The second year and cycle of Black Art Futures Fund sought to answer a question: can we give more in 2019 than we made possible in 2018? We did.
Because of our community of volunteers, we raised and granted $21,000 to small Black arts organizations across the country. We gained momentum—more leadership in the form of an inaugural Advisory Board, more volunteers who helped select grantees and showed up for post-award support learning calls, those who answered the call to raise funds for our third cycle in 2020, and brought along a few more donors as well.
The beauty of it all? Individuals made it possible. You gave year over year—and more. You brought your friends into the journey. You spread the word that we can all secure the future that is needed, what I like to call: The Blackest Artistic Future Possible.
Black Art Futures Fund believes that future starts with small arts, and especially small Black arts organizations.
In these pages we highlight the groups who have received funding, but so many more are worthy.
In 2020, we hope to do even more. 2020 will find us with so much to weigh, so many imperatives will volley for our already stretched resources: emotional energy, time, ability, finances, etc. When I think about all of what we are up against, I fret first, and then ask myself what all of this is for: what will the sum of all of it mean if we get to the other side, and beauty and meaning-making—art—don’t make it there with us?
