New York Foundation for the Arts

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The New York Foundation for the Arts^[1] was created by the New York State Council on the Arts in 1971. It gives grants to individual artists and writers and developing arts organizations.

Mission
The New York Foundation for the Arts' mission is to empower artists at critical stages in their creative lives.

History
NYFA was established in 1971 by the New York State Council on the Arts as an independent organization to facilitate the development of the individual artist throughout the state. NYFA's ability to provide Fiscal Sponsorship to individual artists and emerging organizations was established in 1976, and NYFA currently sponsors more than 368 Artists' Projects and 52 Emerging Organizations, in addition to supporting many others through its core programs.

In 1984, NYFA began overseeing and distributing Artists' Fellowships along with its public service component, Artists & Audiences. The Fellowship program has since expanded to award direct grants to New York State artists in sixteen disciplines—eight per year on a rotating basis—and has awarded more than $23.9 million to 3,688 artists since the program’s inception. Past recipients include subsequent winners of the Pulitzer Prize, the Tony Award, the Academy Award (Oscar), Guggenheim Fellowships, MacArthur Fellowships, and many other honors. Through NYFA's grant programs and fiscal sponsorship, more than $6.6 million is now awarded annually to artists and arts organizations.

With its roots beginning in the early 1990s with ArtsWire (www.artswire.org), NYFA online services were launched in November 2002. This web site now serves more than 120,000 unique visitors monthly, with over 3.8 million visitors accessing information in FY2007. NYFA Source, a free, searchable online database of funding and other resources, serves more than 10,000 artists monthly in the visual, performing, media and literary arts nationwide. NYFA Learning also offers professional development opportunities through the Business of Art conferences and Leaders Circles program for arts professionals.

Other highlights from NYFA’s past include its leadership of the New York Arts Recovery Fund, which distributed nearly $5M to 135 organizations and 352 individuals in New York City after September 11, 2001; the development of the Artists in the School Community program; and participation in many important studies by the Urban Institute and other research centers.

Today, NYFA continues its history of serving artists, the arts community, donors, and the broader public, following 36 years of responding to the changing needs of the arts community in New York State. NYFA is proud to provide organizational strength and a record of solid leadership in its many roles as grantor, fiscal sponsor, community leader, and professional resource for the extensive constituency of artists, arts organizations and communities in New York and beyond.

NYFA Artists
Since 1985, NYFA has supported more than 5,000 artists through merit-based programs, including Artists' Fellowships, Fiscal Sponsorship, The Catalogue Project, and BUILD.

Among them you’ll find filmmakers, writers, painters, composers, choreographers, and more. Each began with a creative vision, needing only freedom, time, and reassurance to transfer that inspiration onto canvas, reel, paper or stage. Some of these names include-
Ross Bleckner (1985 Fellow, Painting)
Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio (1985, 1987, 1998, NYFA Fellows, Architecture)
David Henry Hwang (1985 NYFA Fellow, Playwriting)
Barbara Kopple (1985 NYFA Fellow, Film)
Barbara Kruger (1985 Fellow, Inter-Arts)
Spike Lee (1985 NYFA Fellow, Film)
Audre Lord (1985 Poetry Fellow)
Meredith Monk (1985, 1996 NYFA Fellow in Music Composition, Choreography)
Julie Taymor (1985 NYFA Fellow, Performance Art)
Betty Woodman (1985 NYFA Fellow, Crafts)
Ida Applebroog (1986 NYFA Fellow, Graphics & 1990, Painting)
Billy Collins (1986 Fellow, Poetry)
Oscar Hijuelos (1986 NYFA Fellow, Fiction)
Terry McMillan (1986 NYFA Fellow, Fiction)
Elizabeth Streb (1986, 1990, 1994, & 2002 NYFA Fellow, Choreography)
Carroll Dunham (1987 Fellow, Painting)
David Hammons (1987 NYFA Fellow, Sculpture)
Tony Kushner (1987 NYFA Fellow, Playwriting)
Sherrie Levine (1987 Fellow, Painting)
Andres Serrano (1987 Photography Fellow)
A.M. Homes (1988 NYFA Fellow, Fiction)
Aaron Jay Kernis (1988 NYFA Fellow, Music Composition)
Donald Margulies (1988 NYFA Fellow, Playwriting)
Marilyn Minter (1988 & 1992 Painting Fellow)
Mira Nair (1988 NYFA Fellow, Film)
Pepon Osorio (1988, 1995 NYFA Fellow, Sculpture)
Jose Rivera (1988 NYFA Fellow, Screenwriting)
George Tsontakis (1988 NYFA Fellow, Music Composition)
Maryann De Leo (1989 NYFA Fellow, Video)
Elliot Goldenthal (1989 NYFA Fellow, Music Composition)
Reginald Hudlin (1989 Fellow, Film)
Todd Haynes (1989 Film Fellow, 1990 Fiscally Sponsored artist)
Suzan-Lori Parks (1990 NYFA Fellow, Playwriting)
Phillip Lopate (1991 Nonficiton Fellow)
Tamara Jenkins (1995 Fellow, Film)
Antony Hegarty (1997 NYFA Fellow, Performance Art)
Zana Briski (1998 & 2004 NYFA Fellow, Photography)
Kimberly Peirce (1998 NYFA Fiscally Sponsored Artist)
Doug Aitken (2000 Fellow, Video)
Julia Glass (2000 NYFA Fellow, Fiction)
Nathaniel Kahn (2000 NYFA Fiscally Sponsored Artist)