Moody Fund For The Arts Awards

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Moody Arts Fund grants to 47 groups
Soul Rep photo by Anyika McMillan-Herod

Moody Fund For The Arts Awarded $175,000 In grants

The Moody Fund for the Arts (MFA) awarded $175,000 in grants to 47 small Dallas arts organizations. In its second year, the Fund is awarding $25,000 more than last year. They also added 11 first-time recipients. The maximum amount awarded for grants this year was $5,000. The projects represent theatre, music, visual art, dance, film, the written word and more.

The grants support a strong cross section of the many small and emerging organizations in the vibrant cultural ecosystem of the nation’s ninth-largest city.

“Dallas has become a vibrant, creative hub for culture across a wide range of art forms,” said Francie Moody-Dahlberg, executive director and chairman of the Moody Foundation. In 2017, the Foundation endowed the Moody Fund for the Arts with a $10 million gift. “We are thrilled that the fund is able to support so many diverse and exciting projects in the Arts District, and across Dallas.”

Moody Arts Fund
Dallas Spark Music Camp

MFA was created to provide grants to small and emerging Dallas arts groups supported by the City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs with annual budgets under $1 million. This year’s grants will include funding assistance for world premieres, commissions and diversity projects, and some will provide general operating support. The selected projects comprise a wide range of genres, as well as ethnic and culturally specific groups, many targeting culturally underserved communities. Performance venues include Moody Performance Hall, the City’s cultural centers, community spaces and neighborhoods across Dallas.

2019 Moody Fund for the Arts Award Recipients

Academy of Bangla Arts and Culture • American Baroque Opera Company • Arga Nova Dance Co. • Avant Chamber Ballet • Bandan Koro African Drum & Dance Ensemble • Bruce Wood Dance • Cara Mía Theatre Co. • Chamber Music International • Children’s Chorus of Greater Dallas • Color Me Empowered • Creative Arts Center of Dallas • Cry Havoc Theater Company • Dallas Chamber Symphony • Dallas Film Society • Dallas Metroplex Musicians Association • Dallas SPARK • Dance Council of North Texas • Deep Vellum Publishing • Fine Arts Chamber Players • Flamenco Fever • Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra • Indian Cultural Heritage Foundation • Junior Players Guild • Kitchen Dog Theater Company • Make Art with Purpose • Metropolitan Winds • New Texas Symphony Orchestra • Orchestra of New Spain • Orpheus Chamber Singers • Over the Bridge Arts • Sammons Center for the Arts • Shakespeare Dallas • Soul Rep Theatre Company • South Dallas Concert Choir • Teatro Dallas • Teatro Flor Candela • Terrance M. Johnson Dance Project • Texas Winds Musical Outreach • The Artist Outreach • The Women’s Chorus of Dallas • The Writer’s Garret • Turtle Creek Chorale • Undermain Theatre •Uptown Players • USA Film Festival • Video Association of Dallas • WordSpace

Award decisions were made after an extensive peer review of all the applications, budgets and materials by the 2019 MFA Advisory Review Panel. Members were Ian Derrer, The Dallas Opera; Ella Goode-Johnson, Arts and Culture Advisory Commission; Diana Marquis, Catapult Fundraising; Jeffrey Schmidt, Theatre Three; and Justin Urso, Texas Ballet Theater. Their recommendations were then reviewed by the MFA Executive Committee: Tracy Preston, The Neiman Marcus Group; Gail Sachson, Community Arts Leader;• and Jennifer Scripps, City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs.

Moody Fund for the Arts

The Moody Fund for the Arts is a $10 million endowment that is part of a $22 million gift from the Moody Foundation to the arts in Dallas, including a $12 million gift to the AT&T Performing Arts Center’s capital campaign. In recognition of the generosity of the Galveston-based Moody Foundation, the City of Dallas renamed Dallas City Performance Hall in the Dallas Arts District to Moody Performance Hall. The Center’s staff provides administrative support for the fund. More information can be found on the MFA website, moodyartsfund.org.

Moody Foundation

The Moody Foundation was established in 1942 by William L. Moody Jr. and his wife, Libbie Rice Shearn Moody to share their good fortune and make a difference in the lives of the people of Texas. Since then, the Moody Foundation has made more than $1.5 billion in grants throughout the state to organizations that have educated, healed, nurtured and inspired generations of Texans.

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Jo Ann Holt
Jo Ann Holt is an award-winning journalist with 40+ years of experience as a writer and editor. She loves live performances, from country music concerts to Broadway musicals to community theatre productions. Holt also enjoys art and cultural festivals, and good food and wine. She’s toured Amsterdam, London, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, and various cities in Mexico but looks forward to visiting even more countries. She has traveled by boat, plane, and train, but especially likes taking long road trips across the U.S. with her husband, retired history professor Durhl Caussey. They enjoy meeting friendly people, learning about different cultures, and visiting historic sites wherever they go.