Last Friday was an exciting one for minority arts groups! The Ford Foundation announced a new $160 million dollar initiative over 4 years to support arts and cultural groups that have been “historically marginalized, underfunded, and underrepresented in the narrative of American culture. Not only are these gifts to organizations for operating and general support, but in some cases these gifts are more than the organization’s annual operating budget, which makes these gifts even that more impactful!
As I read the article it made me hopeful that other foundations will follow in the footsteps of Ford, and that larger organizations will begin their own initiatives to do the same to support minority art groups either monetarily, and/or through representation in their institutions. While it is important to support minority arts groups, we must also find ways to intersect the work they are doing and represent their work in larger institutions that sadly fail to be representative of the population.
What do you think, is giving these groups funding to stand on their own feet enough, or do institutions also need to think about how they can be more representative of the nation’s population? Or is it both, let me know your thoughts!
If you would like to read about this in more detail, I have included the link here as well as another relevant article!