Dance/USA Honors Gina Gibney with the 2017 Ernie Award!

Dance/USA is thrilled to announce that Gibney Dance Founder, Artistic Director, & CEO Gina Gibney will receive Dance/USA's 'Ernie' Award at the 2017 Annual Conference in Kansas City! The 'Ernie' Award honors individuals working in the dance field whose achievements have significantly empowered artists and supported their creativity individually or as a community.

"I'm thrilled that the Dance/USA Ernie Award will go to Gina Gibney, a pioneering leader in the dance field. We look forward to celebrating Gina and all our 2017 Honorees this June at the Dance/USA Annual Conference in Kansas City." - Amy Fitterer, Dance/USA Executive Director
Gina Gibney is a choreographer, director, and entrepreneur. She founded Gibney Dance in 1991 as a performing and social action dance company, which has today emerged as a cultural leader in the arts and social justice fields. Gibney was recently named to the Out100 2016 list of influential members of the LGBT community, and in 2008 she was named to the Vanity Fair Hall of Fame for "making art and taking action." She is a frequent panelist and speaker on topics of dance, entrepreneurship, and arts-community partnerships and serves on a number of cultural boards and advisory groups.

Foundation Support
Altman Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Barbara Bell Cumming Foundation, Booth Ferris Foundation, Bossak/Heilbron Charitable Foundation, Dance and New Media Foundation, The David Rockefeller Fund, Dextra Baldwin McGonagle Foundation, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Dubose & Dorothy Heyward Fund, The Gramercy Park Foundation, The Harkness Foundation for Dance, Howard Gilman Foundation, The Hyde and Watson Foundation, James E. Robison Foundation, Jerome Robbins Foundation, Jewish Communal Fund, Jody and John Arnhold, Joseph & Joan Cullman Foundation for the Arts, Liberty Fund, Lily Auchincloss Foundation, Inc., The Mary Duke Biddle Foundation, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, The New York City Cultural Agenda Fund in The New York Community Trust, The New York Community Trust - Lila Acheson Wallace Fund for the Arts, The New York Community Trust - LuEsther T. Mertz Advised Fund, New York University Community Fund, O'Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation, The Ready Foundation, The RYL Charitable Fund, The Scherman Foundation's Katherine S. and Axel G. Rosin Fund, the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation, The SHS Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, and Stavros Niarchos Foundation. Gibney Dance receives additional support through the matching gift programs of Macy's, The Moody's Foundation, Morgan Stanley Foundation and The Open Society Foundations.

Corporate Support
American Australian Association, Aspiriant LLC, Bloomingdale's, BoardLead, Con Edison, Credit Suisse, EILEEN FISHER, Fram Realty LLC/Abro Management Corporation, Goldman Sachs, Kennedy Berg LLP, Kirkland & Ellis LLP, Macy's Merchandising Group, MG & Company, Morgan Stanley, New York Health & Racquet Club, Pfizer Foundation, Reed Smith LLP, Spectrum, Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, and Wyndham Worldwide Corporation.

Government Support
Gibney Dance has received generous support from The City of New York & The Honorable Mayor Bill De Blasio, The New York City Council & The Honorable Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, The Honorable City Council Member Margaret Chin, The Honorable Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and The Honorable Tom Finkelpearl, Materials for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, the New York Council for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Embassy of the United States, Dar es Salaam.

Photo by Christopher Duggan.