(BALTIMORE, MD) -- On October 27, 2020, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation (MAAF) announced $1,594,340 in support of 38 organizations through the Mid Atlantic Arts Regional Resilience Fund. Recipients include four organizations based in New Jersey - Institute of Music for Children (Elizabeth), Jazz House Kids (Montclair), Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company (Fort Lee), and Newark Arts (Newark).

MAAF collaborated with the five other U.S. Regional Arts Organizations - Arts Midwest, Mid-America Arts Alliance, New England Foundation for the Arts, South Arts, and the Western States Arts Federation - to form The United States Regional Arts Resilience Fund in response to the COVID-19 pandemic with generous support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Mid Atlantic Arts Regional Resilience grants will support mid-Atlantic nonprofit arts and cultural organizations as they build resilience and look to the future with programming, planning, and reimagining their work. The program was designed for organizations with visionary leadership and whose work is critical to the region, primarily supporting those making a statewide, regional and/or national impact. Grant awards can support general operating expenses and associated relief and resilience expenses.

In an effort to address long-standing structures that have led to inequity in the field, and, in alignment with MAAF’s new strategic plan and vision to implement equitable practices, the Mid Atlantic Arts Regional Resilience Fund prioritizes organizations led by or serving BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, Persons with Disabilities, communities whose primary language is not English, and/or rural and remote communities. Learn more about the Mid Atlantic Arts Regional Resilience Fund program here.

MAAF's Executive Director Theresa Colvin said "It was gratifying to work with our sister Regional Arts Organizations and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to design and implement the U.S. Regional Arts Resilience Fund. We all know the need is great and hope that by supporting these visionary organizations, the impact to the field and the communities they serve will reach far beyond their own walls."

Here are the Mid Atlantic Arts Regional Resilience grant recipients:

1Hood Media, Pittsburgh, PA, $60,000

Art 180, Richmond, VA, $32,470

August Wilson African American Cultural Center, Pittsburgh, PA, $32,470

BlackStar Film Festival, Philadelphia, PA, $32,470

Christina Cultural Arts Center, Wilmington, DE, $70,000

Classical Theatre of Harlem, New York, NY, $32,470

Contemporary American Theatre Festival, Shepherdstown, WV, $32,470

Cool Culture, Brooklyn, NY, $32,470

Creative Alliance, Baltimore, MD, $32,470

Dance Place, Washington, DC, $60,000

Delaware Shakespeare, Wilmington, DE, $60,000

Flushing Town Hall, Flushing, NY, $32,470

Friends of Ganondagan, Victor, NY, $60,000

Gala Hispanic Theatre, Washington, DC, $70,000

Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, WV, $40,000

Institute of Music for Children, Elizabeth, NJ, $32,470

Jazz House Kids, Montclair, NJ, $40,000

Kulu Mele African Dance & Drum Ensemble, Philadelphia, PA, $32,470

The Laundromat Project, Brooklyn, NY, $40,000

Mind-Builders Creative Arts Center, Bronx, NY, $70,000

The Musicianship, Washington, DC, $40,000

Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, Fort Lee, NJ, $50,000

Newark Arts, Newark, NJ, $70,000

Peale Center for Baltimore History and Architecture, Baltimore, MD, $32,470

Pregones Puerto Rican Traveling Theater, Bronx, NY, $32,470

Richmond Triangle Players, Richmond, VA, $32,470

Sitar Arts Center, Washington, DC, $32,470

Weeksville Heritage Center, Brooklyn, NY, $32,470

Soundscapes, Newport News, VA, $32,470

Split This Rock, Washington, DC, $32,470

Step Afrika!, Washington, DC, $32,470

Theatre of the Oppressed NYC, New York, NY, $32,470

United Jazz Foundation, St. Thomas, USVI, $50,000

Urban Artistry, Silver Spring, MD, $32,470

Urban Bush Women, Bronx, NY, $32,470

viBe Theater Experience, Brooklyn, NY, $32,470

Wide Angle Youth Media, Baltimore, MD, $50,000

Youth FX, Albany, NY, $50,000

Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation develops partnerships and programs that reinforce artists' capacity to create and present work and advance access to and participation in the arts. The Foundation was created in 1979 and is a private non-profit organization that is closely allied with the region's state arts councils and the National Endowment for the Arts. It combines funding from state and federal resources with private support from corporations, foundations, and individuals to address needs in the arts from a regional, national, and international perspective.  

Founded in 1969, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation endeavors to strengthen, promote, and, where necessary, defend the contributions of the humanities and the arts to human flourishing and to the well-being of diverse and democratic societies by supporting exemplary institutions of higher education and culture as they renew and provide access to an invaluable heritage of ambitious, path-breaking work.