IMMIGRANTS. DANCE. ARTS. RESOURCES
Last Updated 11/01/2024
The following represents service organizations and government entities that provide useful resources at the intersection of immigration and dance in the metropolitan New York City area as identified by Dance/NYC and its Immigrants. Dance. Arts. Task Force. It is not comprehensive, and Dance/NYC welcomes information about additional resources. Please email programsassistant@dance.nyc with suggestions.
You can find additional resources surrounding immigration in our Dance. Workforce. Resilience. Resource Library.
Service Providers
Asian American Arts Alliance
The Asian American Arts Alliance is dedicated to strengthening Asian American arts and cultural groups through resource sharing, promotion, and community building. Since 1983, the Alliance has sought to unify, promote, and represent the artistic and cultural producers of one of New York City's fastest-growing ethnic populations.
Center for Traditional Music and Dance
The Center for Traditional Music and Dance assists New York City's immigrant communities to preserve the vitality of their distinctive performing arts traditions and promotes cross-cultural understanding by sharing the art forms with audiences across the city. Nationally renowned for programs that combine research, documentation, presentation, and education, CTMD assists immigrant communities in passing traditions to new generations.
Dance Caribbean COLLECTIVE
The Dance Caribbean COLLECTIVE is an organization dedicated to facilitating Caribbean dance works, performances, and cultural experiences in the Caribbean diaspora, with a focus on Brooklyn, New York. Through its programming and content, the collective cultivates audiences' appreciation for both contemporary and traditional dance, it reflects cultural experiences and traditions onstage, it offers students opportunities to reconnect to their cultural roots, and it provides spaces to address the issues facing its communities.
Desis Rising Up and Moving (Moving Art)
Desis Rising Up and Moving (DRUM) was founded in 2000 to build the power of South Asian low-wage immigrant workers, youth, and families in New York City to win economic and educational justice and civil and immigrant rights. Moving Art is DRUM's first program to support the leadership of working-class Indo-Caribbean and South Asian cultural workers. Moving Art members make art collectively that is grounded in their communities' experiences and dreams of liberation.
Espejo Organization for the Arts
The Espejo Organization for the Arts (EOarts) is an immigrant-led organization dedicated to supporting the growth and diversity of the arts in the United States. Its mission is to create an international and multicultural community of artists that will open new possibilities and perspectives for culture worldwide. Using various networks and programs, EOarts aims to improve the artistic sphere from a personal and professional level.
Lotus Music & Dance
Lotus Music & Dance is a performance space, sanctuary, and center of education for traditional and indigenous performing art forms. Its mission is to keep alive and accessible the music and dance traditions of all world cultures. Lotus Music & Dance remains the only institution of its kind in New York City, a city which master artists from India, Korea, Burma, China, the South Pacific, Middle East, the Mohawk Nation, West Africa, and Spain collectively call home.
New York Foundation for the Arts (Immigrant Artist Program)
The New York Foundation for the Arts' Immigrant Artist Program (IAP) is building and serving a community of artists with diverse backgrounds who share the experience of immigration. The IAP consists of three components. The Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program pairs emerging foreign-born artists with artists who have received a NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship and/or past participants of the program. The free Con Edison IAP Newsletter lists upcoming opportunities and events of particular interest to immigrant artists, as well as profiles of individual artists or arts/immigrant services organizations. The IAP Resource Directory serves as a starting point, introducing immigrant artists to some of the resources available to them in New York.
Metropolitan area Arts Councils provide localized information for immigrant artists and companies:
Notable national service providers addressing the intersection of immigration and dance include Performing Arts Alliance and Dance/USA.
Additionally, Association of Performing Arts Professionals and League of American Orchestras have created Artists from Abroad, a guide to immigration procedures and taxes for immigrant artists.
Government Resources
City:
IDNYC
New York City residents can sign up for IDNYC, a government-issued identification card that is available to all City residents age 14 and older, regardless of immigration status. IDNYC cardholders can access public buildings and services. IDNYC is a recognized ID for interacting with NYPD. IDNYC also provides benefits to cardholders, including a free one-year membership at many of the City's leading museums, zoos, concert halls, and botanical gardens.
Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs
The Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs (MOIA) supports and leads a range of policies and programs that enhance the economic, civic, and social integration of immigrant New Yorkers. The agency's website offers comprehensive resources addressing a wide range of information and referrals to resources, including immigration legal services, City services and benefits, and other types of assistance. Learn more about MOIA services.
New York City Department of Cultural Affairs
The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA) is dedicated to supporting and strengthening New York City's vibrant cultural life. With CreateNYC, the City's first-ever cultural plan, it prioritizes supporting arts, culture, and science organizations as inclusive spaces for New Yorkers of all immigration status, and it partners closely with MOIA, the cultural community and local Arts Councils. DCLA's website offers information on its evolving programs as well as culturally and population-specific resources.
New York City Department of Education
The New York City Department of Education (DOE) and the Mayor's Office are committed to protecting the right of every student in New York City to attend public school, regardless of immigration status. The DOE provides information on enrollment for English language learners and further resources for multilingual learners.
The DOE and its Office of Arts and Special Projects provide students, teachers, school leaders, and parents with information to support arts education. Resources include regularly published research, such as the NYC Schools Survey, Annual Arts In School Report, Arts & Cultural Education Services (ACES) Guide, and the Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in Dance.
State:
New York State Council of the Arts is the State agency dedicated to preserving and expanding the rich and diverse cultural resources that are and will become the heritage of New York's citizens. Its website offers information on its core grantmaking and special projects, as well as resources for the field.
Relevant State agencies also include the New York State Department of Education, the New York State Department of Labor Division of Immigrant Policies and Affairs, and the New York State Office for New Americans, established to help New Americans fully participate in New York State civic and economic life.
Federal:
National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent federal agency that funds, promotes, and strengthens the creative capacity of communities by providing all Americans with diverse opportunities for arts participation. Its website offers program information, news, and research of relevance to immigrant artist and audiences: for example, Considering Cultural Integration in the United States, which was made possible by an NEA research grant.
Relevant Federal agencies also include United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, which oversees lawful immigration to the United States, and the United States Department of Education, which offers both immigrant resources and arts in education resources.
Artists Visa Services
American Guild of Musical Artists
Phone: 212-265-3687 | 1-800-543-2462
Dance/USA
Phone: 202-833-1717
Fractured Atlas
Phone: 888-692-7878
Mastery Productions
Phone: 212-477-3338
Espejo Organization for the Arts
Phone: 347-484-6212
Translations provided by Asian/American Center of Queens College in Chinese, Korean, and Spanish.
