EMERGE125 Announces Legacy-Establishing Grants from Mellon Foundation and Bay and Paul Foundation

EMERGE125, a Black female-led hub for dance creation, performance, and education headquartered out of Harlem, is proud to announce two legacy-establishing grants: a multi-year $2 million grant from the Mellon Foundation and a $600,000 grant from the Bay and Paul Foundation. With the announcement of these grants, E125 solidifies itself as one of the best funded and most creatively vital dance institutions in the country. These grants will help to support organizational expansion, provide raises for administrative and artistic raises, help fund significant new staffing, and support ongoing development work with non-profit advisors Advance NYC.

Artistic Director Tiffany Rea-Fisher says, “I am tremendously honored by the trust that these grants represent in terms of their promised impact and longevity for EMERGE125. At this pivotal moment in our company’s history, our intention is to invest in ourselves: to first and foremost offer a living wage for our administrators, artists, and educators. We always say that no one is more important regardless of which side of the desk or the stage you’re standing on and this is a welcome opportunity to put that ethos to the test.”

“We are so pleased to provide major support to EMERGE125 at this vital moment in their trajectory,” says Emil Kang, Program Director of Arts and Culture at the Mellon Foundation, “and we are thrilled to bolster Tiffany Rea-Fisher’s inspiring leadership.”

Rea-Fisher continues, “These grants also allow us the luxury of some much needed in-house expansion. For a great many years, I have served as the lead fundraiser, artistic director, and executive director of the company. Now that I am finally in a position to redistribute some of those responsibilities to new team members, I’m thrilled to discover what we are capable of realizing with a more richly budgeted calendar of exclusively creative time.”

Marilyn Reznick, Chair of the Board of Directors of the Bay and Paul Foundation, says, “We are so pleased to help expand the capacity of EMERGE 125. Under Tiffany Rea-Fisher’s extraordinary leadership, we know E125 will become an even more creative and influential arts organization.”

EMERGE125 has established itself as a leader by setting new standards for dancer care; creating innovative, cross-disciplinary collaborations with leading artists; and using movement as a catalyst for community building: expanding the reach, purpose, and impact of the art of dance. The company has expanded its scope and vision to become a truly 21st Century organization; flourishing, growing, and expanding its network and reach outside of the traditional modern dance sphere. From community dance classes to stadiums filled with thousands of spectators, EMERGE125 demonstrates that modern dance can be accessible and relatable to people of all ages and socioeconomic backgrounds.

Visit EMERGE125.org to learn more.