Skip to content

Nonprofit Funding Area

Arts, Culture & Historic Preservation New York City

Learn more about how we fund arts, culture, and historic preservation in New York City. To see what else we fund, explore the Info for Nonprofits page. 

Three actors with physical disabilities sit at a small table onstage talking with each other. One actor is in a wheelchair. 
Emma Lemanski, Megan Simox, and Patrick Tombs talk shop in a program at Queens Theatre for actors with physical disabilities.

Funding Details

Program goals

  • Promote diversity in the arts, and expand access for artists and audiences. 
  • Strengthen the management of arts groups serving communities in the five boroughs. 
  • Develop talented young historically underrepresented artists and improve arts education in the public schools. 
  • Strengthen arts advocacy. 
  • Support preservation in low-income communities, communities of color, and the boroughs outside of Manhattan, and restore historic places that represent significant and overlooked aspects of city history. 
  • Increase access to high-quality, sequential arts education in the public schools.
  • Help arts organizations improve or expand programming taking place during the school day and within the public school system.

 

Grants are made to

  • Help arts organizations attract broader audiences and provide opportunities for artists from diverse backgrounds. 
  • Build the capacity of smaller-budget arts groups: priority is given to non-Manhattan and culturally explicit groups, and to groups with annual budgets of $250,000 to $1 million. Arts service and umbrella organizations are eligible for grants to help small groups. 
  • Help cultural groups integrate arts into the curriculum of under-resourced public schools, especially those working outside of Manhattan, and begin programs in schools that lack arts. 
  • Help arts organizations improve or expand programming taking place during the school day and within the public school system.
  • Advance arts and arts education advocacy on critical policy and funding issues. 
  • Support the professional development of historically underrepresented young artists pre- and post-college through grants to arts organizations that identify, train, and support young people. (An RFP is issued for this grant program annually.) Read a report and its abstract looking back on 25 years of the Van Lier Fellowships. 
  • Foster collaborations between preservation organizations and community groups representing a diverse range of cultural backgrounds and identities. 
  • Incorporate preservation efforts into neighborhood revitalization initiatives and increase the preservation expertise of community organizations. 
  • Promote the adaptive use of historic buildings for social, cultural, and civic purposes. 
  • Help groups develop alternative sources of financial support for capital, maintenance, and repairs. 

 

We do not generally make grants

  • To organizations with annual operating budgets below $250,000. 
  • For particular presentations, such as plays, exhibits, films/videos, and festivals. 
  • For more than one project at a time from an organization. 
  • For maintenance or capital projects. (However, The Trust has established a modest fund with the New York Landmarks Conservancy for emergency structural repairs for nonprofits that own and operate landmark buildings in New York City.) 

 

Read the background paper that informed this grantmaking strategy here. 

Recent grants

Organization Summary

City Lore

 to support a citywide network of folk and immigrant artists. 

Black Public Media

to support Black documentary filmmakers producing films about social issues.  

American LGBTQ+ Museum 

to continue to develop programs that preserve LGBTQ+ history and culture.  

Filomen M. D’Agostino Greenberg Music  School, Inc.

to expand programs for adults with visual disabilities and create a digital music library.

Association of Performing Arts Professionals.

to use technology to expand services to performing arts professionals

Latinx Arts Consortium of New York

to build a network of Latinx arts and cultural groups in New York City.

Artopolis Development

to research the benefits of an artist savings program.

Harlem Stage

for a leadership transition.

Chicken & Egg Pictures 

for awards to help documentary filmmakers complete, premiere, and increase the social impact of their films.

National Black Theatre

to negotiate the commercial transfer of Fat Ham.

Kyoung’s Pacific Beat

to increase production capacity for touring and virtual programs and generate income to sustain city-based artists.

Recess Activities, Inc. 

to adapt policies and communications following a founder transition.

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, Inc.

to improve digital communications and marketing.

LEIMAY

to increase production capacity for educational and virtual programs and generate income to sustain city-based artists.

Third World Newsreel

to improve technology for film preservation and distribution.

Dances For A Variable Population

to expand teaching artist training and dance programs for older adults. 

People’s Theatre Project, Inc.

to establish management systems and programs for a new facility.

Imani Winds Foundation, Inc.

for a platform to produce and distribute classical chamber music and other media.

Ping Chong & Company, Inc.

to rebrand and improve communications following a founder transition.

Clemente Soto Velez Cultural & Educational Center

to reorganize studio rentals and other programs during a renovation.

Women’s Housing and Economic Development Corporation

to develop operations for the Bronx Music Hall.

Gallim Dance Company, Inc.

to provide two-week residencies to eight young women, transgender, and gender nonconforming movement artists of color.

Asian American Arts Alliance

to provide one-year fellowships to six young performing artists.

The Jose Limon Dance Foundation

to provide one-year fellowships to eight young dancers of color.

New York Theatre Workshop, Inc.

to provide one-year fellowships to eight young diverse theater-makers, including playwrights.

Repertorio Espanol

to provide two-year fellowships to two young Latinx theater directors.

Angela’s Pulse

to provide one-year fellowships to nine young Black dance artists.

American Composers Orchestra, Inc.

to provide one-year fellowships to six young composers.

Movement Research, Inc.

to provide one-year fellowships to six young dance artists of color.

Firelight Media

to provide 18-month fellowships to six young documentary filmmakers of color creating social issue films.  

Henry Street Settlement

to provide two-year fellowships to three young visual artists.

International Studio and Curatorial Program

to provide six-month fellowships to four young visual artists of color.

New York Foundation for the Arts, Inc.

to expand outreach and services to immigrant artists in New York City.

Theatre Communications Group, Inc.

to plan responsive programs, including shared workspace, for theater artists and arts groups in New York City.

Redford Center, Inc.

for awards to help environmental filmmakers develop, produce, and increase the social impact of their feature-length films.

Luna Composition Lab 

to develop young female, nonbinary, and gender non-conforming composers and diversify audiences for classical chamber music.

Queens Museum

for museum programs that promote Indigenous organizing, land stewardship, and culture. 

Gibney

to provide subsidized, accessible studio space to dance artists.

New York Writers Coalition

to plan for enhanced marketing and paid programs.

Latino Theater Company

to strengthen Latinx theater groups in New York City.

Cool Culture, Inc.

to build a citywide network of cultural equity advocates, including families, caregivers, educators, and artists.

Queens Theatre

to attract audience members with disabilities.

Brooklyn Arts Council, Inc.

to use technology to help Brooklyn artists, residents, and organizations exchange resources and share skills.

Carnegie Hall

to train public school music teachers citywide to use web-based resources for K-12 music instruction.

Opening Act

to expand a theater program for over-age, under-credited high school students.

New York City Arts in Education Roundtable, Inc.

to advocate for adequate arts instruction for New York City public school students.

Marquis Studios, Ltd.

to provide theater, storytelling, and literacy instruction to students attending five elementary schools in Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx.

Young People’s Chorus of New York City

to provide choral music and literacy instruction to students attending 14 elementary schools in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens.

ArtsConnection

to provide interdisciplinary arts and literacy instruction to students attending five elementary schools in Queens and the Bronx.

92nd Street Y

to train public school teachers citywide to provide dance and literacy instruction to students in prekindergarten through fifth grade.

Sundog Theatre, Inc.

to provide theater and literacy instruction to students attending five elementary schools in Staten Island.

NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project 

to document and increase the visibility of city sites that demonstrate the contributions of LGBT New Yorkers.

Municipal Art Society of New York

to research, plan, and advocate for more inclusive preservation of city culture.

Historic Districts Council, Inc.

to plan and advocate for the preservation of historic neighborhoods.

Curious about what else we fund?

Answer a few quick questions to find out what funding opportunities align with your organization’s work.

People walking around inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art.