NEFA

Arts Service Organizations (ASOs) are essential connective tissue within the arts ecosystem. Help tell their story by taking the 2026 National ASO Survey at one of ADC Consulting's Survey Taking Parties!

Survey Taking Parties are 60-minute virtual Zoom sessions designed as informal, drop-in office hours. Organizations can complete their surveys in real time with live help from the ADC Consulting team. Registration is free and required and will remain open on a rolling basis.

At the end of each party, they will host a raffle for free services from a cohort of nonprofit consultants. Organizations who complete their survey during a Survey Taking Party will be entered twice to win!

With National Dance Project support, these 30 projects will tour. Congratulations to all of the recipients and the finalists!

NDP Advisors selected these projects from a competitive pool of 280 applicants from 34 states, as well as Washington, D.C. and Guam. Throughout the entire process, NDP Advisors remained grounded in the program criteria while uplifting representation across traditional and new dance forms and aesthetics, rigorous study/research, earnest storytelling, and commitments to community mobilization. It is because of their diligent work and care that we have a diverse cohort of grantees and finalists that reflect and strengthen the cultural and aesthetic diversities of today’s dance field.

📖 read more at the link, below.

It's National Voter Registration Day!

Made to Create. Registered to Vote. ✍️🗳️ We’re joining the movement because protecting our democracy means protecting our culture. Color outside the lines, but vote inside the box with Americans for the Arts and Arts Action Fund.

New Englanders can find voting resources, including registration deadlines and your State Art Advocacy information, on our website ⬇️

Legendary jazz double bassist, electric bassist, and composer Avery Sharpe sits down with frequent work partners Litchfield Jazz Festival/Camp to discuss his history with NEFA and as an educator at the camp.

📹 watch their submission to the People's History of NEFA at the link below ⬇️
📢 and join the celebration by sharing your story with us as part of NEFA's milestone 50th

Artist May Babcock took plant and ecology courses that informed her public art practice with Public Art Learning Fund support. Her recent work, "Seaside Chestnuts," on view at Moose Hill Farm in Sharon, MA, was a collaboration with The Trustees, The American Chestnut Foundation, and Hawk & Handsaw Farm. Photo by Doza Visuals.

📖 Read her story, below ⬇️
📅 And apply for Public Art Learning Fund support by October 13.

We're overjoyed to announce $540K awarded in 60 unsolicited and unrestricted $9K gants to a dazzling cohort of theatermakers from across the country!

A coalition of Artists and Advisors lead this grantmaking in celebration of National Theater Project’s 15 year history and elevate peers through a community grantmaking process. Join us in congratulating the ensembles, culture bearers, and partners who exemplify the spirit and goals of NTP while demonstrating excellence as identified by a community of peers, colleagues, and leaders in the field.

Read the story, below ⬇️

The Idea Swap is an annual event for New England-based nonprofit cultural organizations to network and share performing arts, literary arts, and film projects that are available for presentation in New England communities.

Join us and submit a project idea you would like to share with 150 presenters from the region. Many of the proejcts shared at Idea Swap are eligible for NEFA support.

We hope to see you October 29 at Mechanics Hall in Worcester, MA!
Learn more at the link, below. ⬇️

Chris Battaglia is a multimedia producer and social practice artist working in film/video, photography, and audio. He founded and co-leads Torchlight, a community media studio in downtown Belfast, Maine. He is a 2020 and 2025 recipient of the Public Art Learning Fund.

Join him and NEFA staff for a virtual Public Art Learning Fund info session on September 16. Register at the link, below.

Michelle de Celia received a Public Art Learning Fund grant in 2025 to pursue a self-directed residency in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, focused on Afro-Brazilian ritual arts, material culture, and community aesthetics. In "A Gathering of Echoing Voices," she describes how the experience informed her art-making and community teaching practices.

📖 read her story, below
📅and apply for Public Art Learning Fund support by October 13