The Dallas Arts District Foundation has awarded 12 arts and cultural organizations $25,000 for innovative projects in 2020.

This is an annual ritual: Since 1997, the Dallas Arts District Foundation at Communities Foundation of Texas has awarded 452 grants to area organizations totaling $1,202,267.

This year has an increase in funding, thanks to a partnership with Hall Group on their photography book, Through the Lens: Dallas Arts District.

The 2020 grants are awarded for original, diverse, multidisciplinary programs that will be produced in the Dallas Arts District and reflect dance, music, theater, visual art, video/film, writing, and arts education. This is the widest array of organizations so far, and several are first-time recipients.

And the envelope, please:

 Junior Players. January 2-5: Andrew Lippa's Wild Party, directed by Joel Farrell, Moody Performance Hall.

 Shakespeare Dallas. January 10-19: Indoor Winter Season, Jane Austen's classic, Pride and Prejudice, Moody Performance Hall.

 Make Art With Purpose. MAP2020: The Further We Roll, The More We Gain is commissioning 10 female artists to produce flags honoring a woman who has had an impact upon broader culture and society. A flag and reading space designed by Texas artist Beili Liu will be installed at the Crow Museum of Asian Art. The Crow and MAP will co-produce a public talk that includes artist Aram Han Sifuentes. Ms. Liu and Ms. Sifuentes' work addresses similar themes connected to women, motherhood, and immigration.

 The Women’s Chorus of Dallas. March 4: TWCD’s sixth annual Voices of Women concert, Travelin’ Voices, will showcase the transformative power of women’s voices in unity. This concert, taking place during Women’s History Month, will see TWCD onstage with local college choirs and high school singers from Dallas ISD, putting 300 young and adult women ages 15-70+ singing together onstage. Moody Performance Hall.

 Sammons Center for the Arts. April 8: Dallas Jazz Appreciation Month (D’JAM) includes more than 12 organizations and educational institutions who present jazz events and education. D’JAM’s goal is to increase public awareness of the legacy of jazz as part of the Smithsonian Institution’s national initiative celebrating jazz every April. Moody Performance Hall.

 Avant Chamber Ballet. April 17-18: "Beauty and Beyond," features the company premiere of Christopher Wheeldon’s "Five Movements, Three Repeats"; world premiere commissions by Kimi Nikaidoh and Jennifer Mabus as part of the 2020 Women’s Choreography Project; and Katie Cooper’s "Aurora’s Wedding: Sleeping Beauty Act III" with Tchaikovsky’s iconic score and the grandeur of classical ballet.

 Lone Star Wind Orchestra. April 26: "Bringing awareness to Alzheimer's focusing on brain health in music" is the goal of this concert, which will feature Grammy Award-winning soprano Hila Plitmann, guest composer John Mackey, and guest conductor Daniel Cook. Moody Performance Hall.

 Bruce Wood Dance. June 12-13: Ten Year Celebration. Artistic Director Bollinger has curated outstanding programming to recognize Wood's lineage and legacy. The mixed bill will feature the Dallas premiere of "Elemental Brubeck," by the great 20th century choreographer Lar Lubovitch; Wood's groundbreaking all-male, multigenerational work, "I'm My Brother's Keeper"; and the Dallas premiere of Wood's poignant work about the power of community, "Chichester Psalms," and set to the Leonard Bernstein choral score. Moody Performance Hall.

 ArtsVision. ArtsVision Performing & Visual Art Summer Programs 2020. During the two-week summer program, students receive an intensive arts experience. Professional teaching artists from as far away as New York come to the Dallas Arts District to teach acting, dance, voice, and instrumental music. Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing & Visual Arts.

 The Writer’s Garret. Summer 2020: Rail Writers. Building on three successful previous summers, the teaching artists of Dallas Poetry Slam under executive director Sherrie “Candy” Zantea are slated to facilitate the majority of the rides, plus community partners such s the Dallas Museum of Art, Klyde Warren Park, and Nasher Sculpture Center.

 Cry Havoc Theater Company. October 30: “Satyam/Bias” is one of eight performances selected to participate in the 2019/2020 season of AT&T Performing Arts Center’s Elevator Project. Presented by Indique Dance Company (IDC), CHTC will partner with the dance group to depict the progression of biases in each of us through the combined artistic mediums: theater and dance. AT&T Performing Arts Center.

 Video Association of Dallas. October 31: Two screenings of "What’s Opera Dallas." Dallas VideoFest will present iconic American cartoons with their classical music scores live performed by local musicians and actors from all ethnic and cultural backgrounds from around the city. Moody Performance Hall.

For more info, visit www.cftexas.org/dad.