It’s Been a Great Year for NYFA-affiliated Artists!

Looking back on the past year, it is remarkable to see the extraordinary achievements

At the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), we have long been proud of both the impact we have had on artists and the subsequent impact they have had on the cultural landscape. Looking back on the past year, it is remarkable to see the extraordinary achievements of artists in whom we recognized such early promise:

• Spike Lee (Fellow in Film ’85) received an Honorary Academy Award.
• Todd Haynes’ (2011 NYFA Hall of Fame Inductee; Fellow in Film ’89; Fiscally Sponsored ’90) film Carol was nominated for 6 Academy Awards, 5 Golden Globes, and won more than 50 other international awards. It was written by Phyllis Nagy (Fellow in Playwriting/Screenwriting ’89).
• Laura Riccardi and Moira Demos’ film, Making a Murderer, which was fiscally sponsored by NYFA, was picked up by Netflix and became one of the most talked about and hotly debated series of the year.
• Lisa Kron (Fellow in Playwriting/Screenwriting ’94) won Tony Awards for Best Book of a Musical and Best Original Score for Fun Home, which also won the award for Best Musical.
• Henry Threadgill (Fellow in Music Composition ‘87 and ‘91) won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Music for In for a Penny, In for a Pound; Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (Fellow in Playwriting/Screenwriting ‘10) was named a Pulitzer Finalist for his play Gloria.
• NYFA Fellows swept the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Awards with Lynn Nottage (Fellow in Playwriting/Screenwriting ’94, ’00) winning for Master Playwright; Young Jean Lee (Fellow in Playwriting/Screenwriting ’10) for Mid-Career Playwright, and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins winning for Emerging Playwright.
• Joan Jonas (Fellow in Performance Art/Multidisciplinary Work ’90) was selected as the U.S. representative at the Venice Biennale.
• Helène Aylon (Fiscally Sponsored artist), received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Women’s Caucus for Art.
• Adrash Alphons, whose organization, ProjectArt, was started through NYFA’s Fiscal Sponsorship program, was named a CNN Hero.
• Basil Twist (Fellow in Performance Art/Multidisciplinary Forms ’03) won a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship.
• Lisa Ko (Fellow in Fiction ’02) won the PEN/Bellwether Award for Socially Engaged Fiction for her novel The Leavers.
• Three of the five winners of the Herb Alpert Award for the Arts are past NYFA Fellows: Ishmael Houston-Jones (Choreography ’85, ’89); Simone Leigh (Sculpture ’09); Anne Washburn (Playwriting/Screenwriting ’10).

NYFA’s mission is to empower emerging artists and arts organizations across all disciplines at critical stages in their creative lives and professional / organizational development, including programs such as Artists’ Fellowships, Fiscal Sponsorship and NYFA Learning. You can support NYFA’s mission and impact the lives of artists by clicking here. 

Image: Basil Twist (Fellow in Performance Art/Multidisciplinary Forms ’03)