Moody Fund for the Arts Distributes $445,000 in Funding to Dallas Arts Organizations

In its eighth year, total MFA grantmaking tops $2.8 million

(DALLAS) – The Moody Fund for the Arts (MFA) today announced grant awards to 66 Dallas arts organizations for this year’s funding cycle. The grants, which range from $3,500 to $12,000, support a broad cross-section of small, emerging and historically marginalized arts organizations across numerous art forms including theatre, music, dance, visual arts, film, multimedia and more. Many of the programs provide cultural enrichment to underserved communities in Dallas.  

“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.”

2025 marks the eighth year of MFA grantmaking. Since its first awards in 2018, MFA has awarded a total of $2,825,000 through 428 unique grants to 106 organizations, including 7 new organizations this year. MFA recipients must be based in Dallas, have budgets under $1M, and must be supported by the City of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture (OAC). 

“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.” 

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).

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
• 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

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. The second level of review is provided by the MFA Executive Review Committee.

2025 MFA Advisory Review Panel

• Sylvia Bodell – Member, Dallas Arts and Cultural Advisory Commission (Place 10); President, Bodell Communications, Inc.
• Glyne A. Griffith II – Vice President of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Social Impact, Dallas Symphony Orchestra
• Grant Peterson – Musician, choral director, educator, and singer; Faculty, North Forney High School
• Alejandro Saucedo – Actor and Director; affiliated with Circle Theatre
• Elliott Trahan – Dancer, choreographer, and teacher; Bruce Wood Dance Dallas

2025 Executive Review Committee

• Stephen Gilhooly – Arts patron, advocate, Business and Transactional Lawyer
• Tracey Nash-Huntley – Arts patron, advocate, philanthropist
• Martine Elyse Phillipe – Director, City of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture

For more information on the Moody Fund for the Arts please visit:  www.moodyartsfund.org. 

ABOUT THE MOODY FUND FOR THE ARTS:

The Moody Fund for the Arts (MFA) aspires to be a transformative fund that will raise the scope of engagement with the arts throughout the Dallas community. Through flexible grant making, MFA encourages enterprising and diverse cultural offerings and helps sustain the mission of Moody Performance Hall to provide a stage in the Dallas Arts District for small and mid-sized groups.

In 2017, the Galveston, Texas-based Moody Foundation created and endowed the $10 million Moody Fund for the Arts to provide support for small and emerging nonprofit arts organizations supported by the City of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture. In recognition of the generosity of the Moody Foundation, on May 24, 2017 the City of Dallas changed the name of its 750-seat Dallas City Performance Hall in the Dallas Arts District to Moody Performance Hall.

To qualify, an organization’s budget must be less than $1 million. Through an annual competitive process, the endowment provides flexible grants supporting a range of opportunities, including new works and commissions, general operating and rent support, capacity building, projects taking art into under-served areas, cultural equity programs and more.

Grant recipients are chosen through a multi-level process, including a peer review panel. MFA’s first grants were awarded in 2018. 

• 2018 $150,000 36 organizations $7,500 max grant
• 2019 $175,000 47 organizations $7,500 max grant
• 2020 $355,000 49 organizations $10,000 max grant
• 2021 $400,000 54 organizations $10,000 max grant
• 2022 $450,000 52 organizations $12,000 max grant
• 2023 $400,000 65 organizations $12,000 max grant
• 2024 $450,000 59 organizations $12,000 max grant
• 2025 $425,000 66 organizations $12,000 max grant

The Moody Fund for the Arts is held within the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA) Endowment, a Texas nonprofit corporation. Oversight is provided by the DCPA Endowment Board of Governors. The nonprofit AT&T Performing Arts Center provides staff support to administer the fund and granting process. Learn more at www.moodyartsfund.org.  

ABOUT THE MOODY FOUNDATION: The Moody Foundation was established in 1942 by William L. Moody Jr. and his wife, Libbie Rice Shearn Moody to share their good fortune and make a difference in the lives of the people of Texas. Since then, the Moody Foundation has made more than $1.5 billion in grants throughout the state to organizations that have educated, healed, nurtured and inspired generations of Texans. Learn more at www.moodyf.org.

PRESS INQUIRIES:  
Daniel O. Hernandez, Assoc. Director of Public Relations
AT&T Performing Arts Center  
214-978 3608
Daniel.Hernandez@attpac.org