2023 USArtists International Second Round Grants Provide $295,000 in Support of 31 Engagements
Baltimore – March 13, 2023 – The second round of the 2023 USArtists International (USAI) program will provide $295,530 to support 27 artists at 31 festivals around the globe. Music, dance, and theater artists will visit six continents and represent 12 states. This grant round brings the total amount awarded through USAI to just over $10 million since its inception in 2006.
USAI supports performances by American artists at important cultural festivals and arts marketplaces around the globe. The program encourages and promotes the vibrant diversity of American artists and creative expression in the performing arts by expanding opportunities and exposure to international audiences, encouraging international cultural exchange, and enhancing creative and professional development of US artists by providing connections with presenters, curators, and artists around the world. USAI extends the reach and impact of professional artists dependent on touring for continued sustainability and career advancement.
USAI is a program of Mid Atlantic Arts in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), Mellon Foundation, and the Trust for Mutual Understanding. It is the only program of its kind in the United States.
The third and final deadline for the 2023 USAI program year is Wednesday, March 29, 2023 for projects taking place between July 1, 2023 and June 30, 2024.
Round two grantees are a mix of emerging and established companies that showcase a diversity of styles within their artistic disciplines:
Amirtha Kidambi/Elder Ones, NY
Ciclo Nova, Colombia
Festival Ecuador Jazz, Ecuador
Strange Music Festival, Brazil
Aszure Barton, WA
International Summer Festival Kampnagel, Germany
Company | E, DC
Choreographic Days of Carthage Festival, Tunisia
Ramallah Contemporary Dance Festival, Palestine
Dallas Black Dance Theatre, TX
Dance Fest Skopje, Macedonia
Dorrance Dance, NY
Kuopio Dance Festival, Finland
Elevator Repair Service Theater, NY
Avignon Festival, France
Gao Hong, MN
International Meeting of Folklore, Spain
Geoff Sobelle, NY
Rising Melbourne, Australia
Gibney Company, NY
Fall for Dance Festival North, Canada
icarus Quartet, MD
São Paulo Contemporary Composers Festival, Brazil
Jamaaladeen Tacuma, PA
Tanja Fraja, Morocco
Kizuna Dance, NY
Let’s Dance International Frontiers Festival, United Kingdom
Kronos Quartet, CA
Paris Philharmonic String Quartet Biennial, France
Live the Spirit Residency Band, IL
Poetry Africa, South Africa
Los Hacheros, NY
Primavera Sound, Spain
Michael Winograd and the Honorable Mentshn, NY
Jewish Culture Festival, Poland
Nick Photinos, IL
International New Music Week, Romania
Oyu Oro Afro Cuban Experimental Dance Ensemble, NY
World Music and Dance Festival, Japan
Rebellion(s), IL
Double Bill Belges, Belgium
Jazzdor Festival Berlin-Strasbourg-Dresden, Germany
Sarah Hennies, NY
Archipel, Switzerland
Siudy Flamenco Dance Theater, Inc., FL
Sanchez Aguilar Theater, Ecuador
TAK ensemble, NY
Int-Act Festival, Thailand
Teatro Círculo, NY
Classics in Alcala, Spain
Tempesta di Mare, PA
International Fasch Festival Zerbst, Germany
Terrance Simien and the Zydeco Experience, LA
Bern Jazz Festival, Switzerland
The Dancing Wheels Company, OH
Ready to Dance, Costa Rica
Third Coast Percussion, IL
Toolbox International Creative Academy Festival, Hong Kong
In addition to the career building aspect of USAI, many artists report USAI gives them an opportunity to learn how international audiences experience their work and what they might do to make their work more accessible. Chicago-based Aloft Circus Arts received a USAI grant to travel to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August 2022 and had this to say, “Our original goals for the festival were primarily to increase the exposure of our show to an international market place. We wanted to get festival and venue producers in to see the show, and to that end we had over 30 attend! We also wanted to get positive reviews of the show to help us promote for future engagements, and we were also very successful in this. …We also discovered something really interesting about our show, which is that it has a very strong appeal to a younger audience than we thought, and we are already in negotiations with several Canadian children’s festivals for next summer! Finally, we wanted to see how an international audience would experience our show. We learned so much from interacting with audience members outside the US. They made us think about accessibility in terms of physicality, customs, norms and language that we wouldn’t have considered, and now we feel more prepared an even more positive audience experience the next time we perform abroad.”
USAI grantees are selected through a panel process. Mid Atlantic Arts convened two panels to review round two applications: Music on January 31, 2023 and Dance and Theater on February 1, 2023. The panels consisted of experienced artists and arts professionals. For a complete list of panelists, please click here.
Image: USAI grantee Amir ElSaffar’s Rivers of Sound at the Aperto Festival in Reggio Emilia, Italy in November 2022. Photo credit: Andrea Mazzoni.
About Mid Atlantic Arts
Mid Atlantic Arts supports artists, presenters, and organizations through unique programming, grant support, partnerships, and information sharing. Created in 1979, Mid Atlantic Arts is aligned with the region’s state arts councils and the National Endowment for the Arts. We combine state and federal funding with private support from corporations, foundations, and individuals to nurture diverse artistic expression while connecting people to meaningful arts experiences within our region and beyond. To learn more about Mid Atlantic Arts visit www.midatlanticarts.org.
About the National Endowment for the Arts
Established by Congress in 1965, the National Endowment for the Arts is an independent federal agency that is the largest funder of the arts and arts education in communities nationwide and a catalyst of public and private support for the arts. By advancing equitable opportunities for arts participation and practice, the NEA fosters and sustains an environment in which the arts benefit everyone in the United States. Learn more at www.arts.gov.
About The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is the nation’s largest supporter of the arts and humanities. Since 1969, the Foundation has been guided by its core belief that the humanities and arts are essential to human understanding. The Foundation believes that the arts and humanities are where we express our complex humanity, and that everyone deserves the beauty, transcendence, and freedom that can be found there. Through our grants, we seek to build just communities enriched by meaning and empowered by critical thinking, where ideas and imagination can thrive. Learn more at mellon.org.
About the Trust for Mutual Understanding
The Trust for Mutual Understanding awards grants to American nonprofit organizations to support direct exchange in the arts and the environment between professionals from the United States and TMU’s geographic region: the Baltic States; Central Asia; Central, East, Southeast Europe; Mongolia; and Russia. www.tmuny.org
Contact:
Karen Newell
Director, External Affairs
Mid Atlantic Arts
karen@midatlanticarts.org
410.539.6656 x104