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ARTIST SUPPORT

ARCOS offers support and mentorship to independent dance artists in Austin throughout the process of supporting their practices and projects, providing logistical and creative guidance. Current artist support programs include the DADA microgrant and ARCOS Presents production mentorship.

Dance Artist Development Award



ARCOS Foundation for the Arts provides the Dance Artist Development Award (DADA) to honor independent professional dance artists in Austin seeking to deepen, expand, or refine their practices. While many grants provide funding for artistic projects, the impact of which can be quantified (for example, by measuring artists paid or audience members directly affected), this award is intended to provide dance artists the opportunity to take a risk to explore a practice- rather than product-based pursuit that may have profound, long-term effects on their creative development and work going forward. Prior recipients have used the development funds to explore new movement modalities within and outside of our community, work with mentors to strengthen their self-producing capacity, and conduct leadership training in art as social engagement and activism.





 Awardee 

Sandie Donzica

 Finalists 

Rosie DeAngelo Alisa Guardiola

 Panelists 

Cristina Goletti Karissa Royster Rulan Tangen


2018


 Awardee 

Erica Saucedo

 Finalist 

Rachel Nayer

 Panelists 

Bruno Augusto Rachel K. H. Sherertz Rosely Conz

2017

 Awardee 

Hunter Sturgis

 Finalist 

Sandie Donzica

 Panelists 

Cohdi Harrell Joy Cosculluela Jesús Cortés

2016


 Awardee 

Michael J. Love

 Finalist 

Stephanie Patrick

 Panelists 

Anjali Austin luciana achugar Catherine Cabeen



2015



 Awardee 

Lisa Hueske

 Panelists 

Ekalos Reed Gabriel Williams Krista Bower



ARCOS Presents - Producing Creative Risk-Taking - Applications Open May 31 ARCOS Presents is a production mentorship and laboratory designed to prepare artists to be nimble, courageous, and willing to take creative risks by tackling difficult ideas in new ways. We aim to support Austin-based “emerging-into-self-producing” dance artist at any stage of their choreographic practice. Image behind text shows a dramatically lit dancer with shoulder-length brown hair and beige skin wearing tan underwear, facing away from us seated inside the wooden frame of a large oval mirror, their face in the reflection gazing intensely. Applicants should be interested in experimentation and making art that is resilient to the ongoing changes we will all continue to face. We invite dance artists thinking genre-expanding, unconventional, multidisciplinary, and risky directions. Image behind text shows a dancer with dark brown skin and a large black beard and afro, wearing a gray suit jacket over black shirt and pants and bracelet, standing with head pointed up, eyes closed, and arm extended. Lab program will produce two artists: one full-length piece already in development and one short-form work-in-progress. Image behind text shows a dancer with light brown skin and black hair wearing an orange shirt, pink sweatpants, and white sneakers, frozen in a shoulder stand with legs up in the air. They are in a pool of white light surrounded by blue light, with yellow string lights in the background. Awardees receive financial support including artist stipend, production budget, studio rehearsal space, technical inventory access, and performance venue rental. Additionally, mentorship provides awardees creative thought partnering, production and technical support, and audience and press outreach. Timeline: May 31 - Applications open, June 30 - Applications close, July–August - Creation period, September - Performance presentation Image divided into four sections: In one, text reads ARCOS Presents previous awardees. An image labeled “Anxious 20yr Olds (2017)” shows a dancer with light brown skin and long curly black hair wearing beige underwear facing away from us in a bathtub, watching two dancers with brown skin and curly dark hair wearing different shades of red standing close together facing each other. The wall and floor are white, with an exposed ceiling of wood and metal. An image labeled “Michael J. Love (2019)” shows a dancer with dark brown skin and large black beard and afro, wearing black tank top, slacks, and white tap shoes reaches toward a device on a metal stool. A microphone points at the ground and everything is bathed in blue light, with a close-up of dirt projected in the background. An image labeled “Angelica Monteiro (2023)” shows a dancer with brown skin and shoulder-length dark hair wearing a white shirt covered in black handwriting, orange sweatpants and white sneakers, arms and head raised and knee and foot touching the ground. Behind the lit up dancer is a house made from a large cardboard box and a dozen audience members sitting in the dark a short distance away. Questions: a@arcosdance.com - Application: arcosdance.com/arcos-presents

︎ ARCOS, Faith Davis, Uli García Vela, Sarah Annie Navarrete
ARCOS believes in relational, rather than transactional, practices of sharing resources, knowledge, and care. ARCOS Presents is a production mentorship and laboratory designed to prepare artists to be nimble, courageous, and willing to take creative risks by tackling difficult ideas in new ways. We aim to support Austin-based “emerging-into-self-producing” dance artists at any stage of their choreographic practices.

Applicants should be interested in experimentation and making art that is resilient to the ongoing changes we will all continue to face. We invite dance artists thinking in genre-expanding, unconventional, multidisciplinary, and risky directions. The lab program will produce two artists: one full-length piece already in development and one short-form work-in-progress.

Awardees receive financial support, including artist stipend, production budget, studio rehearsal space, technical inventory access, and performance venue rental. Additionally, mentorship provides awardees creative thought partnering, production and technical support, and audience and press outreach.

PROGRAM TIMELINE

May 31 - Applications open
June 30 - Applications close
July–August - Creation period
September - Performance presentation

Fiscal Sponsorship

Previously, ARCOS served as a nonprofit fiscal sponsor primarily to Austin-based artists by providing financial management and administrative support for municipal arts grants. Since the City of Austin Cultural Arts Division launched revised funding programs that no longer require fiscal sponsorship for application, this is no longer one of ARCOS’ currently offered forms of arts service. 


Past fiscally sponsored artists and projects include Magdalena Jarkowiec’s In Here at Fusebox Festival (2018) and Us Kids Are Alone In The House at Salvage Vanguard Theater (2016), Millie Heckler’s SoulFunktion Yes Body summer dance parties (2018), Esther Bramlett’s Articulate Austin Series (2019), and Michael J. Love’s virtual-hybrid Beatbox Series (2020-21).