Teatro Dallas and the Welman Project in Fort Worth are among 112 organizations nationwide recommended for awards under ArtsHERE, the National Endowment for the Arts announced.

ArtsHERE is a new pilot program in partnership with South Arts and in collaboration with the other five U.S. Regional Arts Organizations, designed to expand access to arts participation across the nation.

The Endowment said the nonprofit organizations are recommended for non-matching grants of $65,000 to $130,000, totaling $12.356 million, to fund specific projects that will strengthen the organizations’ capacity to sustain meaningful community engagement and increase arts participation for underserved groups and communities.
Grant recipients will also take part in peer-learning and technical assistance opportunities, and the NEA will report on lessons learned from this initiative.

“The National Endowment for the Arts is thrilled to provide resources to a group of exceptional organizations through ArtsHERE, a program to help deepen meaningful and lasting arts engagement in underserved communities,” Maria Rosario Jackson, chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, said in a statement. “Everyone should be able to live an artful life, and ArtsHERE is an important step in ensuring we are strengthening our nation’s arts ecosystem to make this a reality.”

Teatro Dallas to get support for its theatrical community mission

For more than three decades, Teatro Dallas has addressed systemic barriers within the arts, particularly those affecting low-income, bilingual families and underrepresented artists. Through high-quality theatrical programming, Teatro Dallas employs the power of theater to empower the Latinx community, celebrate diverse traditions, and strengthen the community, ArtsHERE said. Teatro Dallas was recommended for $74,000; the Endowment said the ArtsHERE grant will support strategic planning, board development, innovative marketing strategies, and stakeholder engagement to better reach the shifting demographics and Spanish speaking communities of North Texas. 

The Welman Project connects teachers and schools with surplus materials

In Fort Worth, the Welman Project was recommended for $74,900. The organization will use the grant to support strategic planning and cultural competency training to help The Welman Project open its tool library and makerspace as part of the future Fred Rouse Center for Arts and Community Healing, which was formerly used as a KKK auditorium, in a majority Hispanic community. The Welman Project connects teachers and schools with surplus materials from businesses, promoting creative reuse and sustainability in education. The organization seeks to enrich arts learning experiences while reducing waste and fostering environmental stewardship.

The endowment said that historically underserved groups and communities—those whose opportunities to experience the arts have been limited by factors such as geography, race or ethnicity, economics, or disability—frequently report lower rates of participation in various arts activities than other groups do.

The NEA said that recommended grant recipients are from all 50 states, the District of Columbia,Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

“We’re very excited to work with these organizations on their projects,” South Arts President and CEO Susie Surkamer said in a statement. “The arts are essential to the fabric of our nation, and at the heart of this necessity are the organizations and individuals who champion them. Through ArtsHERE, we are excited to continue expanding and enriching the arts landscape both nationally and within these unique local communities.”

More than 4,000 organizations applied for ArtsHERE funding in late 2023 and early 2024, the NEA said. Those applications were reviewed by multiple review panels based on published review criteria, including the applicant’s organizational capacity and their capacity-building project, alignment with ArtsHERE’s commitment to equity, and engagement with historically underserved communities.

NEA said the selected organizations will receive funding to support their projects, which will take place between October 2024 through June 2026.

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