2022-2023 Application Details and Review Rubric
Table of Contents
Eligibility Requirements
Applicants are eligible to apply if they:
- Are a dance maker focused on the creation and/or performance of dance, with a history of at least three years of dance-making activity in the metropolitan NYC area;
- Are headquartered in the metropolitan New York City area, including the five boroughs of New York City, as well as Nassau, Rockland, Suffolk, and Westchester counties in New York State, and Bergen and Hudson counties in New Jersey;
- Have an annual expense budget between $10,000–$500,000 for FY 2020 (actual), FY 2021 (actual), and FY 2022 (forecasted); and
- Can provide proof of current 501(c)(3) status or fiscal sponsorship status. For details on how to become fiscally sponsored, please visit Dance/NYC's Fiscal Sponsorship Resources page.
You are encouraged to apply if you are a current or past grantee of Dance/NYC and/or the Howard Gilman Foundation, the Ford Foundation, or if you have not previously been funded by Dance/NYC or either of these organizations.
Applicants are not eligible to apply if they are:
- An individual dance maker without a fiscal sponsor;
- An organization and/or group headquartered outside of the metropolitan New York City area (defined as the five boroughs of New York City, as well as Nassau, Rockland, Suffolk, and Westchester counties in New York State, and Bergen and Hudson counties in New Jersey);
- An organization and/or group for which dance making is new (fewer than three years of dance-making activities in the metropolitan NYC area);
- An organization and/or group whose primary focus and/or mission is not focused on the creation and/or performance of dance;
- An organization for which dance therapy is a primary function;
- An educational institution;
- A producer;
- A presenter;
- A festival; or
- A service organization.
Funding Priorities and Review Rubric
Dance/NYC seeks to award grants to up to 50 dance makers.
Review Criteria:
- The review panel will evaluate applications based on the following criteria:
- Above all, clear artistic vision and artistic excellence as defined by applicants. Dance/NYC uses Animating Democracy’s Aesthetic Perspectives: Attributes of Excellence in Arts for Change as a foundational resource to assess artistic vision and excellence;
- A dedication to sustaining practice beyond the two-year grant period;
- Commitments and measurable actions in alignment with stated values of diversity, justice, equity, and inclusion;
- Organizational and financial health, regardless of budget size, and a commitment to paying artists and arts workers a living wage;
- A well-articulated narrative for how the funds will help advance the organization and/or group;
- A willingness to engage in ongoing learning/professional development and to share learnings within a cohort of grantees. "Dancemakers who exhibit a clear community engagement and approach to social practice as a part of their process of being a generative artist."
In alignment with field research1, priority in grant selection will be given to applicants who are:
- Demonstrate artistic excellence and potential to benefit from the grant program;
- Dance makers headquartered in the Bronx; East Brooklyn; Northern Manhattan; Queens; Staten Island; Nassau, Rockland, Suffolk, and Westchester counties in New York State; and Bergen and Hudson counties in New Jersey;
- Organizations/groups artistically led or otherwise creating work by ALAANA and/or women-identifying and gender nonconforming/nonbinary/genderqueer and transgender and/or disabled and/or immigrant artists;
- Dance makers who work in accountability and interdependence with local communities;
- Dance makers with annual expense budgets under $250,000;
- Dance makers with a sustained artistic practice spanning between 10-19 years;
- Organizations/groups who have limited access to financial resources, specifically, private philanthropic support and public funding through government agencies; and
- A grantee pool that reflects a diversity of dance making genres and artistic perspectives.
Dance/NYC’s goal in focusing on specific geographic areas is to help increase activity in areas that are historically under supported. Dance/NYC’s aim in considering demographics as a selection criterion is to identify a grantee pool that represents the demographics of residents in the metropolitan area and address misalignments highlighted by Dance/NYC research, in particular, racial homogeneity in the dance workforce, a general absence of disabled artists, and a lack of income for immigrant artists. Dance/NYC’s focus on organizations with budgets under $250k and those making work for 10-19 years is based on findings from its recent Defining “Small-Budget” Dance Makers in a Changing Dance Ecology which shows 78% of small-budget dance making organizations have budgets between $25k and $250k and 83% were established a decade or more ago, with 40% having been established 10 to 19 years ago. (According to 2020 Census data, the New York City population is approximately 69% ALAANA. Census Data from the 2019 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates suggests that the New York City population is 11% disabled, 52% female, and 37% foreign-born. Source: US Census Bureau American FactFinder 2015-2019 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates).
Review Process:
As an underlying tenet of its equity and inclusion work, Dance/NYC embraces the concept of “Nothing Without Us”: no program or policy should be formed without the full, direct involvement of those impacted. For this reason, grantees will be selected by a review panel of 15-20 dance workers, including members of Dance/NYC’s task forces and committees.
Panelists will be selected for:
- Their expertise in creating, performing, funding, and/or presenting dance in the metropolitan NYC area;
- Alignment with Dance/NYC’s justice, equity, and inclusion values; and
- Their demographic representation of the local population. Dance/NYC seeks a panel that is majority African, Latina/o/x, Asian, Arab, and Native American (ALAANA), is majority women-identifying and gender nonconforming/nonbinary/genderqueer and transgender, and includes disabled and immigrant artists.
All panelists are:
- Trained prior to engaging in the review of applications;
- Must adhere to confidentiality and conflict of interest policies; and
- Compensated for their time.
No panelist can be an applicant. Panelists will have the ability to make recommendations for the final slate of grantees, but exercise no oversight function with regard to Dance/NYC as an entity. Dance/NYC does not have a vote in the grantee deliberation process, but will make final determinations, including funding amounts.
Amounts will be determined on a sliding scale based on grantees’ total expense budget range for FY 2021:
- $10,000- $24,999;
- $25,000-$49,999;
- $50,000-$74,999;
- $75,000-$99,999;
- $100,000-$149,999;
- $150,000-$199,999;
- $200,000-$249,999;
- $250,000-$349,999; and
- $350,000-$500,000
Application Process
Dance/NYC is using an online application portal: dancenyc.submittable.com. Before completing the application form, interested dance makers are asked to first complete a series of questions to determine baseline eligibility for the grant program. If eligible, applicants will be prompted to complete the application.
To support prospective applicants, Dance/NYC has created an application guide, which includes a full overview of all application questions and required attachments. Dance/NYC estimates applicants may need approximately 5-10 hours to complete their application if they already have work samples available.
Complete applications, including supplementary materials, must be submitted online by Friday, October 8, 2021, 11:59 p.m. EST. Incomplete applications, hard copy submissions, and applications received after the October 8 deadline will not be considered.
Eligible applicants who submit completed applications will receive a modest honorarium in recognition of the labor and resources required to participate in the application process, regardless of the outcome of their application. Incomplete and ineligible submissions will not qualify for receipt of an honorarium.
Timeline
| Call for proposals release | August 25, 2021 |
|
Webinar All applicants are strongly encouraged to participate |
September 2, 2021, 10:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. |
| Virtual Technical Assistance Sessions |
20-minute sessions
*New Sessions Added*
40-minute sessions
|
| Deadline for submission |
Friday, October 8, 2021, 11:59 p.m. EST |
| Panel review | January 2022 |
| Award notification | February 2022 |
| Grantee announcement | February 2022 |
| Grant disbursements | Week of January 24, 2022 (1st payment) Week of February 21, 2023 (2nd payment) |
| Grantee Orientation Webinar* | Week of March 7, 2022 |
| Interim grantee report due* | November 30, 2022 |
| Final grantee report due* | March 31, 2024 |
* Required for all award recipients
Footnote:
1 Helicon Collaborative Not Just Money: Equity Issues in Cultural Philanthropy (http://heliconcollab.net/our_work/not-just-money/)
Yancey Consulting What Are the Paradigm Shifts Necessary for the Arts Sector to Nurture More Sustainable THRIVING Institutions of Color (https://www.ddcf.org/globalassets/news-and-publications/2018-news-and-publications/final-yancey-consultings-alaana-thrivability-report-january-2018.pdf)
Dance/NYC State of NYC Dance and Workforce Demographics (Dance.NYC/StateofDance2016)
Dance/NYC Defining “Small-Budget” Dance Makers in a Changing Dance Ecology (Dance.NYC/SBDMdata2020)
Dance/NYC Coronavirus Dance Impact Informational Brief (https://bit.ly/DNYC_COVID_DanceImpactBrief)
