NEFA

Honoring the past is essential to building the future. With 50 Stories from our First 50 Years, we illustrate our commitment to a network of leaders embedded in communities in the region, the nation, and across the globe.

In the chronology of NEFA’s work, live on our site now, read a record of interventions developed for and with the communities we are honored to serve. Learn about an infrastructure that consistently invests in emerging and established leaders like The National Theatre of the Deaf who tours the region with “Gilgamesh” in 1982 with support from the New England Touring Program; Trisha Brown Dance Company who tours New England in 1986 with NEFA support before attending NEFA’s Dance Conference at Jacob's Pillow in 1987; renowned choreographer Lula Washington, who brings her masterclasses and performances to cities like Palm Beach, FL, pictured, with National Dance Project support in 2000; Rhode Island Latino Arts’ Marta V. Martínez who won a Creative Economy Award for her community initiative, “Nuestras Raíces: Building Bridges and Community Pride Around Latino History in Rhode Island” in 2017; muralist Rixy who receives the 2023 Newell Flather Emerging Leader Award; and so many more.