The Capitol Ballet: 1970s Funding
1971
December
- The Capitol Ballet Guild received $14,000 ($99,938.91 in 2022) from the National Endowment for the Arts through their new “expansion arts” funding program headed by Van Whitfield, the first Black program director for the National Endowment. As Whitfield described them, the purpose of these grants are to “escape the stigma of the elitist arts. We are seeking creative groups, programs and individuals in both urban and rural areas, not just established art centers of group art projects….My area is to look for valid innovations in the arts and start funding them.” The grants focused in particular on popular arts and underserved communities with many of the programs supporting Black artists and other people of color including Mexican-Americans, Native Americans, and Puerto Ricans.
1973
- The Capitol Ballet Guild received $21,700 ($142,856.38 in 2022) from the Expansion Arts Program of the National Endowment for the Arts.
1976
- In 1976, Capitol Ballet received a grant from the National Arts Endowment for $5,200 ($26,712.46 in 2022).
More about the National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government by an act of the U.S. Congress, signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson on September 29, 1965 (20 U.S.C. 951). The foundation consists of the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
The NEA has its offices in Washington, D.C. It was awarded Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre in 1995, as well as the Special Tony Award in 2016. In 1985, the NEA won an honorary Oscar from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for its work with the American Film Institute in the identification, acquisition, restoration and preservation of historic films. In 2016 and again in 2017, the National Endowment for the Arts received Emmy nominations from the Television Academy in the Outstanding Short Form Nonfiction or Reality Series category.
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