Mark DeGarmo Dance Receives Its Largest 3-Year Cultural Development Fund Grant in 30 Years of Organizational Support from the NY
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Mark DeGarmo Dance
Mark DeGarmo Dance Receives Its Largest 3-Year Cultural Development Fund Grant in 30 Years of Organizational Support from the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs to Support Its Nationally-Acclaimed Dance and Literacy Programming in NYC Public Elementary Schools, Professional Learning Program for Dance Teaching Artists, and Virtual Salon Performance Series for Social Change 2026.
New York, NY - Mark DeGarmo Dance has received a 3-year award from the City of New York as part of the city’s recent announcement of more than $66.7 million in Cultural Development Fund (CDF) grants to 1,171 cultural organizations across the five boroughs. With support from the NYC Mayor’s Office and the City Council, Fiscal 2026 reflects a historic increase of $23.5M in Cultural Development Fund baseline funds, representing a major investment in the cultural life of New York City. The City’s announcement comes at a time of documented unprecedented loss of artists and arts organizations across the city due to the affordability and quality of life crisis as recently reported in December by The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC and in the Creative New York study led by Eli Dvorkin, editorial and policy director at the Center for an Urban Future.
For Mark DeGarmo Dance, this CDF grant will support its nationally-acclaimed “Partnerships in Literacy through Dance & Creativity©” program, an evidence-based in-school dance arts and literacy intervention with NYC Title I public elementary schools that annually serves up to 1,000 students and 200 teachers in historically under-resourced, geographically isolated, marginalized and disenfranchised Title I NYC public elementary schools. MDD's programs are all too often the only arts and dance or physical activity programs in their under-funded marginalized NYC public schools. This CDF grant will also support MDD’s Professional Learning Program, providing 30-120 hours of annual learning in MDD’s unique seminars, methods, and project-based learning for MDD’s education program staff and MDD’s Virtual Salon Performance Series for Social Change, a curated and facilitated sharing of and conversations between publics and artists about original transcultural transdisciplinary works-in-progress.
From VSPS Curator & Facilitator Dr. Mark DeGarmo: “VSPS is an opportunity to view and contribute to works-in-process of under-recognized dance and movement artists that break, cross, or don’t recognize boundaries; stir up the mix; and face global issues across cultures, countries, and continents.” President Barack Obama commended Mark DeGarmo Dance for “your service to your community and the nation.” The National Endowment for the Arts cited its scientifically evidence-based dance and literacy intervention during the school day for under-resourced NYC public elementary students as “a national model.” Research by Johns Hopkins University showed “statistically significant” increases in MDD students’ grade 4 state reading scores.
The FY26 CDF funding — which is awarded annually by DCLA using a competitive, peer-evaluated grant process — reflects a significant increase in baseline funding from the New York City Mayor’s Office, supplemented by one-time Administration funds and City Council discretionary support. Funding from the CDF supports a broad range of artistic, cultural, and historic organizations across New York City, helping support good-paying jobs and strengthening the city’s flourishing cultural sector. Additionally, this year’s CDF includes investments to create a more inclusive cultural sector, as funding will support people who speak a language other than English, people with disabilities, vulnerable populations, and more.
ABOUT MARK DeGARMO DANCE
Mark DeGarmo Dance’s tripart mission since 1987 is to educate NYC communities and especially children; create, perform, and disseminate original artistic and scholarly work; and build intercultural community through dance arts while working in NYC, USA, and globally. MDD has been an anchor arts organization and Dr. DeGarmo has been a long-term cultural worker-in-residence at the NYC-owned Lower East Side-located multicultural Clemente Soto Velez Cultural and Educational Center since 2001. MDD has produced over 100 of DeGarmo’s performance works and over 30 cultural diplomacy tours in 13 countries. MDD’s annual Virtual Salon Performance Series and Global Dance Circle for Social Change have featured over 1,300 dance practitioners from 6 global continents. MDD’s Arts Administration, Fundraising, and Citizen Leadership Internship Program pays emerging New York City professionals from the City University of New York and Prep for Prep leadership program for youth of color.
Mark DeGarmo, Ph.D., Founder, Executive & Artistic Director, is a dancer/performer, choreographer, writer, researcher, educator, and learning theorist. Honors include Fulbright Senior Scholar Fellowship (Peru), Martha Hill Dance Fund’s 15th Anniversary Mid-Career Award (USA), USA Department of State American Cultural Specialist Award (Ecuador), The White House Millennium Artist Program, Dance Teacher magazine cover feature article (USA), and A. A. Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum photography and costume exhibitions (Moscow, Russia). He is a 4-year graduate from Northfield Mount Hermon college preparatory school and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance from New York’s world-renowned performing arts conservatory, The Juilliard School. He earned a doctorate in philosophy grounded in Transdisciplinary and Social Justice Studies from Union Institute & University studying the relationship between movement improvisation and nonverbal-kinesthetic learning.
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Our programs are supported, in part, by private and public funds from American Online Giving Foundation; Jody and John Arnhold; Benevity; Frances and Benjamin Benenson Foundation; Bernheim Foundation; Blackbaud Giving Fund; Lisa and Dick Cashin; PJ and Dawn Dearden; Rev. Dr. Lindley DeGarmo and Sarah Finlayson; Marianne Egri and David Thomas; Friends of Mark DeGarmo Dance; Jill Ganey; The Harkness Foundation for Dance; Lara and Darius Mehraban; The Kyle J. Mulrooney Foundation; Mental Insight Foundation; National Endowment for the Arts; Network for Good; public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council; New York City Department of Education; New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature; Lindsay O'Reilly; PwC Charitable Foundation; Religious Society of Friends; The Rothfeld Family Foundation; Ruth and Seymour Klein Foundation; and Barbara Sherman.
