Nimbus Receives Two $50K Grants and Announces Jersey City Dance Artist Relief Funding

Nimbus, Jersey City's professional dance company, school and arts center, was awarded two $50K grants by the New Jersey Arts and Culture Relief Fund.

One of the two grants will be dedicated towards the organization's fiscal sustainability during the economic crisis brought on by COVID-19. During the pandemic Nimbus lost over $300K due to cancelled performances, reduced student enrollment and cancelled program income. Nimbus employs over 20 full and part-time employees as dance artists, educators, administrators, and technicians. Pre-COVID-19, the organization served 16,000 people annually and provided regular dance classes for 4000 youth each year.

Grant funds will help ensure that Nimbus continues to provide programming during the COVID-19 pandemic, and supports rebuilding and renewal efforts community-wide later in the year.

A second $50K grant will be distributed to Jersey City artists in partnership with the Jersey City Arts Council. Nimbus will make funding and career resources available to the local dance community through the Jersey City Dance Artist Relief Funding. The Jersey City Arts Council will distribute COVID relief grants to local individual artists working across all genres.

Nimbus' Jersey City Dance Artist Relief Funding is designed to provide immediate covid relief together with resources to support the active creation of dance, as well as career development opportunities. Choreographers will be provided grants for their immediate individual needs as well as stipends to support their work and further disseminate funding to dancers, collaborators and for production costs. No less than 50% of grant funds will be awarded to Black choreographers. Artists working in all dance genres are eligible. All applicants must live and/or work in Jersey City.

Information and applications for "Jersey City Dance Artist Relief Funding" is available on Nimbus' website: www.nimbusartscenter.org. The deadline to apply is February 21. Information on Individual Artist Grants to be distributed by the Jersey City Arts Council will be announced in the coming weeks.

"We are deeply grateful for this support from the New Jersey Arts and Culture Recovery Fund," says Nimbus Artistic Director Samuel Pott, "The past year has been a seesaw for Nimbus, between periods where the possibility of survival seemed bleak and moments of hope that have brought our team together like never before. I strongly believe the arts will be critical to rebuilding our communities and our economy in the post-COVID world; we must ensure that racial and socioeconomic equity is at the foundation of the new world that emerges. Nimbus could not be more grateful for this funding which helps ensure the organization's survival and allows us to provide support to the local dance field which has been so deeply impacted."