“For an organization our size, you have to be so nimble,” executive director Kelly Hargraves said. “Because we’re dancers, we know how to pivot. And we have to pivot every single year based on which grant we did get and didn’t get, and change what we’re doing and not doing.”
— Kelly Hargraves, Executive Director, quoted in the Los Angeles Times, July 30, 2025
Dear Friends,
This week’s Los Angeles Times featured Dance Camera West in its coverage of the sweeping NEA funding cuts affecting L.A.’s dance scene, referencing that DCW’s $15,000 NEA grant, received for our VISIBILITY production fund to support emerging, underrepresented dance filmmakers, was terminated.
Due to the new changes in the NEA guidelines for project grants, our Visibility commissioning project no longer meets the NEA Project Grant criteria, and thus we are unable to apply to commission new works in 2026.
DCW, like most arts organizations, relies on grants for funding. Any cuts are difficult to replace.
This NEA funding is a very vital part of DCW’s mission to Prepare; Produce: Present dance films for and by Los Angeles artists.
To continue our mission to expand and present work made by the diverse and expansive community of dance artists in Los Angeles, we will need to ask for your help.
