$650,000 in grants awarded to Black artists and designers, and to Black-led businesses
The Brooklyn Museum and Instagram, in collaboration with #BlackVisionaries Creative Chair Antwaun Sargent, are pleased to announce the ten recipients of the 2022 #BlackVisionaries grant program. The program, now in its second year, aims to uplift, center, and invest in Black voices and organizations working in art and design. Last year, the program awarded five recipients, including a Black-led small design business, $205,000 in grants. This year, $650,000 in grants has been awarded to ten artists, designers, and small businesses in the United States: five $100,000 Visionary Small Business Grants for Black-led organizations focused on design and five $30,000 Emerging Visionary Grants for Black individuals focused on art and design, awarded with the support of Meta Open Arts.
As part of the Museum’s commitment to our local community, we are thrilled that one of this year’s small business recipients—Pacific, a Black-owned creative studio and publishing house—is based in Brooklyn.
$30,000 Emerging Visionary Grant Recipients
$100,000 Visionary Small Business Grant Recipients
o The Black School: Design Studio
o Pacific
o Strada
As part of this year’s program, the Brooklyn Museum and Instagram will also provide mentorship to each grant recipient in partnership with Mobile Makers, a nonprofit organization that offers design and skill-building workshops to youths in Chicago and Boston communities.
This year’s grant recipients were selected by a committee of artists and designers led by curator and writer Antwaun Sargent. Members are Elle Decor Editor-in-Chief Asad Syrkett, Academy Award-winning costume designer Ruth E. Carter, and Director of Metaverse Design at Meta Ian Spalter.
About the 2022 #BlackVisionaries Grant Recipients
Albert Hicks IV
Baltimore, MD
Albert L. Hicks IV is half of the design and research studio Ayem, alongside Marcus Washington Jr. Ayem is interested in how communities, spaces, and objects shape culture, language, and perspective.
Anaïs Duplan
North Adams, MA
Anaïs Duplan is a trans* poet, curator, and artist. In 2016, Duplan founded the Center for Afrofuturist Studies (@afrofuturist.center), a residency program for artists of color in Iowa City, Iowa, where he received his MFA and where he remains a curator.
Black Fashion Fair
Antoine Gregory
New York, NY
Through cultivating retail spaces and experiences, Black Fashion Fair supports the ideas and continued growth of Black designers and Black-owned brands.
The Black School: Design Studio
Joseph Cuillier
Shani Peters
New Orleans, LA
The Black School: Design Studio, founded by Joseph Cuillier and Shani Peters, is a full-service design firm and consultancy that uses a community-engaged approach to design products, environments, experiences, and systems. Their mission is to apply experimental, iterative, and creative problem-solving processes to real world issues, with the goal of connecting with communities and their needs. The Black School believes that a more just and equitable future is possible when we harness our creativity as a force for positive impact.
Christopher Joshua Benton
Cambridge, MA
Christopher Joshua Benton is an American film and installation artist based in Abu Dhabi and Cambridge, Massachusetts. Benton works closely with communities to instigate collaboration and share stories of power, labor, and hope. Inspired by his nine years living in the United Arab Emirates, his research investigates traces of the homeland in diasporic communities.
Cornelius Tulloch
Miami, FL
Cornelius Tulloch is a Miami-based interdisciplinary artist and designer. With work transcending the definitions of photography, fine art, and architecture, Tulloch focuses on how creative mediums can be combined to tell powerful stories. His interdisciplinary practice is inspired by Black and Caribbean cultures, histories, and everyday life.
Dark Matter U
North America
Dark Matter U is a BIPOC-led, antiracist design justice network collectively seeking the radical transformation of education and practice for a just future. Formed during summer 2020 in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd and others, DMU aims to work inside and outside existing systems in order to challenge, inform, and reshape our world. An ever-growing democratic network spanning North America, DMU’s core team includes Jerome Haferd, Venesa Alicea-Chuqui, Germane Barnes, Bryan C. Lee Jr., Justin Garrett Moore, Jennifer Newsom, Quilian Riano, and Tya Winn.
Jaline McPherson
Brooklyn, NY
Jaline McPherson is a designer, artist, and writer who seeks to elevate stories of Black cultural landscapes and ethnobotanical histories. Her most recent research used plants, reimagined public spaces, and magic to create an abundant future for the first Black freedmen’s town in the United States. She believes that design and storytelling can help redefine healing and joy for Black and Brown communities.
Pacific
Brooklyn, NY
Pacific, a multidisciplinary creative studio and publishing house, was founded by Elizabeth Karp-Evans and Adam Turnbull in 2017. Their work is centered on creating design and communication systems that innovate and build community at the intersection of art, publishing, placemaking, technology, and culture. Pacific’s mission is to cultivate long-lasting creative relationships that result in community and individual growth, new modes of social exploration and engagement, and enduring objects in the hands of the public. Pacific’s work in publication design is in the collections of New York’s Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, and New York Public Library, as well as the Princeton University Library in New Jersey.
Strada
Paul Hill
New York, NY
In 2021, at the age of twenty-two, Paul Hill founded Strada, a New York City–based art gallery and online marketplace creating equitable opportunities for young emerging artists. At Strada, physical exhibitions serve as platforms for BIPOC, women, nonbinary, and Gen-Z artists who are overlooked by the current art market. By fostering a community, providing resources, and creating an online marketplace, Strada is helping to create a more inclusive art world.
You must log in to post a comment.