Congratulations to Our 2026 Community Arts Grant Awardees

June 2026

Our Community Arts Grant Awards are designed to support the incredible artists and organizations bringing creative excellence to our local communities. This year, we offered four grants to creators across the tri-state area:

 

1 Grant at the $1,000 level

3 Grants at the $500 level

 

A huge Thank You to our Program Committee—Joseph White, Eric Hafen, Eileen White, Tony Javed, and Alice Glock—for their dedication to evaluating this year's applicants and defining our award criteria.

 

Here are this year’s awardees:

 

·      The $1,000 award goes to the Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra

 

The RSO Quartet, comprised of the principal string players of the Ridgefield Symphony

Orchestra, will perform a concert inspired by the visual art of the exhibition The Aldrich Decennial: I am what is around me.  The exhibition features artists who live and work in the state of Connecticut.

  

For more about this event and the Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra, visit: www.ridgefieldsymphony.org

 

$500 awards go to each of the following:

·      The Masterwork Chorus – The Chorus offers a Reach Out program, which brings live choral music directly to senior citizens and individuals residing at assisted living, rehabilitation, and healthcare facilities throughout Morris County. It is the cornerstone of their outreach efforts and is made possible entirely through the dedication of volunteer singers, under the leadership of Carol Walker, Assistant Director/Accompanist.

For more about the Masterwork Chorus, visit: www.masterwork.org.

 

·      Found Sound Circle –  Found Sound at Bettenbender Bridge is a two-hour, site-responsive community arts event centered on the covered bridge at Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts, New Brunswick, NJ. The event will invite participants into a guided exploration of the site’s sonic environment, culminating in a collaborative composition, developed and performed in real time by Found Sound Circle ensemble members and audience participants.

 

For more about the Found Sound Circle, visit: www.stephanieleotsakos.com/foundsoundcircle

·      FJK Dance – The dance company will present a Fall performance of To Heart, a multimedia production by Fadi Joseph Khoury. Inspired by the poetry of Rumi. Through the integration of contemporary dance, live painting, calligraphy, music, video projection, and animation, To Heart highlights the beauty and depth of Middle Eastern culture while challenging cultural stereotypes.

 

For more about FJK Dance, visit: www.fjkdance.org

 

Congratulations to all of this year’s awardees!

 

About The Masterwork Music and Art Foundation

The Masterwork Music and Arts Foundation has been supporting excellence in the arts for over 60 years. One hundred percent of your donation funds art and artists through community grants, an emerging artist award, and a premier award for a new work. Find out more at www.masterworkarts.org.

 

Applications Available for Masterwork's 2026-2027 Community Arts Grants

March 2026

4 Community Arts Grants Available!

Applicants must submit their entries to masterworkarts@gmail.com by midnight Friday, May 1 to be considered for the 2026-2027 grant season. 

The Masterwork Music and Arts Foundation is pleased to offer a number of community grants to organizations or individuals striving for excellence in the arts. 

 

For the 2026-2027 community grant season, we’ll be giving out four grants. One grant will be given at the $1,000 level. Three additional grants will be issued at the $500 level. The Masterwork Board encourages individual aspiring artists and arts organizations located in the tri-state area of New Jersey, New York and Connecticut to apply. 

 

Here are more specifics on our grant criteria: 

• We’re looking for the best proposals for arts projects that encompasses fine and performing arts - including music, dance, the visual arts, and nonprofit theatrical productions that engage the community. 
• Volunteer involvement is an important factor. Please explain how volunteers will be engaged for your submission.
• Individual aspiring artists and arts organizations in New Jersey and New York are encouraged to apply.
• Works that illustrate a commitment to excellence in the arts -- either through theme or by design will receive greater consideration.
• Note that this award is not intended to cover operating expenses or support for a fundraising initiative.
• 2025-2026 Community Grant Awardees should not apply. 
• Applicants will need to email masterworkarts@gmail.com for an official form and then submit the completed form to masterworkarts@gmail.com by midnight Friday, May 1, 2026. 
• Applicants should identify how The Masterwork Music and Art Foundation will be recognized in relation to the work. 

  

How to Apply:

Email masterworkarts@gmail.com for your application. Fill it out and email it back to masterworkarts@gmail.com  before midnight Friday, May 1, 2026. 

 

Awardees agree to be featured in Masterwork Arts promotional materials and promote Masterwork Arts offerings. Awardees will be notified the week of May 11 with the formal announcement held at the Masterwork Gala on May 17, 2026 at the Morristown Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. The Gala will run from 3:00 – 6:00. Awardees will be notified in advance and encouraged to attend.

 

For questions about the above contact masterworkarts@gmail.com

 

About Masterwork Arts  

 

The Masterwork Music and Arts Foundation has been supporting excellence in the arts for over 60 years. One hundred percent of your donation funds art and artists through community grants, an emerging artist award, and a premier award for a new work. Find out more at www.masterworkarts.org.

 

 

 

Save the date for our 65th Anniversary Celebration!

 

 

 

 

Save the date for our 65th Anniversary Celebration - Sunday, May 17, in Morristown, NJ!

 

The event includes a special ceremony honoring Wayne Walters, beloved champion of the arts in Morristown, founder of the Morris Choral Society and former Masterwork Music and Art Foundation Board member. 

 

To purchase tickets, visit our ticketing web site.  

​

To stay informed, email masterworkarts@gmail.com

Announcing The Masterwork Music and Art Foundation 2025 Emerging Artist Awardee, Fadi J. Khoury of FJK Dance

 August 2025 

 This year the Masterwork Music and Art Foundation decided to expand their portfolio of awards to include an Emerging Artist Award. This $500 award is given to an emerging artist of distinction who has exhibited excellence in the arts. 

 

 

We're pleased to announce that Fadi J. Khoury of FJK Dance is the recipient of the inaugural award.

Special thanks to Masterwork’s Program Committee - Joseph White, Eric Hafen, Eileen White, Tony Javed and Alice Glock for their work identifying our awardee.

More About Fadi J. Khoury 

Fadi J. Khoury’s innovative style – both as dancer and choreographer – showcases his life-long immersion in a world of dance forms. He was born in Baghdad, Iraq, surrounded by the folkloric music and dance of Arab culture. His father, also a dancer and choreographer, was the Artistic Director of the National Iraqi Ballet. Through his father, Fadi was exposed to diverse approaches to dance in Mesopotamia, still present in Assyrian, Syriac, and Bedouin folkloric dances of the Middle East. When Fadi was thirteen, he moved to Beirut, Lebanon, where he trained in Classical Ballet, Folkloric Dance, and also in Modern, Jazz, and Ballroom. Still in his teens, he began experimenting with the eclecticism that has defined his work ever since. By seventeen, he was dancing professionally with the Rahbani Musical Theatre, while studying at the Lebanese Fine Arts University and Lebanon Dance Academy.

In 2014, inspired by a successful collaboration with Sevin Ceviker, he created his own company, FJK Dance, where he could continue to refine his distinct, personal style. Every FJK Dance performance reflects his unique mix of experiences, unlike anyone else’s in the current dance scene and still exuberantly evolving. In 2018,  Fadi received a CUNY Dance Initiative award and the opportunity to perform the first production of “UnTold” at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.  Fadi was recently appointed as the first dance “Artist-in-Residence” at Kings County Hospital, Brooklyn, Wellness and Recovery Division, Behavioral Services, “to use dance to remove the stigma of, and to enable the public to better understand, mental illness.”

For more about Fadi J. Khoury, please visit: www.fjkdance.org/

The Masterwork Music and Arts Foundation has been supporting excellence in the arts for over 60 years. 100 percent of your donation funds art and artists through community grants, competitive awards, and a premier award for an emerging artist. Find out more at www.masterworkarts.org.
 
   #MasterworkArts
   #CommunityArts
   #LovetheArtist
   #LovetheArts

Announcing The Masterwork Music and Art Foundation 2025 Community Arts Grant Awardees

 
August 2025 
 
Our Community Grant Awards are designed to support organizations and people that encourage excellence in the arts at the community level. For the 2025-2026 community grant season, four grants were offered — one at the $1,000 level and three at the $500 level.  Artists and arts organizations in the tri-state area were encouraged to apply. 

Special thanks to Masterwork’s Program Committee - Joseph White, Eric Hafen, Eileen White, Tony Javed and Alice Glock for their work identifying award criteria and evaluating applicants.
We’re pleased to announce the following awardees:

 
·      Our $1,000 award goes to the Chelsea Music Festival
 
Chelsea Music Festival celebrates great music by convening world-leading musicians & artists in the performing, culinary, and visual arts for an international audience. The Festival invites artists, composers, and performers to collaborate in pursuit of new perspectives in artistic expression.

Inspired by its Chelsea roots, the Festival reflects the creativity of one of New York City's most dynamic neighborhoods. Programs span musical genres ranging from classical to contemporary to jazz with a special emphasis on Festival commissions by composers whose works are not in the traditional western canon. In addition to its on-the-ground programming, the Festival hosts an online library of recordings so music enthusiasts, artists, and students alike can explore unique interpretations of classical, jazz, and contemporary works via high-quality videos of world-class performances and dialogues available for years to come.
 
For more about the Chelsea Music Festival, visit: https://www.chelseamusicfestival.org/
 
·      Our three $500 awards go to Flute Choir Day, Blues Alive and Site-Specific Dances respectively

1.Carter-Glennon Center for Arts and Nature’s Flute Choir Day  
 
An annual event at the Carter Glennon Center for Arts and Nature, the New Jersey Flute Choir Day celebrates flutists of all abilities, ages and backgrounds.  Participants range in age from 9 years old to 90. A day long rehearsal culminates with a concert featuring a piece by J.S. Bach, as well as an original work reflective of the year’s theme.

For more about New Jersey Flute Choir Day, visit: www.carter-glennon.org

 

 
2. Blues Alive, for Ma Rainey’s Living Tradition of the Blues
 
Part of the Brooklyn Folk Fest, Blues Alive will partner with the Ma Rainey House Museum in Columbus, Georgia to frame Gertrude Pritchett—a.k.a. Ma Rainey—as a trail-blazing American composer and band leader.
 
We shine a light on the woman as a powerful musician, mentor, and collaborator to several young sidemen who in-turn became innovators in their own careers; trumpeter/vocalist Louis Armstrong, pianist Thomas Dorsey, guitarist Tampa Red, and saxophonist Coleman Hawkins.

This awardee offering includes a 40 minute panel discussion and a 60 minute concert.

For more about Blues Alive, visit: https://www.brooklynfolkfest.com

3. Site-Specific Dances
 
Site-Specific Dances is an interdisciplinary performing arts collective of artists, choreographers, musicians, and designers. Much like architecture, our projects emerge from a direct engagement with a particular place. Our work moves beyond the stage to engage deeply with the world around us, with the site as a protagonist - and not a backdrop. 

Our practice unfolds across three primary typologies

* STAGE PIECES about sites
* SITE ACTIVATIONS in spaces not designed for performance
* COMMUNITY-DANCE, a participation-based project that invites local participants to create a community performance in public space

Our performances often feature original scores by collaborating composers in a range of styles, frequently performed live.

For more about Site-Specific Dances, visit: https://www.sitespecificdances.com/


Congratulations to our 2025 awardees!

 

The Masterwork Music and Arts Foundation has been supporting excellence in the arts for over 60 years. 100 percent of your donation funds art and artists through community grants, competitive awards, and a premier award for an emerging artist. Find out more at www.masterworkarts.org.
 
   #MasterworkArts
   #CommunityArts
   #LovetheArtist
   #LovetheArts

Protect the National Endowment for the Arts

 Governmental support for the arts is under threat in unprecedented ways -- which means we need your support as someone who values the arts to advocate in its defense. 

We must respond strategically and in solidarity to protect what we’ve built and ensure the arts remain a national priority. 

 

 

The single most impactful thing you can do is to connect with your elected officials!

Personalized outreach is critical at this moment. Remind them of the irreplaceable value of the arts in your community.

• Email: Use the Americans for the Arts Advocacy Alert to send an email to your elected officials.
• Postal: Send a letter via the US Postal Service with a personalized note to your elected officials.

Rep. XXX XXX
US House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Senator XXX XXX
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

For additional resources and information visit the Protect the NEA site. 

The Masterwork Music and Arts Foundation has been supporting excellence in the arts for over 60 years. One hundred percent of your donation funds art and artists through community grants, an emerging artist award, and a premier award for a new work. Find out more at www.masterworkarts.org.

  

Camille A. Brown: Giant Steps - A PBS American Masters Feature

 The Masterwork Music and Art Premier Awardee, Camille A. Brown, has been profiled in a new series by PBS' American Masters. 

 

Camille A. Brown: Giant Steps is part of In The Making, a documentary shorts series from American Masters and Firelight Media follows emerging cultural icons on their journeys to becoming masters of their artistic disciplines. 

Follow the 5-time Tony-nominated director and choreographer of Broadway’s Gypsy and Hell’s Kitchen as she elevates the possible with bold explorations of everyday movement, and African Diasporic dance. The film foregrounds Brown’s visionary talent from her Queens, New York neighborhood to the Broadway stage, television and movie screens, and schools around the world. 

 See: Camille A. Brown: Giant Steps, streaming on PBS!

 

The Masterwork Music and Arts Foundation has been supporting excellence in the arts for over 60 years. One hundred percent of your donation funds art and artists through community grants, an emerging artist award, and a premier award for a new work. Find out more at www.masterworkarts.org.

 

 

 

Camille A. Brown's I AM Comes to Princeton's McCarter Theatre Center

 

 

The Masterwork Music and Arts Foundation's Premier Awardee, Camille A. Brown's I AM will be presented for one night only at Princeton's McCarter Theatre on Friday, September 26 at 7:30pm. Don't miss this critically acclaimed work.  

With I AM, Brown creates a bold new work that celebrates cultural liberation and limitless imagination. Featuring a fusion of dance genres from the African diaspora, her choreography embodies artistic freedom and boundless creativity. A Tony-nominated and award-winning choreographer, Brown continues to push artistic boundaries, reaffirming her company’s place at the forefront of contemporary dance.  

Get your tickets here today!  

The Masterwork Music and Arts Foundation has been supporting excellence in the arts for over 60 years. One hundred percent of your donation funds art and artists through community grants, an emerging artist award and a premier award for a new work. Find out more at www.masterworkarts.org.

Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story

When it comes to excellence in the arts - few can compare to the incomparable Liza!

Woven throughout this new documentary from American Masters is an ode to the mentors and influences that helped develop one of the most enigmatic talents of our time. Watching Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story you're reminded just how special she is and how deeply imprinted she's been on our culture.

Watch the documentary here:

https://www.thirteen.org/programs/american-masters/liza-a-truly-terrific-absolutely-true-story-jmqhn5/ 

The Masterwork Music and Arts Foundation has been supporting excellence in the arts for over 60 years. One hundred percent of your donation funds art and artists through community grants, an emerging artist award and a premier award for a new work. Find out more at www.masterworkarts.org.

Applications Available for Masterwork's 2025-2026 Community Arts Grants

4 Community Arts Grants Available!

Applicants must submit their entries to masterworkarts@gmail.com by midnight Friday, June 6 to be considered for the 2025-2026 grant season.

 

The Masterwork Music and Arts Foundation is pleased to offer a number of community grants to organizations or individuals striving for excellence in the arts. 

For the 2025-2026 community grant season, we’ll be giving out four grants. One grant will be given at the $1,000 level. Three additional grants will be issued at the $500 level. The Masterwork Board encourages individual aspiring artists and arts organizations located in the tri-state area of New Jersey, New York and Connecticut to apply. 

 

Here are more specifics on our grant criteria: 

• We’re looking for the best proposals for arts projects that encompasses fine and performing arts - including music, dance, the visual arts, and nonprofit theatrical productions that engage the community. 
• Volunteer involvement is an important factor. Please explain how volunteers will be engaged for your submission.
• Individual aspiring artists and arts organizations in New Jersey and New York are encouraged to apply.
• Works that illustrate a commitment to excellence in the arts -- either through theme or by design will receive greater consideration.
• Note that this award is not intended to cover operating expenses or support for a fundraising initiative.
• 2024-2025 Community Grant Awardees should not apply. 
• Applicants will need to email masterworkarts@gmail.com for an official form and then submit the completed form to masterworkarts@gmail.com by midnight Friday, June 6, 2025. 
• Applicants should identify how The Masterwork Music and Art Foundation will be recognized in relation to the work. 

Awardees agree to be featured in Masterwork Arts promotional materials and promote Masterwork Arts offerings.

 Awardees will be notified the week of June 30, 2025. 

How to apply:

 

Email masterworkarts@gmail.com for your application. Fill it out and email it back to masterworkarts@gmail.com  before midnight Friday, June 6, 2025. 

 

For questions about the above contact masterworkarts@gmail.com

 

About Masterwork Arts  

 

The Masterwork Music and Arts Foundation has been supporting excellence in the arts for over 60 years. One hundred percent of your donation funds art and artists through community grants, an emerging artist award, and a premier award for a new work. Find out more at www.masterworkarts.org.