The American Friends of the Paris Opera & Ballet have launched an emergency Young Artist Relief Fund to support dancers and singers struggling during the times of COVID-19.

The non-for-profit organization, which was created in 1984, is distributing grants to young students from the Boston Ballet School, Miami Ballet School, Pacific Northwest Ballet School, San Francisco Ballet School and School of American Ballet in the U.S., and the Paris Opera Ballet School, and the Paris Opera Academy in France.

As of this writing, the American Friends of the Paris Opera & Ballet has already made a series of $2,500 grant distributions to 24 young dancers and singers in both the U.S. and France.

“The world of performing arts cannot exist without the artists, and the youngest of them are facing an exceptional ordeal to turn their demanding and life‐long training into a livelihood,” said Chairman of the Board of the American Friends of the Paris Opera & Ballet Olivia Tournay Flatto in a press release. “Performances will resume once we will be out of this crisis, and when they do, we will need these talents. We could not ignore their struggles in these exceptional times and hope that other not‐for‐profits will join us in supporting them.”