Pieter Performance Space
Fund: $15,000
Founded in 2009, Pieter stimulates regional dance and performance art, making it available to all regardless of ability to pay. Having left their Lincoln Heights studio space of over a decade due to the financial strain of the pandemic, Pieter is currently an entirely virtual platform featuring a diversity of approaches to body-based practice facilitated by movement artists, healers, and activists. Pieter believes dance is and should be for everyone, that bodies are political, and that dancers are agents of change. Pieter’s former studio space featured a free boutique and accepted non-monetary donations at events; as a virtual platform, all classes, workshops, and events offer a no-one-turned-away-for-lack-of-funds policy. In these ways, Pieter implements their commitment to reciprocity, generosity, and inclusivity. Nearly 8,000 audience members, artists, and class attendees visit Pieter each year. Pieter’s history of programming includes presenting dance and interdisciplinary performance work by local, national, and international artists; classes and workshops by artists and activists; subsidized rehearsal and performance space; Artist-in-Residence program; a granting program for women choreographers over the age of 40; an in-studio library; and a Free Boutique of books, clothing, and household items.