New England Foundation for the Arts Inc.

NEFA’s creative economy work supports the creative sector and creative placemaking work by highlighting the rich cultural activity of New England, quantifying its impact, connecting its leaders, and providing opportunities for anyone across the U.S. to apply research frameworks or New England model projects locally. Our work includes www.CreativeGround.org, a real-time online community that reflects the rich range of creative people and places at work in the six New England states in order to promote and connect them with each other and with those who know that vibrant neighborhoods go hand-in-hand with a vibrant creative sector. This free online directory includes profiles for cultural nonprofits, creative businesses, and artists of all disciplines. CreativeGround is currently undergoing a strategic planning process. The next phase of the site will harness the combined forces of its directory and database to be a dynamic celebration of Creative New England and the most inclusive and representative reflection of the creative economy in the U.S. Our most recent research report titled The Jobs in New England's Creative Economy and Why They Matter was released in June 2017 as part of NEFA’s ongoing effort to assess the current state of the creative economy and its employment trends. Another piece of our Creative Economy work is the Creative Communities Exchange (CCX). At the event we gather New England’s creative and cultural community leaders for networking and practical creative economy projects prepared by their peers. CCX, which rotates to different New England communities, highlights a wide range of successful community initiatives from around New England that leverage the local creative sector for revitalization and growth of the broader community.

NEFA founded the National Dance Project (NDP) in 1996 to support the creation and touring of new dance works throughout the United States. Now in its third decade, NDP is widely recognized as one of the country’s major sources of funding for dance. NDP has invested more than $42.5 million in funding to artists and organizations to strengthen partnerships and bring dance into communities across the U.S. To date, NDP has supported 383 artists and companies and 814 cultural organizations, helping 709 unique dance works reach more than 3.3 million audience members in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Guam.

The National Theater Project (NTP) promotes the development of artist-led, ensemble, and devised theater work while extending the reach and life of these projects through touring. Through its Creation and Touring Grants, NTP directly supports artists and nonprofit organizations in the creation and touring of new theater works around the country. Since its launch in 2010, NTP has distributed crucial funding to artists and presenters, and is one of the few funding sources for devised theater in the country. To date, 75 new theater works have been supported; touring of those works has reached 43 different states across the U.S. In addition to the Creation and Touring, NTP supports artists and the field through several initiatives and supplemental grants, including regional convenings which bring together artists, presenters, arts service organizations, and presenters to discuss issues in creating and presenting theater within their region; cohort meetings between grantees and NTP advisors to build relationships and support their projects; Presentation; Presenter Travel; and Transition grants to support artist sustainability post-NTP supported touring.

New England Presenting and Touring programs support the presentation of performances, readings, and film screenings throughout New England, and provide professional development to New England-based presenters and performing artists. Current grantmaking programs include New England States Touring, which funds the presentation of regional, national and international artists presented by New England-based nonprofit organizations; the New England Presenter Travel Fund, which subsidizes travel costs for New England-based presenters to preview work that they are interested in bringing back to their community; and New Work New England, which provides grants to New England artists for the creation and production of new work that has potential to engage New England audiences in the disciplines of dance, film, interdisciplinary work, music, musical theater, opera, poetry, storytelling and theater. In response to the impact of COVID-19 on our region’s arts infrastructure, the New England Arts Resilience Fund awarded grants in 2020, as a part of the nationwide United States Regional Arts Resilience Fund, an initiative of the U.S. Regional Arts Organizations and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation with support from the federal CARES Act. This grant opportunity was to offer opportunities for stabilizing New England nonprofit arts and cultural organizations and planning for the future.

NEFA's Public Art programs support the field of public art through grantmaking and field-building collaborations. By investing in artists and a community of practice, NEFA is contributing to the evolving field of public art and inspiring more vibrant public spaces and public life throughout the region. Primary grant making programs currently include Public Art for Spatial Justice, Collective Imagination for Spatial Justice, the Public Art Learning Fund, and the Newell Flather Award for Leadership Public Art. NEFA invests in artists and the creative process, and cultivates artists as civic leaders, to support public art that inspires, disrupts, and engages the public sphere to strive for greater equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility in our public culture.