The Democracy Cycle
We are excited to announce the 2024 recipients for The Democracy Cycle. Learn more about them and their projects
There will be two more open calls for The Democracy Cycle – the second open call begins in January 2025, and the third in January 2026 with updated proposal information and submission guidelines posted here.
To ensure you get the notifications as soon as they go out, sign up now at this link for The Democracy Cycle’s mailing list.
In January 2024, The Perelman Performing Arts Center (PAC NYC) and Civis Foundation (a Galvan Initiatives affiliate) partnered to launch The Democracy Cycle, a new commissioning program designed to support new works that illuminate the promise, practice, imperfection, and opportunity of democracy.
What is The Democracy Cycle?
Over a five-year period, The Democracy Cycle will commission and develop 25 new performing arts works across the fields of theater, dance, music, opera, and multi-disciplinary performance. The commissioned works, to be selected over the course of three annual Rounds of Open Calls (2024, 2025, and 2026) will explore themes relating to the nature, practice, and experience of democracy.
Civis and PAC NYC have come together because of our shared beliefs to create this commissioning program. These shared beliefs are:
- We believe that democratic values are a global expression of humanity’s striving to live with one another with respect and in peace.
- We believe that democracy, as practiced in the United States of America, includes a history of founding exclusions and that it has been, and must continue to be, the ongoing work of our society to expand upon the inclusive ideals embedded in our founding documents.
- We believe that democracy faces significant perceived and actual threats in the current moment, both domestically and internationally.
- We believe that the intersection of capitalism and democracy creates both opportunities and tensions.
- We believe that artists are the beating heart of democratic values because of their ability to imagine new worlds, envision new possibilities, and provoke meaningful discourse across any number of divides.
Our hope is that projects commissioned as part of The Democracy Cycle will enrich and expand the discussion around and participation in democracy – be it in the national, state, regional, or hyperlocal community realm – as it is practiced both within the United States and worldwide.
The Cycle will provide $60,000 in support to each awarded project, consisting of a $30,000 commission as well as an additional $30,000 towards each commissioned project’s development process (research, readings, workshops etc.). The commissions will be awarded across three annual Open Calls, beginning in January 2024. In each Open Call, The Democracy Cycle will commission at least eight projects.
For more information, please read the following material and review our FAQs. Updated Submission Guidelines will be posted before the start of each Open Call.
Alongside this Request for Proposals or RFP, applicants are encouraged to review PAC NYC’s mission and Civis’ mission before submitting proposal materials.
Commissions will be awarded over the course of three annual Rounds of Open Calls beginning in January 2024. At least eight commissions will be awarded in each Open Call.
Each commissioned artist will be provided $30,000 to create a new performance work in theater, dance, music, chamber opera, and multi-disciplinary performance based on the idea(s) of the promise, practice, imperfection and opportunity of democracy.
An additional $30,000 will be provided in support of each commissioned project’s development process (research, readings, workshops etc.).
After The Democracy Cycle staff screens applications for eligibility, each eligible proposal will be reviewed by (at least) two Readers. Using the assessments of those Readers, a pool of finalists will be identified. Those finalist proposals will move forward to a panel made up of experts in both the performing arts field and experts on democracy, who will select the 8 proposals to receive commissions. A second Open Call will begin in January 2025, and a third and final Open Call in 2026.
The application consists of narrative questions and supplemental materials, including artist statement, project description, project development schedule and projected budget, work samples, and artist resume/CV and bio.
Please note: You will need to make a free account for yourself on Submittable in order to apply.
In February 2025 The Democracy Cycle staff will host a webinar and give an overview of the steps to apply and the application elements, with an opportunity for questions and answers at the end.
PAC NYC / Perelman Performing Arts Center
PAC NYC is a new home for emergent and established artists in theater, dance, music, opera, film, and media from New York City and around the world. Flexible in design, the center is fully responsive to artists’ creative visions. Intimate in scale, PAC NYC fosters an immediate connection between artists and audience members. The center’s projects will sometimes involve significant community participation and will always strive to have audiences reflect the work onstage.
PAC NYC’s mission is to create connections by cultivating bonds between extraordinary artists and communities, with exemplary performances in active dialogue across the arts, and in our flexible, intimate spaces, inviting conversation and new relationships. Our art and our audiences reflect the dynamic energy of all five boroughs of New York City. Our work asks all of us to consider and embrace the complexities of society. Together, we welcome the entire world. The center is where the world trades ideas.
Civis Foundation
Civis (a Galvan Initiatives affiliate) advances the Common Good through investments in root cause advocacy, cultural work, and facilities that illuminate our interdependent future. We pursue our work independently and in collaboration with others whose missions align.
Civis believes that coalitions and partnerships can create winning campaigns for meaningful societal change. By leveraging the unique strengths of private sector companies, government programs, and nonprofit organizations, we are nurturing an American democracy with the constant capacity to effectively serve the welfare of all people residing in this country.
The Democracy Cycle is a joint project of PAC NYC and Civis Foundation and is made possible by generous support from Civis.