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Posted July 8, 2022
Moody Fund For The Arts Marks 5th Year Of Grantmaking
A Record $450,000 To 52 Small Dallas Arts Organizations, Five-Year Giving Total Tops $1.5M
The Moody Fund for the Arts (MFA) today announced it is awarding a record $450,000 in grants to 52 small arts organizations in Dallas. The grants, which range in size from $4,750 to the maximum of $12,000, support groups representing a broad cross-section of small, emerging and ethnic arts organizations across numerous art forms including theatre, music, dance, visual arts, film, multimedia, and more. Many of these programs provide access to the arts in historically under-served communities in Dallas.
This marks is the 5th year of MFA grantmaking. Since its first awards in 2018, MFA has awarded a total of $1,530,000 through 238 unique grants to 79 organizations.
“We set out to create a unique endowment that would support the growing, diverse and vibrant small arts community in Dallas,” said Francie Moody-Dahlberg, executive director and chairman of the Galveston-based Moody Foundation, which funded the endowment for the $10M Moody Fund for the Arts. “We wanted to help these organizations realize their creative vision with projects and programs across our city. After five years, we are beyond pleased by the results, and excited at what’s ahead.”
The fund awards flexible grants within five categories. This year saw entries in each category: General Program and Operating Cost Support (31); New Works, Commissions, and Unique Presentations (11); Capacity Building (4); Community Focus Performances/Artist-in-Residency Programs (5), Cultural Equity, New Initiatives (1). Six of the groups were awarded MFA grants for the first time.
This year’s grants come as the Dallas arts community is recovering from a pandemic that had been financially devastating. In 2020 and 2021, MFA responded by significantly increasing the total grant amounts and accelerating the review process to get funds to the organizations quickly. MFA also provided flexibility in executing the grants as groups pivoted between providing virtual and in-person experiences.
“The Moody Fund for the Arts provided a lifeline to so many of our arts organizations during a very challenging time,” said Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson. “We are so grateful for the generosity and vision of the Moody Foundation for creating something that will continue providing critical support for the smallest organizations in our arts community for decades to come.”
In 2017, the Dallas City Council recognized the Moody Foundation’s gift by renaming Dallas City Performance Hall in the Dallas Arts District as Moody Performance Hall. The endowment is designed to continue awarding these grants in perpetuity.
2022 Moody Fund Recipients:
| • Agora Artists | • Kitchen Dog Theater Company |
| • American Baroque Opera Company | • kNOwBOX Dance* |
| • ARGA NOVA DANCE | • Laughter League |
| • The Artist Outreach | • Lone Star Wind Orchestra |
| • Arts Mission Oak Cliff* | • Make Art with Purpose |
| • Artstillery | • New Texas Symphony Orchestra |
| • Asian Film Foundation of Dallas* | • No Limits Arts Theatre* |
| • Avant Chamber Ballet | • Oak Cliff Society of Fine Arts |
| • Ballet North Texas | • Ollimpaxqui Ballet Company* |
| • Bruce Wood Dance | • Orchestra of New Spain |
| • Cara Mía Theatre Company | • Over the Bridge Arts |
| • Creative Arts Center of Dallas | • Prism Movement Theater |
| • Cry Havoc Theater Company | • Sammons Center for the Arts |
| • Dallas Arts District Foundation | • Second Thought Theatre |
| • Dallas Bach Society | • Soul Rep Theatre Company |
| • Dallas Chamber Symphony | • Swan Strings |
| • Dallas Metroplex Musicians’ Assoc. | • Teatro Dallas |
| • Dance Council of North Texas | • Teatro Flor Candela |
| • Deep Vellum Publishing | • Texas Winds Musical Outreach |
| • DFW Play | • Theatre Three |
| • Echo Theatre | • Undermain Theatre |
| • Flamenco Fever | • Uptown Players |
| • Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra | • USA Film Festival |
| • Indian Cultural Heritage Foundation | • Verdigris Ensemble |
| • Indique Dance Company* | • The Women’s Chorus of Dallas |
| • Junior Players | • The Writer’s Garret |
*first time MFA Grant recipient
The AT&T Performing Arts Center administers the fund and its application and review process. Award decisions are made through a two-level review process. The first level, the MFA Advisory Review Panel is a peer-review judging process. The second level of review is provided by the MFA Executive Committee.
2022 MFA Advisory Review Panel
- Wolford McCue – Former Chair, TACA
- Katie McGuinness – Dallas Symphony Orchestra
- Artie Olaisen – Dallas Children’s Theatre
- Nycole Ray – Dallas Black Dance Theatre
- Priscilla Rice – City of Dallas Arts & Culture Advisory Commission
2022 MFA Executive Committee
- Benjamin Espino – Interim Director, Office of Arts & Culture
- Gwen Echols – Arts Patron, Advocate, Philanthropist
- Tracey Nash-Huntley – Arts Patron, Advocate, Philanthropist
More information can be found on the Moody Fund for the Arts website at www.moodyartsfund.org.
PRESS INQUIRIES:
Chris Heinbaugh, Vice President of External Affairs
AT&T Performing Arts Center
214-507-1460
Chris.Heinbaugh@attpac.org
ABOUT THE MOODY FUND FOR THE ARTS:
The Moody Fund for the Arts (MFA) aspires to be a transformative fund that will raise the scope of engagement with the arts throughout the Dallas community. Through flexible grant making, MFA encourages enterprising and diverse cultural offerings and helps sustain the mission of Moody Performance Hall to provide a stage in the Dallas Arts District for small and mid-sized groups.
In 2017, the Galveston, Texas-based Moody Foundation created and endowed the $10 million Moody Fund for the Arts to provide support for small and emerging nonprofit arts organizations supported by the City of Dallas Office of Arts & Culture. In recognition of the generosity of the Moody Foundation, on May 24, 2017 the City of Dallas changed the name of its 750-seat Dallas City Performance Hall in the Dallas Arts District to Moody Performance Hall.
To qualify, an organization’s budget must be less than $1 million. Through an annual competitive process, the $10 million endowment provides flexible grants supporting a range of opportunities, including new works and commissions, general operating and rent support, capacity building, projects taking art into under-served areas, cultural equity programs and more.
Grant recipients are chosen through a multi-level process including a peer review panel. MFA’s first grants were awarded in 2018.
| 2018 | $150,000 | 36 organizations | $7,500 max grant |
| 2019 | $175,000 | 47 organizations | $7,500 max grant |
| 2020 | $355,000 | 49 organizations | $10,000 max grant |
| 2021 | $400,000 | 54 organizations | $10,000 max grant |
| 2022 | $450,000 | 52 organizations | $12,000 max grant |
The Moody Fund for the Arts is held within the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA) Endowment, a Texas nonprofit corporation. Oversight is provided by the DCPA Endowment Board of Governors. The nonprofit AT&T Performing Arts Center provides staff support to administer the fund and granting process. Learn more at www.moodyartsfund.org.
ABOUT THE MOODY FOUNDATION:
The Moody Foundation was established in 1942 by William L. Moody Jr. and his wife, Libbie Rice Shearn Moody to share their good fortune and make a difference in the lives of the people of Texas. Since then, the Moody Foundation has made more than $1.5 billion in grants throughout the state to organizations that have educated, healed, nurtured and inspired generations of Texans. Learn more at www.moodyf.org.