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 local 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 $25,000–$250,000 for FY2022 (actual), FY2023 (actual), and FY2024 (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/for-artists/resource-pages.

You are encouraged to apply if you are a current or past grantee of Dance/NYC or if you have not previously been funded by Dance/NYC.

Applicants are not eligible to apply if they are:

• A current grantee of the Howard Gilman Foundation;
• 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 local 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

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Funding Priorities & Review Rubric

Funding Priorities

Dance/NYC seeks to award grants to up to 25 dance makers.

Review Criteria:
The review panel will evaluate applications based on the following criteria:

• 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."

Priority in grant selection will be given to applicants who demonstrate the following:

• Above all, potential to benefit from the grant program;
• A diversity of dance perspectives;
• 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 a sustained artistic practice spanning between 10-19 years; and
• Organizations/groups who have limited access to financial resources, specifically, private philanthropic support and public funding through government agencies.

Review Rubric

As an underlying tenet of its justice, 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 up to 15 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 2024:

$25,000-$49,999;            $100,000-$149,999;
$50,000-74,999;            $150,000-$199,999;
$75,000-$99,999;            $200,000-$249,999;