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NYFA INDUCTS LYNN
NOTTAGE, PEGGY COOPER CAFRITZ,
IDA APPLEBROOG, AND CHRISTOPHER D’AMBOISE
INTO ITS HALL OF FAME
Nottage, Cooper
Cafritz, Applebroog, and d’Amboise Celebrated at April 4
Hall of Fame Benefit
New York, NY – The
New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA)
inducted four arts luminaries into its Hall of Fame during its
annual benefit on April 4 at 583 Park Avenue. The evening’s
honorees were Lynn Nottage,
award-winning playwright and screenwriter whose play Sweat just
opened on Broadway; Peggy
Cooper Cafritz, influential arts patron and former President
of the District of Columbia Board of Education; Ida
Applebroog, celebrated painter, sculptor, and filmmaker with
an upcoming solo show at Hauser & Wirth London; and Christopher
d’Amboise, a distinguished choreographer, dancer, and
playwright. The gala was Co-Chaired by artist Elia
Alba and industrial real estate professional Mary
Lang, both members of NYFA’s Board of Trustees.
Guests included Julie
Taymor, Theater, Opera, and Film Director; Jacques
d’Amboise, Dancer, Choreographer, and Director of the
National Dance Institute; Charlotte
d’Amboise, Actress and Dancer (Broadway’s Chicago); J.T.
Rogers, Playwright (Broadway’s OSLO); Elliot
Goldenthal, Composer; Vincent
Fremont, Senior Advisor, Art Media Holdings, LLC; Ed
Lewis, Co-Founder, Essence Magazine; Jacqueline
Sischy, Director, Hauser & Wirth; Joeonna
Bellorado-Samuels, Director, Jack Shainman Gallery; Beth
B, Filmmaker; and Dread
Scott, Artist and NYFA Board Member.
More than 300 guests gathered to
celebrate the 2017 Hall of Fame inductees amongst artworks by
NYFA affiliated artists and over cocktails and dinner. The
glamorous gala recognizes the sustained achievements of artists
who received early career support from NYFA and the vision and
commitment of enlightened patrons of the arts. Applebroog,
d'Amboise, and Nottage are all past recipients of the NYSCA/NYFA
Artist Fellowship, which are individual unrestricted grants made
to artists who are living and working in New York State.
Artists Carmelita
Tropicana, Ashly Legrant, Ivan
Cortazar, and Julia
Pontes spoke about the support they received from NYFA in
the form of grants, entrepreneurship training, and mentoring.
Julia Pontes, who participated in NYFA’s Immigrant Artist
Mentoring Program, said, “I am living proof of the opportunity
NYFA generates...NYFA alleviates the challenges that artists
face.”
NYFA Board Chair Judith
K. Brodsky thanked the nights’ honorees for their
contributions to the arts and described the support that NYFA
services and programs provide to artists of all disciplines at
all career stages. “While we support artists through grants,
even more importantly, we help them sustain themselves,” she
said.
Lynn Nottage was the first
honoree of the night to be inducted into NYFA’s Hall of Fame.
She told the crowd: “Twenty two years ago, before my very first
writing commission, before my very first production of a play in
New York, before I had an inkling that I was going to forge a
life in theater in New York, I received a NYFA grant…which
formalized literally the beginning of my writing career in New
York.”
Fellow honoree Christopher
d’Amboise spoke of when he received a NYSCA/NYFA Artist
Fellowship. He’d quit a successful career in dance at The New
York City Ballet and on Broadway to explore an urge to pursue
choreography. He used the Fellowship to discover his own voice
as an artist, unique from his mentors George Balanchine and
Jerome Robbins. He described NYFA’s impact as a means of
validation: “I teach now, and when I teach I look for what is in
the student that is so big about them that they don’t even know.
That’s what NYFA does, it says ‘You are bigger than you can
imagine, take the leap of faith.’”
Two-time NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow Ida
Applebroog described how the grants came at a time when they
were very needed saying: “I
received my [first] grant at the lowest income I ever had and
the poorest recognition I ever had.” Applebroog continued by
recognizing historical federal funding for the arts, ending on a
positive note in the face of the proposed NEA and NEH
eliminations. “We will survive, all of us, and hallelujah we
will survive.”
Upon her induction into
the Hall of Fame Peggy Cooper
Cafritz drew connections between NYFA and the arts high
school she co-founded in Washington, D.C., Duke Ellington School
of the Arts. “Over the years I’ve regretted very much that we
can’t just transplant our building and our kids and place them
in New York so they would have NYFA and the opportunities that
they offer…NYFA, like we try to do in Washington, has changed
the trajectory of so many lives.”
The evening ended with
impassioned words from NYFA Executive Director Michael
L. Royce on the importance of arts funding from a federal
level and why we must continue to fight for it. He acknowledged
the artists in the room and encouraged a round of applause from
all to close out the 2017 gala.
Past NYFA
Awardees include James Casebere, Anna Deavere Smith, Faith
Ringgold, Zhou Long, Junot Diaz, Yvonne Rainer, Spike Lee, Ross
Bleckner, Errol Morris, David Hammons, Terry McMillan, Christian
Marclay, Suzan-Lori Parks, and Andes Serrano.
ABOUT NYFA: The
New York Foundation for the Arts was founded in 1971 to
empower artists at critical stages in their creative lives. Each
year we award $650,000 in cash grants to individual artists in
all artistic disciplines. Our fiscal sponsorship program is
one of the oldest and most reputable in the country and helps
artists and organizations raise and manage an average of $4
million annually. Our Learning programs provide
thousands of artists with professional development training and
support, and our website, NYFA.org,
received over 1.2 million visitors last year and has information
about more than 12,000 opportunities and resources available to
artists in all disciplines.
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