The 2024 Performing Arts Global Exchange (PAGE) roster features an incredible roster of music ensembles from South Korea. Non-profit presenting venues and units of government based anywhere in the U.S. or its territories who book from the roster below for a public performance and an artist-involved community engagement activity between January 1, 2024 and December 31, 2024 can receive a grant of up t0 50% of the artist fee.

Roster artists include:

• CelloGayageum seamlessly blends the musical cultures and instruments of the cello and Gayageum, creating a harmonious symbiosis in both sound and style.
• Coreyah is a psychedelic Korean folk music group whose six members integrate traditional Korean instruments, vocals, guitar, and percussion. 
• Evoking Korean traditional Pansori sounds and mixed with Western instrumentals, Second Moon is a dynamic 7-member band that has been making waves since their formation in 2004.
• Gayageum artist Seo Jungmin transforms living moments into music blurring the boundaries between traditional and contemporary music, documenting special moments with the 25-string Gayageum. 
• SE:UM brings together jazz players and Korean traditional musicians creating music based on traditional Korean folk melodies and shamanistic rhythms.

Photo: Seo Jungmin. Credit: Courtesy of the artist.

Mid Atlantic Arts' Folk and Traditional Arts Community Projects grants fund projects that support the vitality of traditional arts and cultural communities in the mid-Atlantic region. 

Non-profit organizations in DC, DE, MD, NJ, NY, PA, VA, USVI, PR, or WV seeking to engage folk and traditional artists, practitioners, or culture bearers in community-based projects are eligible for funding in amounts from $1,000 to $7,000. 

Want to learn more? Join us for a webinar on Wednesday, May 3 at 2pm. Sign up at the link: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_bLSIR4RfTkCqPWmtr9rujg

The 2024 application deadline is Tuesday, June 6, 2023.

Photo: Folk and Traditional Arts Community Projects Grants recipient Sandy Spring Museum (MD) hosted Bomba y Plena en el Museum. Here Melany Rivera leads a bomba workshop. Credit: Myriam Comito.

Mid Atlantic Arts' Central Appalachia Living Traditions program, in partnership with Grow Appalachia and the Appalachian Studies Association, congratulates the 2023 Appalachian Foodways Practitioner Fellows! The Fellowships honor, celebrate, and support foodways tradition bearers and practitioners in Central Appalachia who have made significant and long-term contributions to sustaining and supporting the foodways heritage of their respective communities. 

The 2023 Appalachian Foodways Practitioner Fellows are: 

Femeika Elliott

Knoxville, Tennessee 

Sergio Herrera

Mifflintown, Pennsylvania

Jason B. Tartt, Sr.

Berwind, West Virginia

The 2023 Appalachian Foodways Practitioner Fellows were honored at an awards ceremony and invited to present at a session at the 2023 Appalachian Studies Association Annual Conference in Athens, Ohio. In addition to the monetary award of $4,000 to support their ongoing community-based work, fellows received a unique physical award created by Berea College Student Craft. Learn more about the 2023 Fellows here.

Iber Exchange - Offer Letters Due to Agents by April 25, 2023

Bring artists from Brazil, Mexico, and Spain to your community with the help of a grant from Iber Exchange. Grants support up to 50% of the negotiated artist fee to non-profit presenters in the mid-Atlantic that book a roster artist for a public performance and community engagement activity between July 1, 2023 and June 30, 2024.

Folk and Traditional Arts Community Projects Grants - Applications Due June 6, 2023

Mid Atlantic Arts’ Folk and Traditional Arts Community Projects grants fund projects designed to support the vitality of traditional arts and cultural communities in the mid-Atlantic region. Non-profit organizations in DC, DE, MD, NJ, NY, PA, VA, USVI, PR, or WV which seek to engage folk and traditional artists, practitioners, or culture bearers in community-based projects are eligible for funding in amounts from $1,000 to $7,000.

The 2023 Disability Justice Virtual Resource series is part of an ongoing partnership between Americans for the Arts (AFTA) and Mid Atlantic Arts to provide resources to support individuals and organizations in the mid-Atlantic region engaging in the essential work of accessibility and disability justice in their communities.

The pre-recorded videos and live conversations focus on intersectionality, accountability, and budgeting through a disability justice lens. View the pre-recorded videos on your own time, and feel free to share them with your networks! Then, if you want to keep the conversation going, join us for a candid live conversation on each topic. Live conversations will not be recorded, and there are registration caps-- so sign up today! ASL interpretation and live captioning will be provided for live conversations.

The final conversation is taking place May 19, 2023 at 2 PM ET.

Budgeting & Disability Justice

View the recorded conversation & register for the live conversation at this link

First, listen to Vanessa Cruz and Beth Prevor discuss, in a pre-recorded 30-minute video, how an organization can be proactive in addressing accessibility and disability justice in their budget.

Then, join Vanessa and Beth for a live conversation on May 19, 2023 at 2 PM ET! 

Please only register for the live conversation if you plan to attend as there is a 50-person cap on registration.

Congratulations to the 27 artists and ensembles who received funding from Round Two of USArtists International 2023! These performing artists will travel to 32 festivals on six continents. You can learn more about the supported artists and the festivals they will be attending here.

USArtists International (USAI) supports in-person and virtual performances by American artists at engagements at international festivals and global presenting arts marketplaces outside of the United States. The program funds individuals and ensembles across all performing arts practices and disciplines. Guidelines for the 2024 USAI program will be posted in summer 2023 with an initial application deadline in early October.

At the third and final deadline of the 2023 program, more than 170 applications for support were received - the highest application round in the program's history. 2023 also marks more than $10 million in support to artists through the USArtists International program.

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.

Photo: Line Upon Line Percussion (TX) traveled to the Novalis Festival in Croatia with support from USAI 2022. Here they perform Nick Virzi's Convergent Boundaries. Credit: Veronika Drobnic.

Are you someone who is committed to advancing equity in the arts, transforming grantmaking, and collaborating with artists and arts organizations? Join us as our Program Director, Creativity in Community! This new position will oversee and develop new initiatives that center creativity, justice, and community building. Potential applicants will reside in the ten-state/jurisdiction Mid Atlantic region.

Opportunity Quick Links

• The Maryland State Arts Council has two national open calls for artists and panelists for the upcoming Artwork Commissions projects. The Artwork Commissions program is the state’s percent-for-art program. They are permanent, large-scale, publicly accessible artworks integrated into the construction or renovation of eligible State buildings. Commission budgets range from $50,000-$1,500,000. Panelist application deadline: April 26, 2023 & artist application deadline: May 31, 2023.

• BRIC invites applications for BRIClab, a multidisciplinary residency program created to advance opportunities for visual artists, performers, and media makers. The residency aims to build a stronger and more diverse artistic community in Brooklyn. BRIClab offers emerging mid-career artists essential support and opportunities to share their work. All residents receive a $2,500 stipend, mentorship, skills-based learning and professional development, and work documentation. Deadline: May 8, 2023.

• Marauder is hosting, Independent Venue Week, an annual event happening July 10 - 16, 2023. This event brings together venues and promoters from all across the country to celebrate the spirit of independence and live entertainment. It consists of a nationwide series of shows, which are curated locally by owners within their own venues. Materials are provided to venues and promoters for them to represent Independent Venue Week in their own unique ways such as: marketing and press materials, physical and digital signage, and more.

• The National Endowment for the Arts and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis released its annual update on the national and state-level contributions of the arts and cultural sector to the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP). The new data looks at the contributions of the arts and cultural industries in 2021, after the first year of COVID-19. Access the press release here.

• The Academy of American Poets is accepting applications for the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize. In her honor, a prize of $25,000 is awarded to an outstanding book of poetry published in the United States in the previous calendar year. The winner also receives an inclusive 10-day residency at Glen Hollow in Naples, New York, and distribution of the winning book to hundreds of Academy of American Poets members. Eligible entries include any original book of poetry written in English and published in the U.S. during 2022 in a standard edition (48 pages or more) by a living poet. Deadline: May 15, 2023.

• A program of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Arts Writers Grant Program supports emerging and established writers writing about contemporary visual art. Published authors who identify as art historians, artists, critics, curators, journalists, or writers in an outside field engaged in contemporary visual arts are invited to apply for grants ranging between $15,000 and $50,000. Grants will be awarded in three categories—articles, books, and short-form writing—to support projects addressing both general and specialized art audiences, from short reviews for magazines and newspapers to in-depth scholarly studies. Deadline: May 17, 2023.

Image: Rowan University (NJ) hosted Urban Bush Women with support from ArtsCONNECT in performing in 2023. Here they perform Legacy + Lineage + Liberation in Pfleeger Concert Hall. Credit: Avi Steinhardt.