In 2018, Callahan led the collaborative design and management of Dance/USA Fellowships to Artists (DFA), a national program that awards over $1 million in unrestricted support to dance artists who address social change.   In December 2020, a second round of funding was announced. the firm transitioned out of its managerial role.  

Below is the story of its initial conception, design, management, results and documentation. It is intended to provide an example for funders or nonprofits who are interested in collaborative design, wish to address equity, and/or support individual artists. This story is excerpted from Dance/USA’s book about the program, referenced below. 

DFA addresses a decades-long issue in the dance field — the importance of supporting individual artists. For 25 years, there had not been a national program that offered unencumbered, five-figure support to scores of dance artists across the country.* Most of the programs that existed prioritized western dance forms. Across the country, many artists’ voices had not been heard or amplified prominently; while some might work on concert stages, many of their practices took place in communities. Our country was on the cusp of the 2020 civil uprising. Dance artists’ voices and stories and experiences urgently needed to be supported and heard. 

The collaborative design process involved gathering scores of artists, funders and administrators, to have conversations and provide feedback. The collective goal emerged to amplify artists’ voices and raise their visibility to presenters, funders and others in the field. Support would center artists’ practices, rather than projects.  Feedback was offered from people who spoke in first-voice perspective about one or more of the communities that the program sought to reach. 

The application process intentionally differed from most funding programs, including those that CCA had managed. In advance, with the collaborators, we analyzed the historical barriers that artists faced when applying for funding and addressed as many of them as possible. Care was taken not to privilege the written word alone, knowing that some artists may have a deep impact on their communities but limited grant-writing experience or are not English-first speakers. Short, informal “artist statements” via video, recorded on a phone or computer, allowed artists to speak directly to the panel and say anything that they could not express in writing. Community references submitted letters and stories about their relationships with the artists. 

In its inaugural round, a national panel selected 31 DFA Artist Fellows, who received support of $1,005,000. Nearly half of the Fellows had more than 15 years of practice; 13% identify as disabled; two-thirds identify as female and 13% identify as transgender, gender non-conforming, and/or two spirit; nearly one quarter identify as LGBTQ; and 84% are artists of color. 

The program culminated in Voices from the Field: Dance/USA Fellows in Practice and Community, an article series and book. The publication’s 15 writers capture and raise visibility for the Fellows’ practices and stories. They are intended for use by “artists, academicians, funders, presenters, cultural practitioners, and community workers who understand that the plurality of creative voices reflecting people of color and other historically marginalized people must be valued and welcomed into the pantheon of what constitutes American dance.”  The book highlights these artists’ practices: