National Endowment for the Arts FY 2017 Fall Grant Announcement

Folk & Traditional Arts
Number of Grants: 47 Total Dollar Amount: $1,457,000
African Caribbean Dance Theatre, Inc. (aka ACDT)
$20,000 Tallahassee, FL
To support the Florida African Dance Festival. Immigrant artists from Guinea, Senegal, Mali, Cote d'Ivoire, and
the Democratic Republic of the Congo will offer performances and instruction in traditional African dance and
drumming. Students will learn the dance vocabulary, rhythms, and cultural significance of dances and drumming
from the African nations represented by the instructors. A special dance workshop for children is planned, as is a
free wheelchair dance class for individuals with mobility and balance issues.
Anindo Chatterjee Institute of Tabla (aka ACIT Seattle)
$10,000 Seattle, WA
To support the Access to Ustads Project. The project is a series of performances and workshops featuring master
musicians of Hindustani music. As many as four master musicians will perform concerts featuring the violin,
sitar, sarod and tabla. The master artists also will present lectures and offer workshops designed for student and
professional musicians. The concerts are scheduled for centrally located venues in King County, Washington.
Appalachian State University
$25,000 Boone, NC
To support a series of programs exploring the influence of various cultural groups on the banjo and fiddle music
of the United States. Scholars and musicians will present concerts, lectures, and workshops demonstrating how
the interaction between various cultural groups-including African, African American, Native American, French,
and Judaic-have influenced banjo and fiddle traditions. The programs will be recorded and the documentation
deposited at the university.
Asian Americans United, Inc. (aka AAU)
$10,000 Philadelphia, PA
To support the Chinatown Mid-Autumn Festival. The event will offer a variety of traditional Chinese performing
arts including opera, traditional instrumental music, acrobatics, and martial arts. Additionally, traditional crafts
such as lantern making, kite construction and calligraphy will be demonstrated. Other Asian-American
communities also will demonstrate their arts. The festival will conclude with a Lion Dance and lantern parade
through Philadelphia's Chinatown.
Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation (aka Blue Ridge Music Center)
$15,000 Winston Salem, NC
To support Roots of American Music Concert Series. The traditional music of the Southern Appalachians
(bluegrass, blues, gospel, and old time music) will be celebrated in a series of performances by local and regional
artists. In addition to the performances, scholars and artists will offer lectures and workshops for instrumental
techniques, as well as flatfoot dance styles. The presentations are scheduled for the Blue Ridge Music Center
and locations adjacent to the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Center for Art, Tradition and Cultural Heritage (aka CATCH)
$25,000 New York, NY
To support Beyond the Wall: Reclaiming Performance Traditions and Identities in the Post-Soviet Diaspora.
Folklorists and ethnomusicologists will conduct fieldwork to identify and document traditional artists from the
former Soviet Union, now living in New York City. A series of lectures and performances, scheduled for the
Some details of the projects listed are subject to change, contingent upon prior Arts Endowment approval. Information is current as of
December 7, 2016.