2007 Grant Awards: Access to Artistic Excellence

[ March 13, 2006 deadline ]

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

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

Folk and Traditional Arts

African Caribbean Dance Theatre, Inc.
Tallahassee, FL
$15,000
To support the 10th Annual Florida African Dance Festival. The event will include a conference that will feature African immigrant artists in dance, song, language, and drum workshops and culminate in a festival.

Asian Americans United, Inc. (Consortium)
Philadelphia, PA
$10,000
To support the 12th Annual Mid-Autumn Festival. The traditional lunar festival will feature master artists in martial arts, Chinese opera, traditional Chinese music and dance, as well as performances by young people and community members.

Black Leadership Council for Excellence
Bryans Road, MD
$15,000
To support the Celebrations series of festivals and concerts in Southern Maryland. Major components of the event will be the Festival de las Americas, Asian Pacific Island Festival, Juneteenth Festival of African American Caribbean and African Cultures, and the Doo-Wop and Eurofest concerts.

Buffalo Bill Memorial Association (aka Buffalo Bill Historical Center)
Cody, WY
$20,000
To support the Cowboy Songs & Range Ballads: Melodies & Memories festival. The festival will celebrate its 25th year of presenting and interpreting the music, poetry, history, and material culture of the American cowboy.

Centrum Foundation
Port Townsend, WA
$20,000
To support a series of workshops, panels, public performances and a  community gathering in celebration of the 25th Anniversary of the NEA National Heritage Fellowship program. The program will include performances by children of Heritage Fellows who have assimilated and expanded these musical traditions.

Chhandam Chitresh Das Dance Company
San Francisco, CA
$20,000
To support India Jazz Suites, a collaboration between Indian kathak master Pandit Chitresh Das and African American tap dancer Jason Samuels Smith. Portions of the work will focus entirely on rhythms, with varying combinations of footwork, recitation of the North Indian classical language, and percussion on tabla and jazz drums.

Cityfolk, Inc.
Dayton, OH
$20,000
To support the Cityfolk Festival. The event will feature music ranging from Celtic to zydeco and will culminate with Cityfolk's 25th anniversary celebration featuring NEA National Heritage Fellows including the gospel quartet the Dixie Hummingbirds and Lebanese reed flute player Nadim Dlaikan.

Community Economic Development Center of SE Massachusetts
New Bedford, MA
$35,000
To support the 2007 Working Waterfront Festival. The event will celebrate the occupational culture and artistic traditions of New England's commercial fishing community.

Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation
Pendleton, OR
$15,000
To support the Even Start program. The program is designed to promote continuity and stability in the instruction of traditional arts in the tribal community and to expand the number of persons qualified to teach these skills.

Cultural Resources, Inc.
Rockport, ME
$25,000
To support the traveling exhibition North by Northeast: Iroquois and Wabanaki Traditional Arts with an accompanying catalogue. The exhibition will explore the history, meaning, and ongoing cultural significance of traditional Native American arts, such as basketmaking and beadwork, throughout the Northeast.

Dancing Crane, Inc. (aka Dancing Crane Georgian Dance Theater)
Warwick, NY
$10,000
To support a series of traditional Georgian music and dance concerts. The project is designed to increase the public's knowledge of Georgian culture and contribute to the cultural life of the Georgian community.

Documentary Arts, Inc.
Dallas, TX
$40,000
To support a pilot television series titled Extraordinary Ordinary People: Masters of Traditional Arts. The 13-part program will explore the cultural and geographic diversity represented by the NEA National Heritage Fellowship program during its 25-year history. 

Eugenio Maria de Hostos Community College Foundation (aka Hostos Center for the Arts & Culture)
Bronx, NY
$15,000
To support Quijombo 2007, A Celebration of Afro-Dominican Culture. The project will include concerts, panels, and lecture-demonstrations exploring the African-rooted cultural traditions of the Dominican Republic.

Friends of Peralta Hacienda Historical Park
Oakland, CA
$20,000
To support the Coordinated Arts and Education Program (CAEP). The organization's gardens will be the focus for community participation, cultural exchange, and artistic expression to emphasize and preserve the traditional art of gardening and cooking as practiced in the community.

Houston Institute for Culture (Consortium)
Houston, TX
$35,000
To support Surviving Katrina and Rita in Houston.  A collaboration with the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art, the project will include a series of storytelling presentations featuring hurricane survivors and long-time Houston residents.

International Accordion Festival
San Antonio, TX
$35,000
To support the Seventh Annual International Accordion Festival. The festival celebrates the instrument's local identity and global reach; preserves and presents accordion traditions of ethnic, regional, and national cultures; and educates audiences about free-reed instruments central to the music.

Jubilee Community Arts, Inc.
Knoxville, TN
$15,000
To support live presentations, broadcasts, and documentation of Southern Appalachian musical traditions.  The Jubilee Festival will include a series of weekly concerts, and performances benefiting 45,000 local audiences.

Kalavant Center for Music and Dance, Inc.
New York, NY
$10,000
To support a classical Indian music festival. The project will consist of a series of outdoor concerts and will feature Indian tabla player Ustad Kadar Khan and sitar player Bina Kalavant.

Korean American Resource and Cultural Center (Consortium)
Chicago, IL
$20,000
To support the JishinBalpgi Lunar New Year Festival and a National Skill Sharing Conference. In collaboration with Korean Resource Center, Inc., the events will preserve and raise the visibility of Korean cultural arts at local, regional, and national levels.

Latvian Song Festival Inc.
Indianapolis, IN
$10,000
To support the 12th Annual United States Latvian Song and Dance Festival. The festival provides a view into the heritage, customs, and traditions of the Latvian people of Northeastern Europe and of their descendants in North America.

Louisiana Folk Roots, Inc.
Lafayette, LA
$25,000
To support the Dewey Balfa Cajun & Creole Heritage Week project and the Saturday Roots Heritage Festival. These events will feature performances and workshops on traditional Cajun and Creole music, dance, crafts, and storytelling traditions.

Maimouna Keita School of African Dance Inc.
Brooklyn, NY
$15,000
To support the 15th Annual Dance Conference and Concert. The conference will include a series of workshops in traditional African dance, drum, song, and crafts, culminating in a concert.

Maine Arts Commission (Consortium)
Augusta, ME
$20,000

To support the Franco Music Tour. In partnership with the Franco-American Heritage Center, the event will include an exchange of musicians between Acadian, Québécois, and Cajun communities in New England and Louisiana.

Michigan State University (Consortium)
East Lansing, MI
$40,000
To support the 2007 Great Lakes Folk Festival. A collaboration with the City of East Lansing, the festival will showcase traditional cultural treasures of the nation's Upper Midwest and provide a sampling of the best of traditional artists from around the country and the world.

Music Circle
Pasadena, CA
$10,000
To support instruction in classical Indian music by renowned vocalists Uday Bralwalkar and his drummer accompanist Manikrao Munde.

National Council for the Traditional Arts
Silver Spring, MD
$40,000
To support a series of urban and rural festivals, a series of outdoor concerts in an underserved region of Appalachia, and programming in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the NEA National Heritage Fellowships. The project will honor folk, tribal, and ethnic communities across the nation by developing audiences and providing national exposure for folk artists.

Northwest Indian College
Bellingham, WA
$25,000
To support the Maintaining and Expanding the Traditional Arts of Coast Salish Basketry project.  Activities will include an 11th Annual Native American Women and Girls Conference, basketry workshops, and a Weavers Teaching Weavers Conference.

Northwest Native American Basketweavers Association
Omak, WA
$20,000
To support the 2007 Annual Gathering of Basketweavers. The gathering offers an opportunity for indigenous weavers to showcase and sell their basketry, share techniques with one another and the public, and teach Native young people about the cultural significance of basketry.

Odunde, Inc.
Philadelphia, PA
$20,000
To support the 2007 Odunde Festival. Odunde is the oldest African American community festival in Philadelphia, annually featuring local and international African American dancers, musicians, and performers.

Old Town School of Folk Music, Inc.
Chicago, IL
$30,000
To support the Global Roots Concert Series. The project will showcase performances by artists who represent a broad array of music and dance traditions, from Hawaiian slack key guitarists, to Celtic fiddlers, to American blues gospel.  

Oregon Historical Society
Portland, OR
$35,000
To support the Oregon Tribes Project. As part of the state's 100th anniversary, the project will tell the stories of Oregon's Native American communities through a series of exhibits, publications, public programs, and educational materials.

Pawnee Tribe of Oklahoma
Pawnee, OK
$10,000
To support an artist-in-residence program in Native Pawnee storytelling, painting, and pottery making. The project will culminate in lectures, exhiitions and performances.

Philadelphia Folklore Project (Consortium)
Philadelphia, PA
$35,000
To support Art Happens Here, a series of artist residencies and performances. In collaboration with Kulu Mele African American Dance Ensemble, the project will document and present Philadelphia folk arts and public performances to audiences throughout the region.

Qi Shu Fang's Peking Opera Association, Inc. (aka Qi Shu Fang Peking Opera Company)
Woodhaven, NY
$25,000
To support the 7th Annual Peking Opera Festival. The project will consist of excerpts from Peking Opera performances of The Romance of the Three Kingdoms and The Female General.

Radio Bilingüe, Inc.
Fresno, CA
$35,000
To support the Viva El Mariachi Festival. The project will showcase local, national, and international mariachi groups and provide workshops for youth and community members.

Scottish Rite Masonic Museum and Library, Inc. (aka National Heritage Museum) (Consortium)
Lexington, MA
$35,000
To support the exhibition Keepers of Tradition: Folk Arts in Massachusetts, and an accompanying catalogue.  In collaboration with the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the exhibition will highlight folk craft, music making, dance, and annual celebrations rooted in shared ethnicity, religion, occupation, or regional identity.

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

Sundar Kala Kendra Foundation (aka Anjani's Kathak Dance of India)
Walnut, CA
$15,000
To support the creation and presentation of a new work exploring Hindi film songs through Kathak dance.

Susquehanna Folk Music Society, Inc.
New Cumberland, PA
$5,000
To support a series of performances, in-school arts residencies,and workshops to examine music and dance traditions found in North America today. The events will give audiences the opportunity to experience folk blues, New England contra dance music, traditional Irish music, Québécois music, Cape Breton music and dance, Eastern European music and dance, and American old time music and dance.

University of South Carolina Research Foundation
Columbia, SC
$10,000
To support a research project and exhibition to document African American camp meeting grounds in the Carolinas. Camp meetings are outdoor religious revivals that have taken place annually since the 1800s.

University of Washington
Seattle, WA
$20,000
To support an exhibition and related educational programs based on Bill Holm's book Spirit and Ancestor: A Century of Northwest Coast Art at the Burke Museum. The exhibition will consist of works from the museum's contemporary collections that demonstrate a deep understanding of the region's indigenous cultures and their arts.

Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and Public Policy
Charlottesville, VA
$20,000
To support the Virginia Heritage Showcase. This is the first state-wide event to feature traditional masters in the genres of music, material culture, and foodways.

Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission
Olympia, WA
$25,000
To support continuation of the Folk and Traditional Arts in the Parks Program. The project will include a series of programs in state parks in close proximity to urban centers where diverse communities reside, as well as in rural enclaves with specific ethnic populations.

Western Folklife Center
Elko, NV
$35,000
To support Beyond Borderlands: Mexican-American Ranch Traditions in the American West. Presentations will honor the cultural traditions, poetry, song, and celebrations associated with the ranching communities of northern Mexico and practiced in the West today.

World Music Institute, Inc. (aka WMI)
New York, NY
$40,000
To support a series of concerts in celebration of the 25th Anniversary of the NEA National Heritage Fellowship program. The event will feature performing artists and ensembles that have received fellowships since 2002.

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