Dance/NYC Opens Coronavirus Dance Relief Fund

Dance/NYC has announced an open call for proposals for the Coronavirus Dance Relief Fund: New York State Edition. Made possible by the generous support of the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), the purpose of this Fund is to continue Dance/NYC's existing relief efforts and mitigate the continued impact of the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak on individual dance makers and small-budget dance making organizations and groups with budgets between $10,000 and $250,000 based in New York State. The Fund will prioritize individual dance makers and small-budget dance making organizations and groups based outside of the New York City metropolitan area and offer unrestricted relief to those that have incurred financial losses due to the spread of COVID-19 and the social restriction measures implemented to contain the disease.

This Fund is an extension of Dance/NYC's Coronavirus Dance Relief Fund (https://bit.ly/CoronavirusDanceReliefFund), which was created in 2020 to mitigate the growing impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on individual freelance dance workers and small-budget organizations based in the metropolitan New York City area and New Jersey between March 2020 and August 2020. The Fund prioritized supporting communities most impacted by COVID-19 including: African, Latina/o/x, Asian, Arab, and Native American (ALAANA), disabled, immigrant, and women-identifying, transgender, gender nonconforming and/or non-binary dance workers, as well as those at high risk including elderly and immunosuppressed dance workers. In total, the Fund provided 1,082 awards to 734 unique freelance individuals and relief grants to 125 different organizations totaling $1,000,500 across the grant period.

Similar to the 2020 Coronavirus Dance Relief Fund, the Coronavirus Dance Relief Fund: New York State Edition will be disbursed through a two-tier funding model, allowing for the allocation of funds to be responsive to the unique needs of individual dance makers and organizations/groups, whose income is reliant primarily on in-person activities such as performances, classes, live events, and who often have less access to unemployment protection, savings and/or cash reserves, and multiple sources of funding.

Through the first tier of support (Tier I), selected individual dance makers (choreographers and individual dancers) will receive grant awards of $1,500. Dance/NYC anticipates awarding up to 100 grants through Tier I, totaling $150,000 based on need, specifically, income losses incurred. The second tier of support (Tier II) will award one-time grants between $2,500- $5,000 to approximately 45-60 dance making organizations and/or fiscally sponsored groups with budgets between $10,000 and $250,000, totaling $238,572.

Individual dance makers and dance making organizations will have the opportunity to apply for funds through an online application system, with criteria specific to each funding tier, allowing Dance/NYC to remain adaptive to the specific needs of each impacted group.

The application for Tier I for individual dance makers opened on March 30, 2022, and will close on April 20, 2022, though it may be closed sooner if 1,500 applications are received prior to this date. The application for Tier II for organizations and groups opened on April 6, 2022 and will close on May 4, 2022. For more information on Tier I and Tier II applications visit Dance.NYC.

The Fund will prioritize supporting communities most impacted by COVID-19 including: low-income, ALAANA, disabled, immigrant, elderly, immunosuppressed, and women-identifying, transgender, gender nonconforming and/or non-binary artists; artists that are parents, guardians, or primary care providers; and artists living in zip codes disproportionately affected by COVID-19 deaths and cases. Individuals and organizations headquartered in the metropolitan NYC area are welcome to apply but priority will be given to individuals and organizations that are based in counties outside of the five boroughs of NYC. Current and past grantee individuals and organizations of Dance/NYC's regranting programs, as well as past direct recipients of New York State Council on the Arts grants, and individuals and organizations who have not previously been funded by Dance/NYC are encouraged to apply. Additional information about eligibility and application requirements is available in the open call for proposals.

Application Assistance
To assist prospective applicants, Dance/NYC will host and record one webinar for each funding tier via Zoom, which will include ASL interpretation and closed captions. Visit Dance.NYC for webinar details. Recordings of the webinars, along with slides used during the webinars, will be made available within one week following the webinar dates.

Additionally, Dance/NYC will hold virtual one-on-one technical assistance sessions via Google Meet or by phone in English and Spanish. Registration will be on a first-come, first-served basis. Visit Dance.NYC for registration details.

If an applicant is unable to join a webinar or one-on-one sessions, or if they have further questions, they can visit our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) pages:

• FAQ for Tier I: Individual Dance Makers
• FAQ for Tier II: Dance Making Organizations/Groups

Applicants may also submit questions not already addressed on the FAQ page by email: covid19@dance.nyc. Questions sent to Dance/NYC staff email accounts directly may be missed and go unanswered. As appropriate, Dance/NYC's responses to questions received will be added to the FAQ pages.

About Dance/NYC
Dance/NYC's mission is to promote the knowledge, appreciation, practice, and performance of dance in the metropolitan New York City area. It embeds values of justice, equity, and inclusion into all aspects of the organization.

About New York State Council on the Arts
The New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) is dedicated to preserving and expanding the rich and diverse cultural resources that are and will become the heritage of New York's citizens. NYSCA upholds the right of all New Yorkers to experience the vital contributions the arts make to their communities, education, economic development and quality of life. Through their core grantmaking activity, NYSCA awards organizations statewide through direct grants and regrants across 15 programs; the Regional Economic Development Council initiative. NYSCA funding supports the visual, literary, media and performing arts and includes dedicated support for arts education and underserved communities. NYSCA further advances New York's creative culture by hosting convenings with leaders in the field and providing organizational and professional development opportunities and informational resources.

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