NEW YORK CITY: The Shubert Foundation has announced awards totalling $32 million in the form of grants to 560 not-for-profit performing arts organizations across the country in 2020. The grants range from $10,000 to $325,000 and benefit a broad range of organizations, with the Shubert Foundation particularly interested in supporting companies dedicated to developing and producing new American work.

“COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on the field,” said Diana Phillips, president of the Shubert Foundation, in a statement, “creating the greatest need in the history of the foundation. We hope that the general operating support the foundation provides will be particularly meaningful at this uniquely difficult time.”

The foundation was established in 1945 by Lee and J.J. Shubert, in memory of their brother Sam. The grants program was established in 1977 and has awarded over $505 million to not-for-profit arts organizations throughout the United States. The Shubert Foundation provides help in the form of unrestricted general operating support funding, operating under the believe that talented artists and administrators are the best people to decide how to use the provided funds.

“The COVID-19 crisis has burdened every one of our 560 grantees with previously unimaginable challenges,” said Shubert Foundation chairman Philip J. Smith in a statement. “We want to help them weather the storm. To maintain our 43-year commitment at this pivotal time reinforces the foundation’s singular purpose of supporting theatre and dance companies nationwide.”

Current theatre grantees can be found on the Shubert Foundation website.