August 2026 News
September 17, 2026 • 6 minute read
Each month, we share stories from our sector and our network that build our understanding of each other and make sense out of challenging times. This month’s issue includes stories that center compassion, truth-telling, and care in “an era of relentless trauma” — making visible oppressive systems often disguised as individual failures; accepting “necessary dissonance” in an artist’s rigorous process; and shaping community-led resistance in response to civic emergency. You’ll also find NPN resources, including what we’re reading in our monthly political education series, lessons drawn from our Mixed Metaphor deck, and upcoming performances of NPN-supported projects, from Fresno to Brattleboro!
Lastly, we’re excited to share the latest publication from NPN’s Visiting Critic Program, featuring a reflection on NPN’s recent gathering at the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, by Juleana Enright with Sixty Inches From Center. In partnership with local/regional arts journalism, NPN’s Visiting Critic Program is shaped by our belief that arts criticism and journalism is an essential component of a healthy arts ecosystem, as it creates better understanding of the socio-political conditions of artists regionally and the issues impacting their communities and livelihoods.
Caitlin Strokosch
President & CEO
National Performance Network
“Every great art has an inner melody”
An Interview with Take Notice Fund Artist Miles Labat
Miles Labat is a filmmaker and musician from New Orleans, LA. In this wide-ranging interview, part of NPN Take Notice Fund’s commitment to bring more visibility to Louisiana artists of color, Miles talks about his early exposure to great films, his career as a touring jazz musician, and why every filmmaker should read good books.
“I think every art at its core, whether it’s painting, singing, dance, film, I think if it’s done really well, it’s as close to music as it can get. Every great art has an inner melody. Every great art has these inner harmonics.”
Read the full interview on our Voices from the Network blog.
“An atypical convening for a bizarre time”
Reflections on NPN’s 2026 Partner Meeting, by Juleana Enright
“NPN is more than just a network of creatives,” artist Juleana Enright observes in “Pivoting in Flight,” her reflections on NPN’s 2026 Partner Meeting earlier this year. “They welcome their partners with open arms, offering support, resources, and a deep understanding of the challenges we all face” in our work for social justice in the arts. Those challenges, from “socio-political hostility” to evaporating funding to institutional abandonment, felt more immediate than ever at this year’s meeting, held in Dearborn, Michigan, a community still healing from the aftermath of ICE’s violent “Operation Metro Surge” a few months earlier. But Dearborn’s community-led resistance in response to ICE also served as a powerful example of the meeting’s theme of murmuration, when a flock of birds anticipate, react, and adapt as a collective whole. “For arts entities enduring an era of relentless trauma,” Juleana writes, “this rapid, synergistic response to civic emergency is the very essence of reimagining and resistance.”
Visit Sixty Inches from Center to read Juleana Enright’s “Pivoting in Flight: Reflections Following the National Performance Network’s 2026 Dearborn Partner Meeting”
Strata: Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator (DVCAI)
Mixed Metaphor: Detoxifying Systems of Oppression in Arts Organizations
“It’s not about the lack within these organizations; it’s not [that they are] at risk. It is: these folks are brilliant and they are living inside a toxic system.”
Arts organizations of color and rural arts organizations experience systemic devaluing, divestment, and undercapitalization to a larger degree than other organizations in the sector. Card 4 of the Mixed Metaphor Liberatory Learning Deck, “Detoxify Systems of Oppression,” addresses how arts organizations can dismantle white supremacy culture and racial capitalism while building new pathways to equity.
Explore this card and others directly on your phone or desktop with our interactive Mixed Metaphor Liberatory Learning Deck.
National Theater Project Announces its Final Grantees
After 15 years of support for artist-led, ensemble, and devised theater work, New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Theater Project (NTP) has awarded its Sunset Grants. While recent philanthropic shifts have necessitated the conclusion of NTP in its current form, NTP’s legacy — under the extraordinary leadership of Quita Sullivan (Montaukett/Shinnecock), Senior Program Director for Theater — lives on through the projects NTP has supported, including 119 new theater works reaching audiences in 44 states, Washington D.C., across both the Atlantic and Pacific territories, and even the moon. Among the 2026 NTP grantees are 16 NPN-supported artists and organizations. Congratulations to all!
- Arab American National Museum – Dearborn, MI
- Bunnell Street Arts Center – Homer, AK
- Clear Creek Creative – Bighill, KY
- Dahlak Brathwaite – Brooklyn, NY
- Daniel Banks/DNAWORKS – New York, NY
- Junebug Productions – New Orleans, LA
- Live Arts Miami – Miami, FL
- Martha Redbone – Brooklyn, NY
- Mondo Bizarro Productions – New Orleans, LA
- Pangea World Theater – Minneapolis, MN
- paris cian – New Orleans, LA
- Rudi Goblen – North Hollywood, CA
- TeAda Productions – Los Angeles, CA & Micronesia
- Teo Castellanos D-PROJECTS – Miami, FL
- The Civilians – Brooklyn, NY
- Ty Defoe – Brooklyn, NY
Visit the New England Foundation for the Arts website to learn more.
Upcoming Artist Activities
Dancing Through Time: Donna Sternberg, a Retrospective, 1970 to 2026.
Now through Jan 10, 2027, at Fresno Art Museum (Fresno, CA).
More info on Dancing Through Time.
Puppets in the Green Mountains festival, various artists, presented by Sandglass Theater.
Sep 16–20, 2026, at multiple venues (Brattleboro, VT).
More info on Puppets in the Green Mountains.
A Meal by Ximena Garnica and Shige Moriya of LEIMAY.
Sep 17–19, 2026, at 7 Stages Theatre (Atlanta, GA).
More info on A Meal.
STORY BALLET by slowdanger.
Sep 25 and 26 at 7:30 pm, and Sep 27 at 3:00 pm, 2026, at Charles W Eisemann Performing Arts Center (Richardson, TX).
More info on STORY BALLET.
What We’re Reading
Each month, NPN’s staff and board engage with a reading that helps shape our analysis of our sociopolitical landscape and deepen our understanding of how to embed liberatory practices throughout our work. The Collective Learning Series is organized by NPN’s Department of Racial Justice and Movement Building (DRJaM).
This month’s selection, “Y’all Stopped Saying Black. How’s That Working For You?” by New Orleans-based artist and organizer Lauren Turner Hines is an examination of the suppression of language in philanthropy as an expression of authoritarian control. “Every time in American history that communities fighting for their survival have been told to change how they name themselves, their communities, or their own pain, the ask has never been about strategy. It has always been about control.”
Read “Y’all Stopped Saying Black. How’s That Working For You?”
NPN is generously supported by:
Barbara and Amos Hostetter, Doris Duke Foundation, Ford Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, Lambent Foundation, Louisiana Division of the Arts, Mellon Foundation, South Arts, Surdna Foundation, Vilcek Foundation, and our generous donors.
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