The Performance Zone

The Field has received funding from several prominent left-of-center grantmaking and charitable organizations, including left-wing billionaire George Soros’s Open Society Foundations (OSF), the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF). ^{3  4  5  6}

Activities

The Performance Zone offers a variety of services to the artists in its network, including an annual fee-based program of artistic development training, fundraising, and advertising to promote the member artists’ work. ⁷ The Field also maintains a database of all arts-based grants and fellowship opportunities to which its members apply for funding and fiscal sponsorship. ⁸

One of The Field’s central projects is its partnership with Live Arts Global, another organizing and funding hub for international artists seeking fiscal sponsorship. ^{9  10}

Through The Field’s network, it claims to have developed 770,365 new works of art in 2024, which it shared with a global audience of 60,166,236 people. The Field also claims to have helped raise $5,433,313 in fiscal sponsorships for its artists in 2024. ¹¹

The Field has several institutional sponsors, including the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the New York Community Trust, the New York State Council on the Arts, the Howard Gilman Foundation, the Jewish Communal Fund, the New England Foundation for the Arts, and the Ford Foundation. ¹²

Leadership

Christopher Bloodworth is the executive director of The Performance Zone, a position he assumed in 2023. ^{13  1} Before joining The Field, he worked as the program manager for Catholic Charities Neighborhood Services, as the director of education and workforce development for the Stanley M. Isaacs Neighborhood Center, and as the managing director for the Entertainment Community Fund’s Career Center. ¹⁴

Michael Wellington is a co-chair of the board of directors at The Field. He is the co-head of credit advisory at Goldman Sachs. ¹³

Alice de Callatay is also a co-chair of the board of directors at The Field. ¹³

Finances

In 2024, The Performance Zone reported $6,746,140 in total revenues, $6,812,518 in total expenses, and $1,146,656 in total assets. That year, The Field received $140,142 in government grants. ¹⁵

The Field has received extensive funding from several left-of-center organizations. Between 2001 and 2024, The Field received five grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, totaling $3,342,500. ^{16  17  4  18  19} Between 2010 and 2013, The Field received five grants from the Open Society Foundations (formerly the Open Society Institute), totaling $18,200. ^{20  21  22  3}

Between 2014 and 2024, The Field received 11 grants from the Ford Foundation, totaling $189,344. ^{23  24  25  26  27  5}

In 2024, The Field received a $60,000 grant from Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. ²⁸ Between 2020 and 2024, The Field received seven grants from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF), totaling $260,862. ^{29  30  31  6}

In 2019, The Field received seven grants from the New York State Council on the Arts, totaling $95,000. ³²