Barr Foundation, partners launch Massachusetts BIPOC arts initiatives

The Barr Foundation has announced a six-year capacity-building initiative aimed at celebrating and supporting the arts of Black, Indigenous, and people of color communities across Massachusetts.

The first project of the Creative Futures Collaborative, a partnership between the Barr Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Springfield-based Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts, the Powering Cultural Futures initiative will support fifteen arts organizations in their efforts to increase access to BIPOC arts and cultural expression, develop networks of mutual support for BIPOC artists, and evolve BIPOC artforms and aesthetics. In addition to pursuing individual projects that reflect the needs, hopes, and assets of their communities, the organizations will contribute — along with the three foundations — to the ecosystem of arts providers and donors, which is vital to the flourishing of BIPOC arts statewide.

The participating arts organizations are 3rd Eye Youth Empowerment, Abilities Dance Boston, Angkor Dance Troupe, Aquinnah Cultural Center, Castle of our Skins, Danza Orgánica, Elevated Thought, Free Soil Arts Collective, Front Porch Arts Collective, Hyde Square Task Force, Jean Appolon Expressions, Ohketeau Cultural Center, Southeast Asian Coalition of Central Massachusetts, Teatro Chelsea, and The Loop Lab.

Initially announced in September 2020 as part of the regional component of the Ford Foundation's America's Cultural Treasures initiative, the Creative Futures Collaborative is seeded with $5 million each from the Barr and Ford foundations. The Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts also is conducting research to inform the design of a donor engagement initiative in support of BIPOC arts.

"We are excited to join with and learn directly from the cohort of Powering Cultural Futures participants," wrote E. San San Wong and Giles Li, the Barr Foundation's director and senior program officer of arts and creativity, respectively, in a blog post. "The dedication and creativity of these community-rooted arts organizations inspires our work for racial justice and vibrant Massachusetts arts and communities."

(Photo credit: barrfoundation.org)
Source: PhilanthropyNewsDigest.Org

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