Green Box Snags $25,000 Grant From National Endowment for the Arts

Green Box has been approved for a $25,000 Grants for Arts Projects award from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to support Ballet Hispánico at this summer’s Green Box Arts Festival, set for June 18 – July 4.

The grant will provide multiple public performances, dance classes and travel to communities throughout southern Colorado to provide community engagement during their residency. Green Box’s grant is one of only three provided to organizations in Southern Colorado, among the 1,125 projects across America totaling more than $26.6 million selected during the second round of Grants for Arts Projects fiscal year 2022 funding.

“The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to support arts and cultural organizations throughout the nation with these grants, including Green Box, providing opportunities for all of us to live artful lives,” said NEA Chair Maria Rosario Jackson, PhD. “The arts contribute to our individual well-being, the well-being of our communities, and to our local economies. The arts are also crucial to helping us make sense of our circumstances from different perspectives as we emerge from the pandemic and plan for a shared new normal informed by our examined experience.”

Through its exemplary artistry, distinguished training program, and deep-rooted community engagement efforts Ballet Hispánico champions and amplifies underrepresented voices in the field. Led by Artistic Director & CEO Eduardo Vilaro, Ballet Hispánico is comprised of a group of technically profound artists who embody the complexity of contemporary dance today. This “cutting-edge crowd pleaser” (Washington Post) will perform works by two highly sought-after choreographers, Línea Recta by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa and Gustavo Ramirez Sansano.

“Green Box is honored to receive support in helping us present one of America’s Cultural Treasures from the National Endowment of the Arts,” said Scott RC Levy, executive director of Green Box. “Ballet Hispánico is the largest Latinx cultural organization in the United States and we couldn’t be more thrilled to welcome them to Green Mountain Falls this summer as we take in their vibrant performances and celebrate their beautiful artistry.”

Previous NEA grants awarded to Green Box supported a 5-week residency with American Ballet Theatre last summer and an installation by Janet Echelman in 2019.

For more information on Green Box, please visit greenboxarts.org. For more information on other projects included in the Arts Endowment grant announcement, visit arts.gov/news.

                                                                                  ###

Green Box was launched in 2009 in Green Mountain Falls, Colorado and has grown into a year-round incubator of multidisciplinary visual and performing arts. The organization provides residents and visitors from Colorado and around the world the opportunity to participate in the creative arts in the natural beauty that awaits at the foothills of Pikes Peak. Anchored by an annual summer arts festival, Green Box also engages with community year-round through an active Artist-in-Residence program, arts education, and public art installations. Renowned for its public art installations, a selection of past installations include 1.8 Green Mountain Falls by Janet Echelman; The Musical Swings by Daily tous les jours; Field of Light and Tepees by Bruce Munro; and Footprint in Green by Patrick Dougherty. Dance troupes that have performed include 2021 Green Box Artists-in-Residence American Ballet Theatre, New York’s KEIGWIN + COMPANY, Bridgman I Packer Dance, the Oklahoma City Ballet, and internationally-acclaimed ballroom duo Antonina Skobina and Denys Drozdyuk.