National Emergency Grants Program for Dancers

From Rauschenberg Dancer Emergency Grants – 

Are you a professional dancer in dire financial emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its continued impact? You may be eligible for a one-time grant of up to $5,000. Dancers must demonstrate an urgent and critical need for emergency support in order to apply. Dire financial emergencies include the lack or imminent endangerment of essentials such as housing, medicine/healthcare, utilities, and food. 

New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), in partnership with the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, has opened the fourth cycle of its Rauschenberg Dancer Emergency Grants program, which provides one-time grants of up to $5,000 to professional dancers in need who have a dire financial emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its continued impact. You must demonstrate an urgent and critical need for emergency support in order to apply.

​​Dire financial emergencies include the lack or imminent endangerment of essentials such as housing, medicine/healthcare, utilities, and food. If you were displaced due to COVID, expenses to enable you to return to your working home base are eligible. You can request funding for eligible expenses for up to a three-month period, ranging from four months before the grant deadline through four months after the grant deadline. 

To be eligible, your average adjusted gross income for the last two years you’ve filled tax returns must be no greater than $75,000 ($150,000 for joint filers). You must also demonstrate recent and sustained activity as a paid dancer in public-facing performances (inactivity, or online/streamed activity, during the COVID period is acceptable).

CYCLE 4

For Emergency Expenses between March 1 and December 31, 2022

Applications Close: August 19, 2022, 11:59 PM EDT

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to the NYFA Grants team at emergencyfunds@nyfa.org or 212-366-6900 x 239.