{"id":7628,"date":"2026-06-09T10:49:30","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T10:49:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/?p=7628"},"modified":"2026-07-02T10:52:39","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T10:52:39","slug":"getty-awards-1-8m-to-increase-access-to-black-visual-arts-archives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/?p=7628","title":{"rendered":"Getty Awards $1.8M to Increase Access to Black Visual Arts Archives"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Black PR Wire)\u00a0LOS ANGELES \u2014\u00a0<\/strong>The Getty Foundation announced today it has awarded $1.8 million for eight grants through its\u00a0Black Visual Arts Archives<\/a>\u00a0initiative, a national, multi-year program to enhance access to archival collections related to Black artists and arts organizations. This new round of grants brings Getty\u2019s total funding for the initiative to $4.5M since it began in 2022, supporting a total of 20 grants across the United States at libraries, museums and universities.<\/p>\n

Scholarly interest in telling the full story of American art is stronger than ever, but organizations that hold key historical records connected to Black art often lack the funding needed to process collections and make them available to the public. Getty\u2019s grants are transforming the discoverability and visibility of artist papers, exhibition records, educational materials, photographic documentation and more by helping institutions process and digitize tens of thousands of archival documents. Support is also making it possible for them to activate the archives through community events, exhibitions and other creative projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese grants will help cultural institutions across the country uncover an abundance of untold stories of Black creativity and resilience,\u201d said Miguel de Baca, senior program officer at the Getty Foundation. \u201cWe can\u2019t wait to see how these projects will make such inspiring collections more available to researchers and community members.\u201d<\/p>\n

Projects will kick off at eight institutions, including Afro Charities, Inc.; Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History; Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive; Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History;\u00a0Morgan State University\u2019s Beulah M. Davis Special Collections Department;\u00a0South Side Community Art Center; South Side Home Movie Project at the University of Chicago and the David C. Driskell Center at the\u00a0University of Maryland.<\/p>\n

A common thread across projects is a focus on Black female artists, including the Auburn Avenue Research Library, which is digitizing historic records, photography and other exhibition planning materials tied to leading Black women arts administrators and artists in Atlanta, like Stephanie Hughley, Kathleen Joy Ballard Peters and Mary Parks Washington. Celebrated abstract painter Alma Thomas is among the artists whose career and social life was chronicled in the AFRO, the oldest family-owned African American newspaper whose archives are being processed by Baltimore-based Afro Charities. The Driskell Center is activating the archives of Where We At Black Women Artists, Inc., a collective that promoted the development of feminist artists like Faith Ringgold, Dindga McCannon and Kay Brown.<\/p>\n

\u201cArriving as The Driskell Center marks its 25th anniversary, Getty\u2019s grant secures the records that make Black art histories possible, ensuring they are preserved and widely accessible,\u201d said Jordana Moore Saggese, director of The Driskell Center. \u201cThrough the processing and digitization of these vital collections, alongside a new digital platform for public access, the project extends David C. Driskell\u2019s lifelong commitment to expanding who and what counts in American art.\u201d<\/p>\n

The initiative supports archives connected to a wide range of art forms. The University of Chicago\u2019s South Side Home Movie Project will use funding to identify, digitize and make publicly accessible rare moving image documentation of mid-20th-century Black visual arts and arts institutions. Public programming and a digital resource guide will activate unprocessed footage that documents the vibrant cultural life of Chicago\u2019s South Side. The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA), home of the nation\u2019s largest institutional collection of quilts made by Black artists, will use their grant to digitize materials and create a finding aid for archival materials about quilts from the collection of Eli Leon, including slides and photographic documentation, artist files and field recordings.<\/p>\n

“The significance of the African American Quilt Collection at BAMPFA does not truly emerge without the family names, historical details and stories that reside in the archive,” said Elaine Yau, associate curator and academic liaison at BAMPFA. \u201cGetty\u2019s support of this work is especially meaningful at a university art museum, where there is exciting potential for students, researchers and quiltmaker descendants to collaborate and further amplify stories of creative ingenuity and love that are embodied in quilts.”<\/p>\n

Getty formed the initiative in consultation with professional organizations and specialists in Black archives, including independent scholar and archivist Dominique Luster. Black Visual Arts Archives is one of several efforts by Getty to broaden awareness of and preserve Black cultural heritage, including\u00a0Conserving Black Modernism<\/a>,\u00a0African American Historic Places Los Angeles<\/a>\u00a0and its joint acquisition of the\u00a0Johnson Publishing Company archive<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0archive of architect Paul R. Williams<\/a>.<\/p>\n

2026 grantees for Black Visual Arts Archives:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Afro Charities, Inc.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Baltimore, MD<\/p>\n

Grant amount: $235,000<\/p>\n

The oldest operating Black-owned business in Maryland, AFRO American Newspapers stands as a record of Black artistic life, chronicling the careers and social worlds of artists like Alma Thomas and Augusta Savage and the newspaper\u2019s employment of leading visual and literary figures like Romare Bearden and Langston Hughes during an era of segregation. Getty funding will help Afro Charities process production files, research notes and business records spanning AFRO News\u2019 regional editions in Baltimore, Washington D.C., Richmond, Philadelphia and Newark from roughly 1900\u20132011. Working with an art historian, the project archivist will identify artists from their soon-to-be processed archives to plan two public seminars.<\/p>\n

Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History<\/strong><\/p>\n

Atlanta, GA<\/p>\n

Grant amount: $220,000<\/p>\n

The Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History is the first library in the Southeast to offer specialized reference and archival collections focused on African American heritage and the African diaspora. The library will use Getty funding to reprocess and digitize two major archives central to Atlanta\u2019s Black Arts Movement\u2014the Neighborhood Arts Center and Phoenix Arts and Theatre Company records. They will digitize materials about leading Black women arts administrators and artists in Atlanta, like Stephanie Hughley, Kathleen Joy Ballard Peters and Mary Parks Washington, which will inform digital and physical exhibitions and content for the Digital Library of Georgia web platform. They are also planning traveling exhibitions for schools and community centers, programs, digital research guides and a conference on Black visual arts.<\/p>\n

Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive<\/strong><\/p>\n

Berkeley, CA<\/p>\n

Grant amount: $250,000<\/p>\n

Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) is home to the nation\u2019s largest institutional collection of quilts made by Black artists, made possible by a single bequest of Bay Area collector Eli Leon, a largely self-taught scholar who emerged as a leading authority on African American quilt making in California. BAMPFA will process an archive of Eli Leon papers, which include notes on quilts, slides and photographic documentation, artist files and field recordings. These materials centered on Black artists and makers who moved West in the mid-20th century offer rare insight into the traditions and social practices through which quilts were made, preserved and passed down. Digitized materials, a finding aid and an exhibition will engage the public with the history of West Coast African American quilting traditions, which remains largely absent from major archival collections.<\/p>\n

Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History<\/strong><\/p>\n

Detroit, MI<\/p>\n

Grant amount: $240,000<\/p>\n

Located in Midtown Detroit, the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History is one of the world\u2019s largest and oldest independent African American museums. Amid Detroit\u2019s 1967 uprising, art flourished in Black communities\u2014a history that is not well known or studied, despite local artists having achieved national and international prominence. The Wright is processing and conducting research to strengthen documentation around eight unprocessed collections related to Detroit luminaries like Catherine Blackwell, Allie McGhee, Gilda Snowden and Shirley Woodson. The team will produce downloadable finding aids, a project website and periodic archiving workshops and programs to bring the newly processed collections to the public.<\/p>\n

Morgan State University\u2019s Beulah M. Davis Special Collections Department<\/strong><\/p>\n

Baltimore, MD<\/p>\n

Grant amount: $235,000<\/p>\n

Morgan State University\u2019s Beulah M. Davis Special Collections Department is using Getty funding to process, digitize and produce finding aids for archival collections related to the founders of its Department of Fine and Performing Arts. Records\u00a0relate to\u00a0visual artist and founding chair James E. Lewis and the university\u2019s first and second African American presidents, Dwight O. W Holmes and Martin D. Jenkins.\u00a0The team is integrating oral histories to offer a fuller narrative of the department\u2019s contributions to visual arts education. The project also includes a digital exhibition and LibGuide (a web-based, curated research guide) on the history of visual arts on campus and a searchable collective access database that will be integrated into the library\u2019s Special Collections website, enabling researchers and the public to explore newly digitized materials.<\/p>\n

South Side Community Art Center<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chicago, IL<\/p>\n

Grant amount: $250,000<\/p>\n

South Side Community Art Center (SSCAC) was founded as part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and is the nation\u2019s only WPA art center operating in its original location and observing its original mission as a community-based center for Black artists. A team of archivists is processing records tied to the Chicago Black Renaissance, in particular the papers of Dr. Margaret Taylor Goss Burroughs, a Black artist, educator and co-founder of SSCAC and the Ebony Museum of Chicago (now the\u00a0DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center). The project will also process smaller collections, including Chicago artists William McBride and Douglas Williams, exhibition records and materials on artists who helped establish Chicago as a hub for Black muralists.\u00a0To support community access to materials, SSCAC will develop archive policies for digital and on-site access and organize public programs focused on the activation of archival collections.<\/p>\n

University of Chicago\u00a0(South Side Home Movie Project)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chicago, IL<\/p>\n

Grant amount: $170,000<\/p>\n

The University of Chicago\u2019s South Side Home Movie Project collects, preserves and digitizes\u00a0home movies created by Chicago\u2019s South Side residents.\u00a0Getty is funding a two-year project to identify, digitize and make publicly accessible rare moving image documentation of mid-20th-century Black visual arts. Collections include documentation of the collective mural\u00a0\u201cWall of Respect,\u201d an important gathering space during the Black Arts Movement; footage of the artist communities connected by relationships with the Lake Meadows Art Fair, the South Side Community Art Center and the DuSable Black History Museum; and films of events hosted by the Photographers Guild of Chicago. Artists, curators, collectors and historians who were active in Chicago\u2019s arts community during this period will be invited to share insights on collection footage. A finding aid, enhanced catalog records, public programming and a digital resource guide will activate hundreds of pieces of unprocessed footage documenting the vibrant cultural memory of Chicago\u2019s South Side.<\/p>\n

University of Maryland<\/strong><\/p>\n

College Park, MD<\/p>\n

Grant amount: $225,000<\/p>\n

The Driskell Center is a leading hub for archives and scholarship on Black visual art, having acquired nine new archival collections and more than doubled its footprint since 2023. With Getty support, they are processing, digitizing and creating finding aids for five collections:\u00a0records related to West Coast painter Dewey Crumpler; curator Robert L. Hall, whose career spanned Fisk University and the Anacostia Community Museum; Philadelphia collector Lewis Tanner Moore; the archives of Where We At Black Women Artists, Inc., a collective that nurtured feminist artists like Faith Ringgold, Dindga McCannon and Kay Brown; and McCannon\u2019s personal papers. In alignment with the university\u2019s commitment to open access, materials will be available online through integrated, web-based discovery tools, including full operability with its library systems. The team is also planning a pop-up exhibition and public programs to engage communities and increase awareness of its collections.<\/p>\n

###<\/p>\n

MEDIA CONTACT:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cole Calhoun
\nccalhoun@getty.edu
\n(310) 440-7186<\/p>\n

Press Images<\/a><\/p>\n

Getty\u00a0<\/strong>advances art\u2019s meaning and impact\u2014bringing people together to preserve the past, inspire the present, and shape the future.<\/p>\n

The Getty Foundation\u00a0<\/strong>fulfills the philanthropic mission of the Getty Trust by supporting individuals and institutions committed to advancing the greater understanding and preservation of the visual arts in Los Angeles and throughout the world. Through strategic grant initiatives, the Foundation strengthens art history as a global discipline, promotes the interdisciplinary practice of conservation, increases access to museum and archival collections, and develops current and future leaders in the visual arts. It carries out its work in collaboration with the other Getty Programs to ensure that they individually and collectively achieve maximum effect. Additional information is available at www.getty.edu\/foundation.<\/p>\n

Source: Published without changes from BlackPRNewsWire<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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