Performing Arts Global Exchange (PAGE) is a Mid Atlantic Arts grant program for performing arts presenters nationwide that is designed to reduce barriers to presenting international artists.

This year the program features an incredible roster of music ensembles from Colombia and Brazil. 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 taking place between July 1, 2024, and June 30, 2025, can receive a grant of up t0 50% of the artist fee.

This 2024-2025 Performing Arts Global Exchange Roster Artists are:

• Espiral 7 (Colombia)
• Las Guaracheras (Colombia)
• Luciane Dom (Brazil)
• Luedji Luna (Brazil)
• La Muchacha (Colombia)

Left to right: Espiral 7. Credit: Courtesy of the artist; Las Guaracheras. Credit: Courtesy of the artist; Luciane Dom. Credit: Marcos Hermes; Luedji Luna. Credit: Henrique Falci; La Muchacha. Credit: Courtesy of the artist.

Central Appalachian Living Traditions Grantees Announced

Image: Blacksmithing demonstration by Bryan Fitts at the Floyd, Virginia, Living Traditions Festival. Credit: Kristine Carter/Floyd Community Center for the Arts

The Central Appalachian Living Traditions (CALT) program announced the recipients of the 2024-2025 Folk and Traditional Arts Experiences grantees. CALT Experiences grants fund public-facing projects and events in Appalachian counties of Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia that bring community members together around traditional arts and cultural knowledge.

The 2024-2025 grantees are:

• Southern Ohio Folklife - Performing and Tracing the Blues (Portsmouth, OH)

• Floyd Community Center for the Arts, Inc. - Second Annual Floyd Living Traditions Festival: Homegrown and Handed Down! (Floyd, VA)

• Handmade Music School - Handmade Music School Shares Living Traditions at FloydFest 2024 (Floyd, VA)

• L. Renée - Black Appalachian Inheritances: McDowell County, West Virginia, Stories (Harrisonburg, VA)

• MidMountain - Fatal Femme Agency: Reclaiming the Appalachian Murder Ballad (Natural Bridge Station, VA) 

• Montgomery Museum and Lewis Miller Regional Arts Center - Cultural Crossroads in Traditional Appalachian Music and Dance (Christiansburg, VA) 

• Aristotle Jones - Appalachian Soul Man: "Streets of Osage" Musical Storyteller Tour through Ohio and Virginia (Morgantown, WV)

• Augusta Heritage Center, Inc. - Post-Pandemic Reconnection: Fiddler's Reunion and Square Dances (Elkins, WV)

• Dakota Carper - Growing Callers: Community Music and Square Dance Initiative (Capon Bridge, WV)

• Huntington Museum of Art Inc. - Look-Listen-Move Arts Integrated Tour (Huntington, WV) 

• Huntington Old Time Dance and Music Inc. - Teaching a Diverse Population to Square Dance and Play Old-Time Music Through Hands-On Classes and Dances (Huntington, WV) 

• Putnam County Parks and Recreation - Putnam County Music Festival (Hurricane, WV) 

• RiffRaff Arts Collective, Inc. - CultureFest in our Communities: Expanding Impact, Deepening Understanding, Connecting Youth to Cultural Roots (Princeton, WV) 

• River House, Inc. - FolkLife Series III (Capon Bridge, WV)

• Step by Step Inc. - Appalachian Blues Camp (Charleston, WV) 

• West Virginia Humanities Council - An Archival and Ethnographic Survey of the Mountain Weavers Guild (Charleston, WV) 

Mid Atlantic Artists at the Grammys!

Each year, we are so thrilled to recognize past and present Mid Atlantic Arts grantees and artists who receive Grammy nominations and awards!

Winners:

• 123 Andrés - Best Children's Album
• Samara Joy - Best Jazz Performance
• Miguel Zenón & Luis Perdomo - Best Latin Jazz Album
• Meshell Ndegeocello - Best Alternative Jazz Album
• Zakir Hussain - Best Contemporary Instrumental Album
• Rubén Blades Con Roberto Delgado & Orquesta - Best Tropical Latin Album
• Béla Fleck, Edgar Meyer & Zakir Hussain Featuring Rakesh Chaurasia - Best Global Music Performance
• Roomful Of Teeth - Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance 
• Alex Brown, Harlem Quartet, Imani Winds, Edward Perez, Neal Smith & A.B. Spellman - Best Classical Compendium

Updates and Upcoming Deadlines

Our 2023 Annual Report and State Activity Reports are now available.

Healing, Bridging, Thriving: A Summit on Arts and Culture in our Communities

On January 30, 2024, the National Endowment for the Arts hosted Healing, Bridging, Thriving: A Summit on Arts and Culture in our Communities. Co-hosted by the White House Domestic Policy Council, this summit featured talks by policy makers, artists, community leaders, advocates, and more on the importance of the arts on community well-being. View the archived summit here.

Jazz Road Tours Grants due March 1, 2024.

Jazz Road Tours Grants are now open to jazz artists nationwide, offering grants of up to $15,000 to support your next tour. Applications for this cycle are due March 1, 2024, with additional deadlines occurring regularly through 2026.

Learn more and apply at South Arts' website.

ArtsCONNECT Deadline March 7, 2024

ArtsCONNECT supports performing arts touring projects collaboratively developed by presenters working together in the mid-Atlantic region. The tours include performances as well as complementary engagement activities designed to create greater understanding or connections between artists, audiences, and communities. You can learn more about ArtsCONNECT at the program webpage or by watching the 2024-2025 informational webinar video.

Special Presenter Initiatives Deadline March, 14, 2024

Special Presenter Initiatives support the presentation of professional performing artists/ensembles at small and mid-size arts and community organizations based in Delaware, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, West Virginia, and the Federally recognized Native nations that share this geography.

Fee support is available for engagements of performing artists based anywhere worldwide. Engagements include performances as well as community activities that offer meaningful exchanges between touring artists and a presenter’s community.

Learn more on the Special Presenter Initiatives webpage and view a copy of our program webinar recording here.

USArtists International Deadline March 27, 2024.

USAI supports in-person performances by U.S. 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.



Learn more about USAI here.

Black History Month

This February and beyond, we recognize the contributions of Black artists and culture workers in the arts.

Check out our latest Artist Spotlight and Folk and Traditional Arts blog posts:

Kia Smith, Founder and Artistic Director of 2022 USArtists International grantee South Chicago Dance Theatre, spoke with us about preserving Black histories and uplifting marginalized narratives through choreography. Read the full interview here.

Image: Kim Davis and Isaiah Collier. Photo Credit: Michelle Reid.

Jeannine Osayande, Founder and Director of Dunya Performing Arts Company and former Interim Director of Folk and Traditional Arts Community Projects grantee Philadelphia Folklore Project, spoke with us about creating the podcast, Making a Homeplace: The Historically Black Neighborhood of Swarthmore. Read the full blog post here.

Image: Historically Black Neighborhood of Swarthmore Community Oral History recording in 2020. Photo Credit: Jeannine Osayande.

Black History Month events, exhibits, and works around our region:

• Free event calendar in Washington, DC: Duke Ellington tributes, Black History of Pennsylvania Avenue, lectures on South African arts and activism, and more.
• 10-week Afro-Cuban orisha dance class led by Jinae Suire at the Bronx Music Heritage Center in New York.
• The AngelWing Project's "Still Rising" presentation of dance, music, drama and poetry in Brooklyn, MD.
• Rising Sun: Artists in an Uncertain America exhibit at both the African American Museum in Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. 
• The Barter Theatre's Black Stories Black Voices series, including HOME by Samm-Art Williams, in Abingdon, VA.
• West Virginia-based Black Appalachian Storytelling Fellow, Aristotle Jones' album, Mountain Doo-Wop.
• Jersey Arts' Black History Month events calendar.

Have more to share? Let us know!

Opportunity Quick Links

• Lower East Side Printshop is accepting applications for its Keyholder Residency Program, which offers emerging artists free 24-hour access to printmaking facilities to develop new work and foster their artistic careers. Residencies includes a $500 stipend, storage space, basic supplies (newsprint, blotters, solvents, cleaners), consultations hours with the printshop’s staff, and opportunities to show new work in exhibitions and other public events presented by the printshop. Deadline: March 1, 2024. Learn more here.

• Jim Henson Foundation is accepting letters of intent for creation of contemporary live puppet theater. Applications for international collaborations are accepted, but the primary artist must be a U.S. citizen. Projects must be presented in the U.S. and ideally developed and workshopped in the U.S. Letters of intent deadline: March 4, 2024. Learn more here.

• The Center of Craft is accepting applications for its Teaching Artist Cohort. Twenty mid-career craft artists will receive a one-time unrestricted grant of $10,000. Teaching artists are craft artists and/or makers who utilize their skillsets and sensibilities to integrate their work and perspectives into a wide range of settings. Deadline: March 11, 2024. Learn more here.

• Bloomberg Philanthropies invites applications for its Digital Accelerator for Arts and Culture, which will provide funding, expert technical assistance, and leadership development over two years to strengthen the digital infrastructure of nonprofit cultural organizations with the principal goals of growing revenue, increasing fundraising, engaging audiences, improving operations, and developing programming opportunities. Deadline: March 13, 2024. Learn more here.

• Creative Capital regularly posts a very healthy bi-monthly artist opportunity list to their Journal. You can view opportunities, interviews, news, resources and more at this link: https://creative-capital.org/journal/

• Fractured Atlas also publishes a monthly list of artist grants and opportunities. You can access their blog at: https://blog.fracturedatlas.org/

Image: Teaching the next generation of tree tappers at Live Work Eat Grow's tree tapping workshop at the Hale Community Garden. Credit: Emma Jensen.