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Advancing Black Arts in ÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø

Advancing Black Arts in ÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø funds individual artists, artist residencies, nonprofit organizations or community-based programs that present and/or produce the art of Africa and the African Diaspora.
See Past Grantees Since 2023
Advancing Black Arts in ÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø is an arts program of ÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø.
Advancing Black Arts in ÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø is an arts program of ÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø.

The City of ÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø is known for its rich contributions to the canon of Black cultural creativity. Cultural experiences and creative innovations have always reflected the expressions and imaginations of people from the African diaspora. The Advancing Black Arts in ÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø program is where access and opportunity connect with ÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø artists who are thriving in their creative process as a means and a way of life.

The program is committed to helping to create a vibrant cultural life in ÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø and the region. Until 2023, the program was co-managed in partnership with The Heinz Endowments. Currently the program is managed by ÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø, with both foundations consistently making investments towards this initiative since 1988.  

The program goals are to:

  • Help build the careers and support the lives of individual artists.
  • Increase the sustainability of cultural organizations that focus on Black arts.
  • Build community awareness of the Black arts sector.
  • Support efforts toward greater collaboration and the elimination of racial disparities within the larger arts sector.
  • Prioritize the documentation and discussion of Black artists’ work and wellbeing as part of the region’s cultural health.
  • Support work that directly addresses and calls for the eradication of systemic and structural racism that allows for disparities to exist.

2025 APPLICATION CYCLE 

Due to a significant Foundation-wide technology transition, the Foundation’s Advancing Black Arts in ÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø program will operate on a modified timeline in 2025. Please continue to check the website for up-to-date information on this year's application process and deadlines. We encourage you to sign up here to stay informed about grant opportunities.

About the 2024 Awardees

View the 2024 awardees

Read the news release

Download 2024 program guidelines

Grant Review Panel

Applicants to the 2024 grantmaking cycle in the Aboveground Railroad and Project Support funding streams were reviewed and recommended by a grant review panel of ÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø-based and national artists from varied artistic disciplines: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; and

If you have questions about Advancing Black Arts in ÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø, please email us at arts@pghfdn.org. 

About Advancing Black Arts in ÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø: The Advancing Black Arts program is where access and opportunity meet with ÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø artists who are thriving in their creative process as a means and a way of life. Video by Emmai Alaquiva for The Heinz Endowments and ÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø.
 

Read more about past awardees:

Advancing Black Arts in ÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø awards $1.2 Million to artists and arts groups

Grants will provide general operating and project support.

Advancing Black Arts provides record $1.61 million in grants

Program supported by two local foundations and philanthropist MacKenzie Scott.

Advancing Black Arts in ÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø awards $836,450 in latest slate of grants

PITTSBURGH, NOV. 1, 2021- Advancing Black Arts in ÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø, a joint program of ÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø and The Heinz Endowments, has awarded 127 grants totaling $836,450 in the initiative’s 2021 grant-making cycle, including $440,000 in operating support for individual artists and art programs.

Advancing Black Arts in ÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø announces $456,000 in grants

Projects funded by this joint program of ÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø and The Heinz Endowments include a documentary about Black American women, an artist residency at Guardians of Sound to work with the Hip Hop Orchestra Music Instruction project, a series of cookout events to cultivate Black joy and a three-month visiting playwright fellowship that honors the legacy of August Wilson.

Advancing Black Arts in ÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø announces $427,660 in grants

A total of $427,660 in grants has been distributed to regional artists and arts programs in the second of two funding cycles for 2018. New in this latest round are three $10,000 grants for special projects and nearly $50,000 more in funding than was awarded in the spring to individual artists and residencies.

Advancing Black Arts in ÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø announces $229,000 in grants

A locally produced comic book series, a holistic healing guide coupled with therapeutic workshops for African American youth, and a series of documentaries that highlight the lives of homegrown jazz legends are all projects being funded this spring by the Advancing Black Arts in ÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø grant-making program, which recently awarded $229,000 to regional artists and art programs.