Arts & Culture BFF Grantees
The foundation is committed to celebrating cultural assets of Washington, DC and its surrounding areas. The portfolio includes support for museum activities, performing arts, art as a tool for literacy, and emerging artists who use visual arts, film or social media. Priority is given to projects that use art as a tool for public dialogue and education; public celebrations of art as a way to bring the community together; and that share community-building models that integrate different segments of society and awaken civic engagement. The foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals.
For more information about the foundation’s grant-making process, visit Grant Guidelines.
2020 Arts & Culture Grantees
Inner City-Inner Child (ICIC), based in our nation’s capital, was established in 1994 as the education program of Dumbarton Concerts. Our mission is to improve the quality of early childhood education for children ages birth to five living in Washington, DC’s most economically disadvantaged communities, using the transformative power of the arts.
ICIC creates an environment that promotes school readiness for young children in our nation’s capital through innovative programming that supports their social-emotional and cognitive development through music, movement, and visual arts.
We are proud to be a six-time recipient of the Mayor’s Award for Outstanding Work in Early Childhood Education, three-time featured organization in the Catalogue for Philanthropy and four-time finalist for the Mayor’s Arts Awards for Outstanding Contribution to Arts Education—all of which are testaments to the powerful way that our arts programming opens a new world of learning to children.
The Kennedy Center has long served as a national leader in arts learning, creativity, and accessibility, and continues to move toward a future in which every community feels at home in its halls. As the nation’s cultural center, the Kennedy Center has an artistic mandate to present a wide variety of performances and a mission to inspire and educate communities in the District of Columbia and around the world. The REACH offers new avenues to creatively connect with communities and instigate collaboration between local and national artistic leaders. The Center also aims to serve as an artistic home for the Washington, D.C. community, featuring local artists on its stages and welcoming local audiences.
With its collections, exhibitions, programs, and online content, the museum seeks to inspire dynamic exchanges about art and ideas. NMWA advocates for better representation of women artists and serves as a vital center for thought leadership, community engagement, and social change. NMWA addresses the gender imbalance in the presentation of art by bringing to light important women artists of the past while promoting great women artists working today.
THEARC is a home away from home for the many underserved children and adults of East of the River, enabling them to participate in dance classes, music instruction, fine arts, academics, continuing education, mentoring, tutoring, recreation, medical and dental care, and other services at a substantially reduced cost or no cost at all.
2019 Arts & Culture Grantees
Inner City-Inner Child (ICIC), based in our nation’s capital, was established in 1994 as the education program of Dumbarton Concerts. Our mission is to improve the quality of early childhood education for children ages birth to five living in Washington, DC’s most economically disadvantaged communities, using the transformative power of the arts.
ICIC creates an environment that promotes school readiness for young children in our nation’s capital through innovative programming that supports their social-emotional and cognitive development through music, movement, and visual arts.
We are proud to be a six-time recipient of the Mayor’s Award for Outstanding Work in Early Childhood Education, three-time featured organization in the Catalogue for Philanthropy and four-time finalist for the Mayor’s Arts Awards for Outstanding Contribution to Arts Education—all of which are testaments to the powerful way that our arts programming opens a new world of learning to children.
The Kennedy Center has long served as a national leader in arts learning, creativity, and accessibility, and continues to move toward a future in which every community feels at home in its halls. As the nation’s cultural center, the Kennedy Center has an artistic mandate to present a wide variety of performances and a mission to inspire and educate communities in the District of Columbia and around the world. The REACH offers new avenues to creatively connect with communities and instigate collaboration between local and national artistic leaders. The Center also aims to serve as an artistic home for the Washington, D.C. community, featuring local artists on its stages and welcoming local audiences.
The National Gallery of Art was founded in 1937 through an agreement between Andrew W. Mellon and President Franklin D. Roosevelt to establish a national art museum in Washington, DC. Since its opening in 1941, the Gallery has fulfilled its mission of service to the American people by acquiring, exhibiting, conserving, and interpreting great works of art at the highest possible museum and scholarly standards. Approximately five million people of all ages and backgrounds visit the Gallery each year and millions more benefit from the museum’s online resources.
On March 11, 2019, the Gallery welcomed Kaywin Feldman as its fifth director. More information about the museum’s goals for the coming years is available below in the organizational leadership section.
With its collections, exhibitions, programs, and online content, the museum seeks to inspire dynamic exchanges about art and ideas. NMWA advocates for better representation of women artists and serves as a vital center for thought leadership, community engagement, and social change. NMWA addresses the gender imbalance in the presentation of art by bringing to light important women artists of the past while promoting great women artists working today.
2018 Arts & Culture Grantees
With its collections, exhibitions, programs, and online content, the museum seeks to inspire dynamic exchanges about art and ideas. NMWA advocates for better representation of women artists and serves as a vital center for thought leadership, community engagement, and social change. NMWA addresses the gender imbalance in the presentation of art by bringing to light important women artists of the past while promoting great women artists working today.
THEARC is a home away from home for the many underserved children and adults of East of the River, enabling them to participate in dance classes, music instruction, fine arts, academics, continuing education, mentoring, tutoring, recreation, medical and dental care, and other services at a substantially reduced cost or no cost at all.
2017 Arts & Culture Grantees
With its collections, exhibitions, programs, and online content, the museum seeks to inspire dynamic exchanges about art and ideas. NMWA advocates for better representation of women artists and serves as a vital center for thought leadership, community engagement, and social change. NMWA addresses the gender imbalance in the presentation of art by bringing to light important women artists of the past while promoting great women artists working today.
THEARC is a home away from home for the many underserved children and adults of East of the River, enabling them to participate in dance classes, music instruction, fine arts, academics, continuing education, mentoring, tutoring, recreation, medical and dental care, and other services at a substantially reduced cost or no cost at all.
2016 American Democracy Grantees
With its collections, exhibitions, programs, and online content, the museum seeks to inspire dynamic exchanges about art and ideas. NMWA advocates for better representation of women artists and serves as a vital center for thought leadership, community engagement, and social change. NMWA addresses the gender imbalance in the presentation of art by bringing to light important women artists of the past while promoting great women artists working today.
For more information about the new organization, Halcyon – home of Halcyon Incubator, Halcyon Arts Lab, Halcyon Dialogue and Halcyon Stage – please visit halcyonhouse.org.
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (formally called the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, and commonly referred to as the Kennedy Center) is a performing arts center located on the Potomac River, adjacent to the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C. The center, which opened September 8, 1971, is a multi-dimensional facility, and as memorial to John F. Kennedy and a cultural center, it produces a wide array of performances encompassing the genres of theater, dance, ballet, and orchestral, chamber, jazz, popular, and folk music, offers multi-media performances for adults and children, and is a nexus of arts education.
In addition to the approximately 2,000 performances held annually for audiences totaling nearly two million, the center hosts touring productions and television and radio broadcasts that, collectively, are seen by 20 million more. Now in its 45th season, the center presents music, dance and theater and supports artists in the creation of new work. With its artistic affiliate, the National Symphony Orchestra, the center’s achievements as a commissioner, producer, and nurturer of developing artists have resulted in over 200 theatrical productions, dozens of new ballets, operas, and musical works.
2015 Arts & Culture Grantees
With its collections, exhibitions, programs, and online content, the museum seeks to inspire dynamic exchanges about art and ideas. NMWA advocates for better representation of women artists and serves as a vital center for thought leadership, community engagement, and social change. NMWA addresses the gender imbalance in the presentation of art by bringing to light important women artists of the past while promoting great women artists working today.
For more information about the new organization, Halcyon – home of Halcyon Incubator, Halcyon Arts Lab, Halcyon Dialogue and Halcyon Stage – please visit halcyonhouse.org.
The Creative Coalition is the premier nonprofit, nonpartisan social and political advocacy organization of the entertainment industry. Founded in 1989 by prominent figures in the creative community, including actors Alec Baldwin, Ron Silver, Christopher Reeve, Susan Sarandon and Blair Brown, TCC educates and mobilizes leaders in the arts community on issues of public importance, specifically in the areas of First Amendment rights, arts advocacy and public education.
In addition to the approximately 2,000 performances held annually for audiences totaling nearly two million, the center hosts touring productions and television and radio broadcasts that, collectively, are seen by 20 million more. Now in its 45th season, the center presents music, dance and theater and supports artists in the creation of new work. With its artistic affiliate, the National Symphony Orchestra, the center’s achievements as a commissioner, producer, and nurturer of developing artists have resulted in over 200 theatrical productions, dozens of new ballets, operas, and musical works.