The Moody Fund for the Arts (MFA) aspires to be a transformative fund that will raise the scope of engagement with the arts throughout the Dallas community. Through flexible grant making, MFA encourages enterprising and diverse cultural offerings and helps sustain the mission of Moody Performance Hall to provide a stage in the Dallas Arts District for small and mid-sized groups.
In 2017, the Texas-based Moody Foundation created and endowed the Moody Fund for the Arts to provide support for small and emerging arts organizations supported by the City of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture (OAC). An organization’s budget may not exceed $1 million. Through an annual competitive process, the $10 million endowment provides flexible grants supporting a range of opportunities, including new works and commissions, general operating and rent support, capacity building, projects taking art into under-served areas, cultural equity programs, and more.
The grant recipients are chosen through a multi-level process including a peer review panel. In 2018, its first year of grant-making, MFA awarded $150,000 in grants through an online application and multi-level peer review process. In 2024, its 7th year, MFA distributed $450,000 in grants to 59 Dallas arts organizations, reaching a total of $2,380,000 with 362 grants, touching 99 unique organizations.
In recognition of the generosity of the Moody Foundation, on May 24, 2017, the City of Dallas changed the name of its 750-seat Dallas City Performance Hall in the Dallas Arts District to Moody Performance Hall
The Moody Fund for the Arts is held within the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts Endowment, a Texas nonprofit corporation. The nonprofit AT&T Performing Arts Center provides staff support to administer the fund and granting process.
For more information about the endowment, please contact:
Hector Garcia
Moody Fund for the Arts
700 N. Pearl Street, Suite N1800, Dallas, TX 75201
214-978-2840