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BOSTON
- Wednesday, December 2, 2020 - Mayor Martin J. Walsh and the Mayor's
Office of Arts & Culture, in partnership with Massachusetts College of
Art and Design (MassArt), today announced 16 ALAANA+/BIPOC artists and
collectives received grants totaling $250,000 in the first year of the Radical Imagination for Racial
Justice (RIRJ) program. The funds and program support are dedicated to
artists who identify as ALAANA+ (African, Latinx, Asian, Arab or Native
American) or BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) and who work at the
intersection of art, community, and justice to radically imagine and build
toward a racially just society. These grants are made possible by the
Surdna Foundation's Thriving Cultures program.
"As
we continue to work to dismantle systemic racism in our city, it is
critically important to learn from those who have been using their creative
practices to envision a Boston where every single person has the
opportunities to thrive," said Mayor Walsh. "We are looking
forward to sharing the work of the grantees, and continuing to support the
arts and culture sector during these unprecedented times."
UnBound Bodies
Collective. The Stoop, 2019. Photo by Tyahra Angus/Afrocentered Media.
Courtesy of the artists.
"MassArt
is proud to partner with the City of Boston to support BIPOC artists who
are working in our communities to make our city a more racially just place
to live, work, and create," said MassArt Acting President Kymberly
Pinder. "As a public institution and a community of makers, equity and
activism is in our DNA. We're excited to support this first cohort of
artists and help them actualize their radical visions for racial justice in
our city."
Fabiola Méndez. Al Otro
Lado del Charco release concert at Hard Rock Cafe San Juan, June 2019.
Courtesy of the artist.
Artists,
creatives, or cultural organizers who identify as ALAANA+ or BIPOC, who are
at least 14 years of age and live or work in Boston were invited to apply.
For the pilot year, the RIRJ program received over 300 applications and
made 16 grants to an intergenerational group of artists. The grantees will
develop a wide variety of projects that work toward racial justice in the
City of Boston, including:
- collaborative audiovisual
storytelling to examine anti-blackness in Latinx communities
- a multimedia project in Chinatown
to build leadership and design skills of Chinatown youth to grow
collective capacity for informing and facilitating deeper modes of
community engagement for urban planners
- a game design studio that
supports alternative economies for young game designers of color
- altar installations honoring
Black Trans Femmes and Gender-Non-Binary (GNB) individuals.
The
complete list of grantees is below:
$40,000 Grants
- UnBound Bodies Collective
- Adobo-Fish-Sauce
- Nia Holley
- Fabiola Méndez
- Husain Rizvi
- Lily Xie
$1,000 Grants
- Christine Alcindor
- Mila Fields-Zayas
- Silvina Ibañez
- Mariona Lloreta
- Nate McLean-Nichols
- Micah x Ireon
- S
- Leonard Tshitenge
- Aggrey Twinomugisha
- Irischa Valentin
Learn
more about the artists and their proposed work at imaginejusticeboston.org.
Throughout
2021 the grantees will further develop and implement their work. Artists will
gather several times throughout the project year to build fellowship,
engage in sustained conversations about racial justice in Boston, and share
how their projects are evolving.
"We
could not have imagined, in this short time, that the world and our daily
practices would be so thoroughly reshaped by a global pandemic, long
overdue racial injustice reckonings, abolition initiatives, and numerous
other acts of resistance to other problematic socio-cultural and economic
systems and structures," expressed the members of UnBound Bodies
Collective. "We also could not have imagined that during this time of
illness and uncertainty, that the City of Boston and MassArt would
intentionally design a grant that counters many philanthropic
normativities, addresses racial inequities, supports
experimental/imaginative world-building, and encourages applicants to
include care and wellbeing in their creative proposal."
The
unique application process developed for the RIRJ program offers a model of
equitable, community-driven re-granting practices. For phase one,
applicants could choose to submit their responses to a series of questions
in writing or via video. Office hours with RIRJ program organizers were
offered to support applicants in their process. A group of twelve artists
applying for the larger grants were invited to complete a second phase of
the application, and they received additional technical support. All
applicants were asked to allocate a minimum of 20% of their grant budget
toward their personal well-being, in recognition of the fact that the
people bringing creative, collaborative, justice-oriented work to life need
support, in addition to the projects that are created. The submissions were
reviewed by two community-based, intergenerational panels comprised of 24
ALAANA+ / BIPOC individuals. Many grantees have never received grant
funding prior to the RIRJ program.
The
Radical Imagination for Racial Justice program is a continuation of the
work that the City of Boston and MassArt have been doing. Mayor Walsh has
emphasized the importance of equity in Boston by overseeing the creation of
Resilient
Boston, the City's first ever strategy for advancing resilience and
racial equity in Boston, and appointing
Dr. Karilyn Crockett as the Chief of Equity for the City of Boston. The
City also launched the Boston
Racial Equity Fund to advance racial equity and dismantle systemic
racism in the City of Boston and its enduring effects, particularly on
Black and Brown communities by increasing their overall safety, wellbeing,
equity, and prosperity. MassArt's Office
of Justice, Equity and Transformation (JET) continues to work toward
achieving systemic equity in all areas of the educational institution
through transformative learning and teaching efforts, and is simultaneously
working to advance racial equity framed by the Massachusetts Department of
Higher Education's Equity agenda. MassArt's mission for equity and
justice is also brought to life through its Center for Art and Community
Partnerships and Artward Bound program, which cultivate authentic community
engagement and access to opportunities for youth, families, and creatives
throughout Boston and beyond.
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