Dance Department wins NEA ‘Art Works’ grant

Kaustavi Sarkar, assistant professor of dance, is the principal investigator on a 2020-21 Art Works grant awarded to the Department of Dance.

The $10,000 National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) “Art Works” grant will support the project “Indian Dance and American Communities: Expanding Forms and Audiences.”

With the grant, the department will commission two dance works—a group work for students and a solo for Sarkar. Also, the grant will further community connections through residencies by Ananya Chatterjea, choreographer of Ananya Dance Theatre (ADT). The project will include two five-day residencies at UNC Charlotte in the upcoming academic year; community and university-based student performances; a performance of the commissioned solo; and masterclasses, scholarly symposia and public discussions.

“Art Works grants support artistically excellent projects that celebrate our creativity and cultural heritage, invite mutual respect for differing beliefs and values and enrich humanity,” stated the NEA announcement.

The 2020-21 Arts Works Grant is the third NEA grant that the Dance Department has received in the past decade: The department received a 2010-11 American Masterpieces grant to restage Martha Graham’s “Primitive Mysteries” (1931) with UNC Charlotte students and a 2015-16 Art Works grant to support a residency with the Paul Taylor 2 Company to reconstruct a lost Taylor work, “Tracer.” Associate Professor of Dance Kim Jones was the principal investigator on both grants.

Read the entire story on the College of Arts + Architecture website.