The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded The Center for Ballet and the Arts at New York University (CBA) a $2 million, three-year grant. This is the fourth grant CBA has received from the Foundation, marking 10 years of support and just over $6 million in funding to date.

“CBA has found substantial early success thanks to the generous support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation,” said Jennifer Homans, CBA Founder and Director. “We are tremendously grateful for their continued partnership in bringing vitality to the history, practice, and performance of dance.”

CBA is an international research institute for scholars and artists of ballet and its related arts and sciences. The funds will enable The Center to expand its programming, foster global collaborations, and strengthen ties with the New York University community, all while continuing to fundraise for CBA’s long-term future.

The grant will also allow CBA to hone its existing programming and initiatives. Since the organization’s founding in 2014, CBA’s Fellowship Program has supported over 130 artists and scholars from 12 countries and nearly 50 disciplines, from film and design to philosophy and art history. Fellows have included Joseph V. Melillo, Executive Producer Emeritus, BAM; Frederick Wiseman, Filmmaker; Lauren Lovette, Principal Dancer, New York City Ballet; Alma Guillermoprieto, Writer and Journalist; and Christopher Wood, Professor of German, New York University. With the Foundation’s support, CBA Fellows will continue to benefit from time, space, and financial resources that allow them to pursue rigorous work while in residence.

The funds will also support CBA’s public programming, which aims to illuminate and expand our understanding of dance through lectures, workshops, and conversations between artists and scholars. The Center has held more than 100 events and seminars to date, often in partnership with major cultural institutions across New York City such as BAM, Lincoln Center, the Museum of Modern Art, and a range of NYU Centers and Institutes including NYU Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, NYU’s Remarque Institute, and NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts. Events have included The Brain is the Dancer, a symposium that brought together leading neuroscientists and dancers; Inside Nijinsky’s Diaries featuring a reading by actor Paul Giamatti; and CBA’s annual Lincoln Kirstein Lectures, which have featured Ian Bostridge, Oskar Eustis, Alastair Macaulay, and Helen Vendler.


The Center for Ballet and the Arts at New York University (CBA) is an international research institute for scholars and artists of ballet and its related arts and sciences. It exists to inspire new ideas and new dances, expanding the way we think about the art form’s history, practice, and performance in the 21st century.

The Center is made possible by founding and ongoing support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and New York University and additional support from The Charles H. Revson Foundation, Fishman Family Fund, an advised fund of the Brooklyn Community Foundation, Merce Cunningham Trust, Stavros Niarchos Foundation, and The Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation. We also extend a special thanks to individual members of CBA’s Center Circle for their essential support.