New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation awards more than $2 million to 513 Louisiana artists and organizations
The foundation, which owns the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, announced its 2026-2027 Community Partnership Grants on Oct. 28. Awards ran from $1,000 to $7,500 across five categories, from school music lessons to festivals and new work.
New Orleans. The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation has awarded more than $2 million to 513 individuals and organizations through its Community Partnership Grant program, the foundation said on Oct. 28. The nonprofit owns the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and pays for the grants from the festival's proceeds and other funds.
Awards ranged from $1,000 to $7,500. The foundation said the funded projects come from more than half of Louisiana's parishes, from Caddo Parish in the northwest to Plaquemines Parish in the southeast, and include recordings, art exhibitions, festivals, documentaries, education programs and literary projects.
Five ways in
The money went out in five categories, which the foundation opened in June with an application deadline of July 8. In-school education grants pay for music and arts instruction in Louisiana schools from kindergarten through 12th grade. After-school grants go to nonprofits running after-school and summer arts programs, and may pay only the fees of the artists or educators who teach.
Presenting grants help nonprofits hire Louisiana performers for festivals and public cultural events in the state. Media grants support work that documents, interprets or preserves Louisiana's indigenous culture and are open to nonprofits. The Louisiana Cultural Equity Arts and Creation category is the one open to individuals, for anyone making, documenting or showing art about the state's many cultures.
The funded projects must take place in Louisiana between Sept. 1, 2026, and Aug. 31, 2027.
Last year and before
In its June announcement, the foundation said it had awarded almost $2 million in 2025 to more than 600 Louisiana artists, nonprofits, schools, arts education programs and presenters, and more than $20 million in all since the program began. The foundation has made grants from festival proceeds since 1979.
Among the projects the program has supported, the foundation named a documentary on the New Orleans singer Irma Thomas and a WYES New Orleans documentary on the painter George Rodrigue. The full list of this year's recipients is on the program's website.
“From schoolhouses to festivals to recording studios and everything in between, these grants help to elevate the stories, traditions, and creations that exemplify Louisiana's rare cultural identity.”
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