During the two years covered by this report, NYFA awarded $7,732,021 to 1,500 artists, enabling them to do more of what they do best – make art. And in making that art, they generate additional funds to support themselves and in turn contribute to the vitality of their communities.

Financial Support for Artists

Programs	FY03 $	FY03 Artists	FY04 $	FY04 Artists
NYFA Prize	$25,000	1	$25,000	1
Artists' Fellowships	$1,008,000	144	$1,036,000	148
S.O.S.	$99,994	222	$84,764	216
Fiscal Sponsorship Artists' Projects	$2,423,742	321	$1,952,735	399
Artist Fund	$611,317	36	$453,469	27
Concordia Foundation Career Advancement Awards	$4,000	3	$8,000	4
TOTAL	$4,172,053	727	$3,559,968	785

Does not include approximately one million in grants from the New York Arts Recovery Fund made in July-August 2002

It is humbling to think of the creativity that these funds can unleash. During this period, past award winners picked up Oscar and Golden Globe awards (Elliot Goldenthal for this score to the film, Frida) and a National Book Award in Fiction ( Julia Glass for The Three Junes) in the last two years. They join the past fellows who have won four Tony® Awards, five Pulitzer Prizes, and fourteen MacArthur Fellowships, as well as numerous nominations for these and other awards.

The words "grant" and "award" frequently are used interchangeably, but at NYFA we have decided that "award" best describes what we do. Whereas "grant" carries with it a sense of something given to the less fortunate, "award" implies something received for merit, which definitely is the case when we carefully select artists for direct financial support.

The NYFA Prize is our largest award, adding $25,000 to a current-year Artists' Fellowships recipient's $7,000 award based on exceptional promise. Melanie Baker was chosen as the 2003 recipient based on her enormous charcoal drawings that comment on politics from a feminist perspective while exhibiting exceptional technique.

Choreographer Ralph Lemon received the 2004 award, which he used toward expenses relating to the completion of part three of his Geography Trilogy—three full-evening performance works created over a 10-year span that investigate an apparent collision of cultures and a search for personal and artistic identity within a broader world arena.

Ms. Baker and Mr. Lemon were two of the 299 artists who were awarded Artists’ Fellowships in a total of sixteen disciplines covering the visual, performing, media, and literary arts selected by peer panels. The Fellowships remained highly competitive, with the number of applications reaching record levels: 8,200 artists applied for these $7,000 unrestricted awards during the two-year period.

2004 was the seventh consecutive year that more than one million dollars was awarded through fellowships, bringing the program’s 25-year total to more than $20 million that has been given to more than 3,300 artists. All of these artists are included (many with samples of their work) in the NYFA Artists section of the NYFA Web site.

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