The National Endowment for the Arts last week announced $80.4 million for 1,114 new awards located in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and five U.S. jurisdictions.
Previously, in the first funding round of fiscal year 2019, announced last February, the Arts Endowment made 1,145 grants totaling $27 million. Other awards will be made in the coming months through the end of the fiscal year on September 30. All current grants can be viewed through the Arts Endowment’s grants search.
California received 151 grants in this round, totaling $5 million. These are in addition to the top collective award of $1,167,300 to the California Arts Council “to support arts programs, services, and activities associated with carrying out the agency’s National Endowment for the arts-approved strategic plan.”
Merola Opera Program Executive Director Jean Kellogg says the organization, which received a $40,000 award, is “exceedingly grateful for the continued support of the NEA for its core training program, which includes funding for artist faculty and master coaches, foreign language instruction, movement and acting classes for the 29 Merolini involved in the program. It also supports seminars with leading experts about various aspects of the opera business.”
Some of the Bay Area performing arts awardees:
- Berkeley Symphony Orchestra (aka Berkeley Symphony), $15,000, to support the Music in the Schools initiative
- California Shakespeare Theater (aka Cal Shakes), $30,000, to support Cal Shakes’ production of The Good Person of Szechwan by Bertolt Brecht
- Regents of the University of California at Berkeley (aka UC Berkeley, on behalf of Cal Performances), $10,000, to support Cal Performances’ presentation of Dorrance Dance and related engagement activities
- San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, Napa, $15,000, to support a commissioning and performance project of a new work by composer Michael Gilbertson
- Dimensions Dance Theater, Oakland, $20,000, to support the Rites of Passage dance education program for youth
- East Bay Performing Arts (aka Oakland Symphony), $15,000, to support a concert by the Oakland Symphony in collaboration with the Violins of Hope Organization
- Kitka, Inc. (aka Kitka Women’s Vocal Ensemble), Oakland, $30,000, to support the creation and world premiere of BABA, a vocal-theater work
- Alonzo King LINES Ballet, $25,000, to support the creation and presentation of a new work by choreographer Alonzo King, music producer and ethnomusicologist Mina Girgis, and composer Trey Spruance
- American Conservatory Theatre Foundation (aka American Conservatory Theater), $50,000, to support a production of Rhinoceros by Eugene Ionesco, adapted and directed by Frank Galati
- Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center, $10,000, to support a multisensory dance performance and community-centered ceremonial process focusing on collective Filipino cultural survival, healing and spiritual reclamation
- Dancers’ Group, $15,000, to support In Dance, a free print and online monthly publication that promotes dance artists and activities in the San Francisco Bay Area
- Epiphany Productions Sonic Dance Theater, $10,000, to support San Francisco Trolley Dances
- Golden Gate Performing Arts (aka San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus), $10,000, to support RHYTHM (Reaching Youth Through Music), an education program for school students by the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus
- InterMusic SF, $10,000, to support the annual SF Music Day of small ensemble performances
- Joe Goode Performance Group, to support Inspired Bodies, a free, in-school educational program for students
- Kitchen Sisters Productions, $20,000, to support production of The Keepers, a podcast and multimedia series
- Kronos Performing Arts Association (aka Kronos Quartet), $15,000, to support the creation of a new electronic media work by Willie Williams to accompany the Kronos Quartet’s performance of “One Earth, One People, One Love” from the composition Sun Rings by Terry Riley
- Margaret Jenkins Dance Studio, Inc. (aka Margaret Jenkins Dance Company), $50,000, to support the creation and presentation of Global Moves, an evening-length work
- Merola Opera Program, $40,000, to support a professional training program for opera singers, apprentice coaches, and an apprentice stage director
- San Francisco Ballet Association, $40,000, to support the creation and presentation of a new work by choreographer Cathy Marston
- San Francisco Chanticleer, $55,000, to support Chanticleer’s national concert tour and residency program
- San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, $20,000, to support the Filmmaker Residency program for independent media artists
- San Francisco Performances, $20,000, to support a series of music and dance presentations
- Shakespeare San Francisco, $15,000, to support the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival’s Free Shakespeare in the Park production of As You Like It
- Stern Grove Festival Association, $35,000, to support artist fees for select performances at the Stern Grove Festival
- Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, $40,000, to support a series of performing and visual arts presentations
- Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, $35,000, to support the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music
