NALAC Fund for the Arts invests $232,000 in Artistic Projects Taking Place in 2018

The National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (NALAC) announces its latest cohort of 28 artists and 12 organizations receiving financial support from the NALAC Fund for the Arts (NFA), the only national grant program supporting Latino artists and organizations in all creative disciplines. These 40 recipients are recognized for artistic excellence in pursuit of social justice through the arts.

The NALAC Fund for the Arts is a highly-competitive grant program open to Latinx artists, ensembles, and Latinx arts organizations in the United States and Puerto Rico. (Latinx is a gender-neutral term increasingly used in lieu of Latino or Latina). For this 12th funding cycle, upwards of 300 applications were reviewed via a national peer-review panel process evaluating artistic merit, funding impact, and capability.

Notably, the first-ever recipient of the NFA Adán Medrano Legacy Award in Film ($10,000) is filmmaker André Perez for the project America in Transition, a trans-led documentary series intended to shift the cultural climate for transgender people in communities of color and in rural environments.

This year's NFA Mentorship Artist Grant ($15,000) invests in Latinos in the classical music field and supports composer Gabriela Lena Frank and mentee Marco-Adrián Ramos in the creation of two major four-hand suites for piano centering techniques and folklore stemming from the artists' Peruvian and Mexican heritages.

Artists and organizations supported in this 12th funding cycle reside across the country not only in large urban centers such as San Francisco and Philadelphia but also communities such as Cary, NC; Kalamazoo, MI; and Tulsa, OK. They self-identify diversely: Xicano/Indeh, Salvadoran, Chicano, Afro-Latinx, Peruana-Latina, Mexican, Puerto Rican, Argentine, Nicaraguan, and Cuban. This year's cohort includes five San Antonio artists receiving NFA San Antonio Artist Grants ($5,400).

Meet each of the award recipients in this downloadable PDF. This information is also available on the NALAC website: click to view artists and view organizations.

"Our newest NALAC Fund for the Arts grantees represent the possibilities of a more equitable future for Latinx people in the United States," said NALAC President & CEO María López de León. "NALAC is committed to directly supporting artists who continue to create new work amplifying the stories of our diverse communities and identities. Likewise, we champion and advocate for Latino arts organizations that create safe spaces for expression in these uncertain times."

To date, NALAC has awarded over 500 grants to the Latino arts and cultures field, reflecting an investment of $2.5 million across 35 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and México. NALAC has also supported transnational partnerships, most recently through our Transnational Cultural Remittances Travel Awards that allowed artists to collaborate with peers in Mexico, Costa Rica, and Cuba.

The NALAC Fund for the Arts was launched in 2005 with major support from the Ford Foundation. This year's NALAC Fund for the Arts grants are made possible with generous support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Ford Foundation, Southwest Airlines, Surdna Foundation, Nathan Cummings Foundation, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, City of San Antonio Department of Arts and Culture, and the Donor Collaborative of the Adán Medrano Legacy Award.

Download PDF Booklet featuring Grantees

NALAC Fund for the Arts Grantees

Mentorship Artist Grant
Gabriela Lena Frank & Marco-Adrián Ramos, Music | Boonville, CA

Adán Medrano Legacy Award in Film Winner
André Pérez, Media Arts | Chicago, IL

Artist Grant
Adrienne Dawes, Theatre | Tulsa, OK
Alfredo Alcántara and Isabel Alcántara, Media Arts | Brooklyn, NY
Anima Vox Duo, Music | Greensboro, NC
Arlene Martinez-Vasquez, Theatre | Seattle, WA
Dafnis Prieto Big Band, Music | Hollywood, FL
David Rios Ferreira, Visual Arts | Jersey City, NJ
Gabriel Garcia Roman, Visual Arts | New York, NY
ire'ne lara silva, Literature | Austin, TX
Karina Aguilera Skvirsky, Visual Arts | Jersey City, NJ
Lalo Alcaraz, Multidisciplinary | Whittier, CA
Lauren M. Pacheco, Visual Arts | Gary, IN
Milta Ortiz, Theatre | Tucson, AZ
Patricia Villalobos Echeverría, Interdisciplinary | Kalamazoo, MI
Rose Cano - eSe Teatro, Multidisciplinary | Seattle, WA
Sol Aramendi, Multidisciplinary | Long Island City, NY
Suzy Gonzalez, Luz Calvo, Catriona Rueda Esquibel, Visual Arts | San Antonio, TX
Team Sunshine Performance Corporation, Theatre | Philadelphia, PA
Vanessa Sanchez and La Mezcla, Dance | San Francisco, CA
Violeta Luna, Interdisciplinary | San Francisco, CA
Yancy Villa-Calvo, Multidisciplinary | Memphis, TN
Zeke Peña, Media Arts | El Paso, TX

San Antonio Artist Grant
Bonnie Ilza Cisneros, Multidisciplinary
David Zamora Casas AKA Nuclear Meltdown, Visual Arts
Fernando Andrade, Visual Arts
Jesse Ruiz, Visual Arts
Juan Tejeda, Music

Organization Grant
Artes de México en Utah, Interdisciplinary | Salt Lake City, UT
Cardboard House Press, Literature | Phoenix, AZ
Conjunto Heritage Taller, Music | San Antonio, TX
CONTRA-TIEMPO, Dance | Los Angeles, CA
Creative Kids, Art Education | El Paso, TX
Diamante, Inc, Multidisciplinary | Cary, NC
El Ballet Folklorico Estudiantil, Folk/Traditional Arts | Flint, MI
Latin@s in Heritage Conservation, Interdisciplinary | San Antonio, TX
Latino Public Broadcasting, Media Arts | Burbank, CA
Power Street Theatre Company, Theatre | Philadelphia, PA
Quinteto Latino, Music | Menlo Park, CA
Teatro Vivo, Theatre | Austin, TX

Supporters This year's NALAC Fund for the Arts grants are made possible with generous support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Ford Foundation, Southwest Airlines, Surdna Foundation, Nathan Cummings Foundation, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, City of San Antonio Department of Arts and Culture, and the Donor Collaborative of the Adán Medrano Legacy Award.

The National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (NALAC) is the nation's premier nonprofit organization exclusively dedicated to the promotion, advancement, development, and cultivation of the Latino arts field. In this capacity, NALAC stimulates and facilitates intergenerational dialogues among disciplines, languages, and traditional and contemporary expressions.

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