💃🏿🙌🏿🩰💰 #ArtIsAWeapon #DancingIsFreedom Reposted from @dancetheatreofharlem - We are excited to announce we have been awarded a $4 million transformational gift from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation [@mellonfdn]! “We are eternally grateful to The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for steadfastly believing that the expression we bring to the art form is unique and necessary." -Anna Glass [@annaglass], Executive Director _________________________ 📰 via @nytimes https://nyti.ms/36T41gR: Dance Theater of Harlem will receive a $4 million gift from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the organization announced on Tuesday. The company’s board of directors will also raise $1 million as part of a matching grant agreement with the Mellon Foundation, for a total infusion of $5 million. Virginia Johnson, a founding member of Dance Theater of Harlem who was named artistic director in 2009, said the gift would go toward increasing the size of the company from 18 to 20 dancers, supplementing the organization’s lean staff and further encouraging the development of works by women and people of color... Dance Theater of Harlem was founded by the New York City Ballet star Arthur Mitchell in 1969 to increase opportunities for dancers of color in the ballet world. By 2004, it employed 44 dancers, but all were laid off that year when it was announced that the company was more than $2 million in debt. The bleeding was stanched, and by 2009, Laveen Naidu, the organization’s executive director at the time, reported that the debt had been reduced by more than half. #DanceTheaterOfHarlem #MelonFoundation #GrantAward #ArthurMitchell #Philanthropy #BlackDanceCompany #BlackDancers #BlackBallet #TraScapades #ArtIsAWeapon https://www.instagram.com/p/B7UyFrxAzAj/?igshid=tq97b7hxcapq
