Small arts organizations in Dallas have something to celebrate: the Moody Fund for the Arts (MFA) announced its 2025 grant distribution.
This year’s grants range from $3,500 to $12,000 and total $445,000, supporting 66 small, emerging and historically marginalized arts organizations across numerous art forms including theatre, music, dance, visual arts, film, multimedia and more. These arts organizations have budgets of less than $1 million and are supported by the City of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture (OAC).
“For small arts groups, finding financial support is hard, especially in those early years,” said Moody Foundation Chairman Francie Moody-Dahlberg. “These grants help support their programs, their operations and their vision so they can continue their impactful work and contribute to the vibrant cultural tapestry across the city.”
This is the eighth year of MFA’s grant distribution. The fund was created in 2017 with a $10 million endowment from the Galveston, Texas-based Moody Foundation. The intention of the fund is to financially back small and emerging nonprofit arts organizations supported by the City of Dallas Office of Art and Culture. In recognition of this generosity, the City of Dallas changed the name of its 750-seat Dallas City Performance Hall to Moody Performance Hall.
In 2018, its first year, MFA distributed $150,000 to 36 organizations with a maximum grant of $7,500. Since those first awards, MFA has awarded a total of $2,825,000through 428 unique grants to 106 organizations, including seven new organizations this year.
“The Moody Fund for the Arts continues to help small arts organizations make great strides in their programmatic and organizational growth,” said Martine Elyse Phillipe, OAC Director and a member of the MFA Executive Review Committee. “The arts run deep in Dallas, and we’re thrilled to see so many organizations receive this critical support that will help the city’s investments go even further.”
Jeffrey Schmidt
Jeffrey Schmidt
Pictured Left to Right: Andrew Briseno, Jocelyn Hansen, Lily Gast*, Madeleine Norton, and Luke Weber in Theatre Three’s production of Debbie Does Dallas. *indicates members of Actors Equity Association. The theater is a recipient of the Moody Fund for the Arts.
The fund awards flexible grants within five categories. This year saw entries in each category: General Program and Operating Cost Support (41); New Works, Commissions, and Unique Presentations (11); Community Focus Performances/Artist-in-Residency Programs (6); Cultural Equity, New Initiatives (6); Capacity Building (2).
The AT&T Performing Arts Center administers the Moody Fund for the Arts and its application and review process. Award decisions are made through a two-level review process.
The first level, the MFA Advisory Review Panel is a peer-review judging process. This year’s MFA Advisory Review Panel includes Sylvia Bodell, member of Dallas Arts and Cultural Advisory Commission (Place 10) and President of Bodell Communications, Inc; Glyne A. Griffith II, Vice President of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Social Impact at the Dallas Symphony Orchestra; Grant Peterson, musician, choral director, educator, and singer and faculty of North Forney High School; Alejandro Saucedo, an actor and director affiliated with Circle Theatre in Fort Worth; and Elliott Trahan, dancer, choreographer, and teacher with Bruce Wood Dance Dallas.
The second level of review is provided by the MFA Executive Review Committee. This year’s MFA Executive Review Committee includes Stephen Gilhooly, and arts patron, advocate, and Business and Transactional Lawyer; Tracey Nash-Huntley, an arts patron, advocate, philanthropist; and Phillipe.
Moody Fund Recipients:
• 2 Inspired Peace
•A.rt Experience
• Agora Artists
• Anita N. Martinez Ballet Folklorico
• Art House Dallas
• Artists Sans Frontières
• Arts Mission Oak Cliff
• Artstillery
• Asian Film Festival of Dallas
• Avant Chamber Ballet
• B. MOORE DANCE
• Ballet North Texas
• Basically Beethoven
• Beckles Dancing Company
• Color Me Empowered
• Dallas Arts District
• Dallas Bach Society
• Dallas Chamber Symphony
• Dallas International Film Festival
• Dallas Metroplex Musicians’ Assoc.
• Dance Council of North Texas
• DFW Play
• DG Fine Arts
• Echo Theatre
• Emerge Coalition, Inc.
• Flamenco Fever
• Greater Dallas Choral Society
• Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra
• Indian Cultural Heritage Foundation
• Infinite Arts Movement
• Kitchen Dog Theater Company
• kNOwBOX dance
• Lone Star Wind Orchestra
Jordan Fraker
Jordan Fraker
Rhythm & Romance is part of Avant Chamber Ballet’s 2025-2026 season. Featured dancers are dancers Olivia Mann and Caroline Atwell. The ballet company is a recipient of the Moody Fund Grant for the Arts.
• Make Art with Purpose, Inc.
• New Texas Symphony Orchestra
• No Limits Arts Theatre
• OK2BX Foundation
• Ollimpaxqui Ballet Co, Inc
• Orchestra of New Spain
• Orpheus Chamber Singers, Inc.
• OutLoud Dallas
• Over the Bridge Arts
• Pegasus Contemporary Ballet
• Pegasus Media Project
• Prism Movement Theater
• Representa Foundation
• Second Thought Theatre
• Soul Rep Theatre Company
• South Dallas Concert Choir
• SPARK! Dallas
• Swan Strings
• Teatro Dallas
• Texas Winds Musical Outreach, Inc
• The African Film Festival (TAFF)
• The Artist Outreach
• The Creative Movement, Inc.
• The Flame Foundation
• The Oak Cliff Festival
• The Smart Project
• The Women’s Chorus of Dallas
• The Writer’s Garret
• Top Ten Records
• Undermain Theatre
• Uptown Players, Inc.
• USA Film Festival
• Verdigris Ensemble
Learn more: Moody Arts Fund