Nava Dance Theatre Awarded California Arts Council Impact Project Grant 2026
The California Arts Council has announced a grant award of $20,750 to Nava Dance Theatre as part of its Impact Project program during its 2025-26 fiscal year grant cycle. Support awarded will continue to benefit communities throughout the state until the end of the project cycle timeline in September 2026.
The grant will be used to fun the Unrehearsed Artist Residency Program, a virtual program that funds and supports South Asian dance and movement artists from many different backgrounds, genres, and identities. Many of these artists are challenging the status quo, which often prevents us from witnessing certain stories or points of view. The artists self-define what challenging the status quo means to them and then show up with their art in the most beautiful, deep, and personal ways.
Nava Dance Theatre was featured as part of a larger announcement from the California Arts Council of a total of 679 awards for nonprofit organizations and units of government throughout California will be disbursed across seven different programs, including a second year of funding for the State-Local Partners program awarded in the previous fiscal year. These grants comprise an investment of more than $19.5 million in support for the state’s arts and cultural landscape and creative workforce.
“Arts and culture are a powerful tool for community connection, well-being and a critical pilar of our state’s creative economy,” said California Arts Council Executive Director Danielle Brazell. “This year’s investment of $19.5 million in grant funding is provided in every corner of the state. Funding to nonprofit arts and cultural organizations ensures the public has access to high-quality artistic and cultural programming reflective of the people of California. This funding is a vital investment in the state’s creative workforce, furthering that the power of art and creative expression can continue telling the stories of our communities. Congratulations to all grantees!”
“On behalf of the Council, I would like to thank Governor Newsom and the Legislature for this critical funding, ensuring the arts remain an important force in sustaining our democracy,” Council Chair Roxanne Messina Captor said. “The Council is often faced with the difficult task of balancing the overwhelming need for arts funding with the total amount allocated to fund, but we are incredibly proud of our collective work to assert and support priorities that expand our resources as far as we can. As we look ahead to the CAC’s 50th anniversary in 2026, this robust investment sets the foundation for another five decades of cultural growth, civic engagement, and artistic excellence across California.”
Grant awards and outreach for the season emphasized the Council’s three previously identified priorities for 2025-26 local assistance funding: organizations serving historically and systemically underserved communities located in the lower two quartiles of the Healthy Places Index (HPI); first-time CAC grantees; and small organizations with total revenues of $250,000 or less.
Nava Dance is thrilled to have the generous support of the CAC in serving historically underrepresented communities in the South Asian arts landscape. Read the full announcement by the California Arts Council for more details and complete listings of all 2025-26CAC grantees