New York Live Arts Inc

Overview

Mission

New York live arts strives to create a robust framework in support of the nation's dance and movement-based artists through new approaches of producing, presenting, and educating in our 20,000 square foot home, which includes a 184-seat theater, two 1,200 square foot studios, and communal space in the lobby and cafe. Live arts serves as home base for the bill t. Jones/arnie zane dance company, provides an extensive range of participatory programs for adults and young people, and supports the continuing professional development of artists. With our audience, we seek to become a place for dance that is vital to the fabric of social and cultural life in New York, america, and beyond.

What it reported doing in 2024

New York live arts had a critically acclaimed 2024-25 season including six 2024 bessie award nominations among three commissioned artists and two 2025 bessie award nominations. Live arts produced thirteen fully produced presentations, including rca, live feed, and live artery festival that brought in an audience of nearly 6,912 to live arts. The bill t. Jones/arnie zane dance company toured nationally, bringing its work to approximately 6,702 audience members. During the company's 43rd year, they had 8 performances in New York city. Remounting the iconic work still/here at brooklyn academy of music (bam), marking its 30th anniversary, as well as premiering a new work for the home season at New York live arts. Bill t. Jones was commissioned to create a solo for the whitney art museum's edges of ailey exhibit, where he had 2 sold-out shows for his world premier of memory piece: mr. Ailey, alvin. The un-ailey? We also remounted the work for the company's home season in may 2025.New York live arts continued to support the development of the new work of its seventh resident commissioned artist, miguel guiterrez, and his work, super nothing, which premiered in january 2025. Live arts announced joanna kotze as the eighth resident commissioned artist for the fiscal year 26-27 and will support the development of their new work. Live arts also commissioned new work from some of the most forward-thinking independent artists of our time in our theatre and in nyc: including wally cardona, lisa fagan & lena englestein, milka djordevich and makini (jumatatu poe). The live feed residency program is a laboratory for the development of new commissioned work directed to our theater. Emerging and mid-career artists selected by the live arts curatorial staff are offered 140 hours of rehearsal time over two years, followed by moderated discussions in the first year. In the second year, we premier their newly created performance piece in our theater. Along with performance fees, each commissioned artist enjoyed a week-long technical residency in New York live arts' theater, an unusual opportunity to refine a work for the stage. New York live arts served as an artistic home to more than 200 emerging and mid-career artists. The emerging artist program, fresh tracks supported five new artists with a year of professional development, led by artistic advisor juliana may, and producing a new work on a shared evening of four performances of: maxi hawkeye, kashia kancey, jade mann, ayo ohs.the bill chats program, where we continued to investigate issues of our time, this year with bill t. Jones in conversation with judith butler and anne deveare smith. The motherboard suite, created by saul williams and bill t. Jones, continued its touring to the ford in los angeles, ca, with one performance to approximately 700 audience members. In its 14th year, the live artery festival presented seven fully produced productions: julia antinozzi, leslie cuyjet, milka djordjevich, jessie factor, miguel gutierrez, faustin linyekula, samara sarai, stacy spence, and zoe|juniper. There were also 8 studio showings of excerpts and work-in-progress new works from our residency artists and curated guests, including bill t. Jones/arnie zane company, kyle abraham and abraham in motion (aim), shamel pitts|tribe, cynthia oliver, joseph keckler, ogemdi ude, roderick george, and michael sakamonto with dj spooky. Kayla farrish, gabriela carniero da cunha, heather kravis, janani balusbramanian, and tere o'connor. This allowed presenters to listen to artist pitches and artists to meet presenters in a relaxed setting to build tours, commissions, etc. Live arts continues to partner with l'alliance New York | crossing the line and together, we co-presented three international artists in fall 2024: nadia beugr, lenio kaklea, and ismel mouaraki.live arts also continues to support visual artists by exhibiting their work on the ford foundation live gallery. The 2024-2025 artist was isaiah gardner

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 79% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 62% for direct work, and 38% for grants.
  • Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
136206608
IRS 990 coverage
2011–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
New York, NY, USA
Phone
2126916500
Rating
81
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Dance

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$10,364,322
Expenses
$8,881,944
Assets
$20,418,099
Liabilities
$605,186

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

The verdict

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 71
  • Transparency & Controls: 88
  • Accountability: 90
  • Sustainability: 67
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 71.4%; rating input score 71
  • Program expense ratio: 80.7%; rating input score 81
  • Fundraising efficiency: $10.99 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 41; 41st percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 94.1%; rating input score 94; 20th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 5 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 83
    • Compensation committee: Pass
    • Independent consultant: Pass
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Pass
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 98.7%; rating input score 99; 30th percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 91.3%; rating input score 91; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 14.3%; rating input score 75; 75th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.3; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.03; rating input score 87; 87th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 11.3%; rating input score 16; 16th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 1.2% per year; rating input score 100; 15th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 2.6% per year; rating input score 100; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 4.9% per year; rating input score 100; 34th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 71.4% of revenue deployed · 80.7% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 21 of 23 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $7.2M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $331K · 29 people listed · 5 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 2 contractors listed · $395K reported
  • Consistency: 35 of 36 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 9 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
  • Filing history: 14 annual filings from 2011 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 21 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 14 filed related-organization links
  • Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
  • People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 41/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Form 990 shared with the board not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 16/100.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.

Leadership & pay

29 people listed

Highest reported compensation

  • KIMBERLY CULLEN (EXEC. DIR./CEO): $330,700 total reported compensation
  • NUPUR DEY (CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER): $155,157 total reported compensation
  • JANET WONG (ASSOCIATE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR): $134,466 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024.