This year, the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (NALAC) is awarding $328,000 in grants to 50 artists and organizations through three different grant programs: NALAC Fund for the Arts (NFA), Transnational Cultural Remittances Program (TCR) and Diverse Art Spaces (DAS). This marks the largest single distribution of program awards in the association’s 26-year history. In 2015, for example, some of the grants went towards strengthening social networks between the U.S., Mexico, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. Some of the awardees of the NALAC Diverse Arts Spaces Grant included entities familiar to our readers such as Ballet Hispánico, New York, NY (Partner: Stephanie Martinez); Miami Light Project, Inc., Miami, FL (Partner: Carla Forte, Natalia Lassalle Morillo, Charo Oquet and Sandra Portal-Andreu); and Pregones Theater + Puerto Rican Traveling Theater, Bronx, NY (Partner: Producciones En Equipo).

“NALAC is committed to supporting artists and organizations in all creative disciplines throughout our country and internationally,” says María López De León, NALAC Executive Director, “Each awardee represents a tremendous impact on our communities, placing Latina/o artistic and cultural expression on a path towards a more just, more equitable, and more unifying world today.”

After a competitive and rigorous process, NALAC awards grants in the US, Mexico and Central America: 20 US based Latino artists and ensembles and 11 Latino arts organizations in multiple disciplines, as well as 12 cultural exchanges in 24 communities between the U.S., Mexico, Guatemala and Panama. Seven organizations received Diverse Art Spaces awards to present or commission work by Latino artists.

NALAC Grants are designed to spur the arts field and the economy by providing financial support to Latino arts and cultural organizations and exemplary work by Latino artists. In the past ten years, NALAC has distributed more than $2 Million to the Latino arts field via 420 grants.

NALAC Fund for the Arts (NFA), established as a two-year pilot with support from Ford Foundation, continues to be the only national fund that provides a variety of grants to support U.S. based Latino artists and arts organizations in the development, creation, presentation and sustainability of artistic excellence, as well as the opportunity to participate in activities that contribute to professional and organizational growth. The 2015 NFA cycle was funded by the Ford Foundation, The Surdna Foundation, Southwest Airlines, and the City of San Antonio Department for Culture and Creative Development.

Transnational Cultural Remittances (TCR) funding, launched in 2008, supports exemplary cultural exchanges that promote grassroots artistic collaboration and strengthen social networks between the United States, Mexico, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. Since its inception, TCR has provided $456,761 dollars to 59 grantees, reaching over 100 communities. The 2015 TCR cycle was funded by the Ford Foundation and Southwest Airlines.

Diverse Art Spaces is a funding initiative open to Ford Foundation Diverse Arts Spaces organizations and to LINC Space for Change Planning and Pre-Development grantees for the presentation or commissioning of work by Latino artists and ensembles in dance, music, performance,

For more information and the list of 2015 NALAC GRANTEES, see http://nalac.org/communications/newsroom/1690-2015-nalac-grantees-announced