musicians that created and continue it.

Devils Tower Natural History Association (aka DTNHA)
Devils Tower, WY
$10,000
To support expansion of the Cultural Program Series to include a Native American Heritage weekend. Activities include presentations, performances, and ongoing demonstrations by Native craftsmen, musicians, dancers, and historians.

Documentary Arts, Inc.
Dallas, TX
$30,000
To support the Masters of Traditional Arts DVD, video kiosks, and wall environments. The project will increase public access to more than 350 NEA National Heritage Fellows who have mastered culturally diverse artistic styles and represent a vast scope of ethnic, tribal, religious, and regional traditions.

Elk County Council On The Arts (Consortium)
Ridgway, PA
$10,000
To support the consortium project Enchanted Woodlins. With the Pennsylvania Lumber Heritage Region, the project will support the creation and installation of chainsaw carved sculptures at sites throughout the state.

Folkstreams, Inc.
Delaplane, VA
$30,000
To support expansion of the Folkstreams.net Web site. The site will include additinal films and videos about American traditional arts and culture with supporting materials about the artistic, social, and cultural importance of the work.

Fort Wayne Dance Collective, Inc. (on behalf of Three Rivers Jenbe Ensemble)
Fort Wayne, IN
$10,000
To support workshops in traditional West African drumming, dancing, and singing, culminating in a performance. The project will provide young people ages nine to 17 access to the cultural and rhythmic history of West Africa.

Fund for Folk Culture
Santa Fe, NM
$10,000
To support a conference of folk arts professionals and practitioners. The conference will assess the state of the fields in which folklorists most commonly work: museums, state and regional arts agencies, nonprofit/multidisciplinary cultural organizations, universities, and libraries.

Historical Association of Southern Florida, Inc. (aka HMSF)
Miami, FL
$20,000
To support the third phase of the Haitian Community Arts Project. The project will consist of an exhibition of traditional Haitian artists and events, educational programs, and booklets on Haitian traditional arts.

Hostos Community College Advisory Council, Inc. (aka Hostos Center for the Arts & Culture)
Bronx, NY
$15,000
To support BomPlenazo 2006, a multifaceted fetival. The project consists of concerts, workshops, panels, lecture-demonstrations, and a photography exhibit exploring and presenting Puerto Rico's African-rooted bomba and plena traditions as they are practiced today.

Institute for Community Research, Inc. (aka ICR)
Hartford, CT
$20,000
To support the Southern New England Apprenticeship Program. The project brings together master artists and apprentices from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.

Institute for Cultural Partnerships
Harrisburg, PA
$20,000
To support workshops focused on the integration of refugee and immigrant artists into regional and national arts programming. Participants will be provided with useable tools to develop new, or to enhance ongoing, programs.

International Bluegrass Music Museum, Inc. (aka IBMM)
Owensboro, KY
$10,000
To support a Video Oral History Project. The project documents the lives, stories, and musical performances of artists designated as Bluegrass Music's First Generation.

Kalihi-Palama Culture & Arts Society, Inc.
Honolulu, HI
$10,000
To support training for neighborhood youth in traditional and contemporary art. Classes include Hawaiian, Okinawan, and Filipino dance; Hawaiian music; and ceramics.

Kalispel Tribe of Indians
Usk, WA
$10,000
To support the inclusion of traditional Plateau Indian art in the curriculum of K-12 Native American students in the Pacific Northwest. Activities will include beading, basketweaving, singing, and drumming.

Khmer Arts Academy
Long Beach, CA
$10,000
To support the Classical Dance Training & Performance Program. The program will continue the tradition of master/apprentice training and will strengthen the presentation and performance of Cambodian dance in the community and beyond.

La Troupe Makandal, Inc. (Consortium)
Brooklyn, NY
$10,000
To support Krik! Krak!, a consortium project. A collaboration with the Tonel Lakay Dance Theatre, the project will consist of instruction in traditional Haitian music and dance.

Long Island Traditions, Inc.
Port Washington, NY
$15,000
To support artist gatherings, concert performances, and lecture/demonstration workshops by traditional Indian artists. The program will examine the music, dance, and narrative traditions within the growing East Asian Indian/Pakistani populations of Queens, Long Island, and Westchester counties.

Lore of the Land, Inc.
Silver City, NM
$20,000
To support the Indigenous Aural Folklorist Project. The project will establish sound archives, ensure community access, and facilitate the community's self-determination about how its traditions and intellectual property rights should be conserved and transmitted.

Los Pleneros de la 21, Inc. (aka Los Pleneros)
New York, NY
$15,000
To support the Puerto Rican Music Project. Project activities will include concerts, performances, lectures, workshops, classes for youth and adults, and residencies.

Los Reyes de Albuquerque Foundation
Albuquerque, NM
$17,500
To support and perpetuate Nuevomexicano folk traditions and to present performances of the Entriega de los Novios. Nuevomexicano presentations will be held at senior and nursing centers, adult day-care centers, and meal sites for the homeless; while the Entriega de los Novios will be presented at middle and high schools.

Lowell Festival Foundation
Lowell, MA
$25,000
To support fieldwork in new and underserved ethnic communities in New England. Fieldwork will lead to the creation of a culturally diverse database of artists and artisans from which to draw for presentation at the annual Lowell Folk Festival.

Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance (aka MIBA)
Old Town, ME
$25,000
To support a Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program. The project will support basketmakers and apprentices in the ancient traditions of ash and sweetgrass basketry among the Maliseet, Passamaquoddy,and Penobscot tribes in Maine.

Mexic-Arte (aka Mexic-Arte Museum)
Austin, TX
$10,000
To support an artist residency and master workshops. Led by master artist David Linares. the residency and workshops will result in the creation of a major work for the 2006 Day of the Dead outdoor exhibit, celebration, and procession.

Michigan State University (Consortium)
East Lansing, MI
$30,000
To support a consortium project for a Web-based database of North American Indian and Native Hawaiian artists. In partnership with the Northwest Native American Basketweavers Association, the project will be based on activities at the Carriers of Culture: Living Native Basket Traditions program at the 2006 Smithsonian Folklife Festival.

Music Preservation Society, Inc.
Florence, AL
$10,000
To support the second phase of the Muscle Shoals National Heritage Area Study. The study will identify, inventory, archive, and conserve traditional music, storytelling, and folk traditions in the six-county region of Northwest Alabama known as Muscle Shoals.

Natya Dance Theatre
Chicago, IL
$10,000
To support creation of a new work titled Yatra: The Journey. The project will draw on the purest movement of bharatanatyam (classical Indian dance) as well as poetry traditions in several Indian languages.

New York Folklore Society, Inc.
Schenectady, NY
$10,000
To support expansion of the Mentoring and Professional Development Program. The project will include a community partner initiative and an artist roundtable.

North Carolina Folklife Institute
Durham, NC
$20,000
To support the African American Heritage Music Project. The project will document artists, events, sites, and venues associated with African American music traditions.

North Carolina Folklife Institute (Consortium)
Durham, NC
$20,000
To support a consortium project for the Community Folklife Documentation Institute. A collaboration with the North Carolina Arts Council, the project will consist of topical seminars, technical workshops, field documentation experiences, and project consultations.

Northwest Folklife
Seattle, WA
$25,000
To support the Borderlands survey project. The project will consist of a survey to identify and document traditional artists and culture bearers in communities on both sides of the boundary between Washington State and British Columbia.

Northwest Jersey Folklife Project, Inc. (aka NWJFP)
Phillipsburg, NJ
$10,000
To support the Delaware River Cultural Study. The project will identify and articulate the relationship between natural and cultural resources of the river and how this information may be used to strengthen the communities along the river.

Philadelphia Folklore Project
Philadelphia, PA
$20,000
To support the Folk Arts House program. The project will support technical assistance workshops for traditional artists, grassroots groups, and artist-run programs and will feature local artists presenting their work in small settings.

Ragamala Music and Dance Theater
Minneapolis, MN
$10,000
To support bharatanatyam Indian classical dance workshops and master classes. Workshops will be led by bharatanatyam dancer/choreographer Alarmel Valli and will culminate with a public performance by Valli in conunction with the United States premiere screening of the documentary film Pravata -- The Dance of Alarmel Valli.

Rhode Island State Council on the Arts (Consortium)
Providence, RI
$15,000
To support a consortium project for occupational apprenticeships. A partnership with Woonasquatucket Valley Community Build (aka The Steel Yard), the project will offer apprenticeships in furniture making, blacksmithing, wax bronze casting, stone carving, and slate roofing.

Society of Kunqu Arts, Inc.
Silver Spring, MD
$10,000
To support a series of lecture-demonstrations, workshops, and performances. The project will present and preserve the performing art of Kunqu, the oldest form of Chinese opera.

Spanish Speaking Unity Council of Alameda County, Inc. (aka Unity Council)
Oakland, CA
$10,000
To support workshops in altar making and the Mexican traditions surrounding the art form. Local master artist Ruben Guzman will teach the techniques of cartoneria (Mexican paper sculpture), culminating in an exhibition of the works at the 11th Annual Day of the Dead Festival.

Special School District #1 (aka Minneapolis Public Schools)
Minneapolis, MN
$10,000
To support continuation of the Bluegrass Review radio program. The show will contain interviews and commentary discussing bluegrass music in cultural, historical, and aesthetic contexts.

Sprinkle Art, Inc. (aka Kennedy Center Imagination Celebration)
Colorado Springs, CO
$15,000
To support the Mariachi Connections Program. Workshops for young people and adults will be taught by mariachi professionals on the history, musical techniques, theory, and cultural relationship of mariachi music.

Texas Folklife Resources (Consortium)
Austin, TX
$25,000
To support a consortium project for the Community Residency Program. A partnership with the Texas Commission on the Arts, the project will support residencies in underserved populations of fewer than 10,000.

Traditional Arts in Upstate New York, Inc. (aka TAUNY) (Consortium)
Canton, NY
$20,000
To support a consortium project for a cultural resources survey of maritime, manufacturing, agricultural, military, and ethnic communities of Jefferson County. A partnership with the Antique Boat Museum, the project will result in an annotated inventory for future use in planning and presenting tradtional arts programming.

Vermont Folklife Center
Middlebury, VT
$15,000
To support field research to identify and document the music and dance traditions of African, Bosnian, Tibetan, Laotian, and Vietnamese communities. Artists identified through this research will be presetnted at the annual Champlain Valley Folk Festival.

Ward Foundation, Inc. (aka Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art)
Salisbury, MD
$20,000
To support instruction in the skills of decoy carving. Resulting work will be judged at the Chesapeake Wildfowl Expo, the Ward Museum's fall waterfowling event.

Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission (aka WSPRC)
Olympia, WA
$20,000
To support the Folk and Traditional Arts in the Parks Program. The project will include a series of multi-cultural events in the state parks.

West Plains Council on the Arts, Inc.
West Plains, MO
$10,000
To support fieldwork in the Ozark region. Activities will include technical assistance, setting up archival space with public access, Web site enhancement, and programs related to cultural tourism.

World Music Institute, Inc. (aka WMI)
New York, NY
$20,000
To support the Festival of Indian Music and Dance. The festival will feature classical musicians of North and South Indian traditions, folk music and dance of Bengal and the Punjab, and representatives of the classical Indian dance traditions of bharatanatyam, Kathak, Orissi, and Kuchi pudi.

Yoricks Productions (aka Yorick's Marionette Theater)
Saunderstown, RI
$10,000
To support the Young at Heart Tour. Activities will take place at senior centers and will include marionette performances, lecture-demonstrations, and puppet making workshops.

National Endowment for the Arts · an independent federal agency
1100 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20506