Heidi Duckler Dance Awarded California Arts Council Grants

On Wednesday the California Arts Council announced a grant award $150,000 Heidi Duckler Dance (HDD) as part of its Creative California Communities program, $50,000 as part of its JUMP StArts program, as well as grant awards for Artists in Communities, Local Impact, Veterans in the Arts, Youth Arts Action and support for professional and organizational development.

Creative California Communities supports meaningful, collaborative, creative placemaking projects that animate, activate, and celebrate communities. Projects support community goals and encourage increased engagement in arts and cultural activities with community members. This program is the California Arts Council's most competitive, awarding grants on a two-year cycle.

Heidi Duckler Dance (HDD) is one of 40 grantees chosen for the Creative California Communities program and with the support from the California Arts Council, HDD will partner with the office of LA County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, Charles R Drew University of Medicine and Science and other local community-based organizations to expand its creative placemaking project, Move Well @ MLK, to public spaces in and around the MLK Medical Campus. The project's goal is to promote health and wellness through creative cultural storytelling and movement in Willowbrook.

JUMP StArts supports high-quality arts education and artists-in-residence programs for youth engaged in the juvenile justice system. These may be students who have been arrested, are on probation, or are incarcerated at a juvenile justice facility. Projects must be designed and developed in partnership between an arts organization and a juvenile justice facility or social service organization. The program mobilizes partnerships between arts organizations and juvenile justice entities to create arts-learning opportunities that foster positive socio-emotional, behavioral, academic, and developmental outcomes for system-engaged youth.

Heidi Duckler Dance (HDD) is one of 51 grantees chosen for the JUMP StArts program and with the support of the California Arts Council, HDD will conduct movement-based, creative health and wellness workshops with the youth at the Ventura Youth Correctional Facility (VYCF) - a state juvenile facility in the California State Division of Juvenile Justice - in Camarillo. The workshops will culminate in performances by the youth participants and HDD's company dancers for the VYCF youth and facility staff.

Heidi Duckler Dance's awards were featured as part of a larger announcement from the California Arts Council, with grant funds totaling a projected $24,508,541 for 2018-19, the highest investment in statewide arts programming since the 2000-01 fiscal year.

"Arts and culture are inextricably linked to our humanity," said Nashormeh Lindo, California Arts Council Chair. "They serve as a universal touchpoint for understanding and addressing our societal issues-dismantling inequity, healing trauma, reframing justice, inspiring truth and shaping futures. The Council is humbled to support the vital work of Heidi Duckler Dance and its passionate efforts to make a better California for us all."