As part of its ongoing Black Visual Arts Archives program, the Getty Foundation has awarded $1.5 million in grants to seven libraries, museums and universities across the United States.
This year’s recipients are located at California State University Los Angeles, Clark Atlanta University, the Armistad Research Center at Emory University in Atlanta, Emory University at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, the Smithsonianna Costia Community Museum in Washington, D.C. and Visual Aids in New York. To assist this year’s project, Getty worked with Dominique Luster, an archivist and consultant who specializes in Black Archives.
The new round provides Getty with a total funding of $2.6 million in initiatives as part of the pilot program, which previously awarded grants in 2022 and granted grants to Anacostia, Chicago Public Library, Fisk Public Library in Nashville, New York Public Library and Temple University in Philadelphia.
Years of initiatives aim to increase access to archive collections, especially those about work information about black artists’ creations. The program provides archivists with more opportunities to organize, classify and digitize these materials and the opportunity to bring together often difficult to study or different records, some of which may not be processed yet. (Continuously accepting inquiries for grant application.)
Emory’s grant, for example, will allow the university to hire a dedicated archivist for three years to focus on the work of photographer Jim Alexander, who will also create an oral history as “part of providing a significant background for his images and legacy,” N’kosi Oates, N’Kosi Oates, Emory, Emory, Emory, Emory, the African American Group, the African American Group. Artnews. “We value opportunities to help make this respected Atlanta documentary photographer’s collection of resources for active education, research and community engagement.”
From the initial processing and digitization of archival records, this study has emerged with several accompanying projects such as exhibitions and programming. For example, the New York Public Library used Getty funds to create a digital magazine that shows the history of art exhibitions curated by its library, Schomburg Center for Black Culture Studies. Temple University has been working on a virtual reality game that simulates the process of archival research as players learn about the historical exhibition organized by the Pyramid Club, which once was the only black-owned art gallery and social club in Philadelphia.
The speech on the results of the program’s first iteration will be presented at the annual U.S. Archives Conference in Anaheim, California, from August 24 to 27.
Getty’s commitment to fund the Black Visual Arts Archives program was also a time when such initiatives were attacked by the incumbent presidential administration. It is also one of several efforts to support Black cultural heritage, including the preservation of Black Modernism, the African-American historic place Los Angeles, the African-American Art History Project, and its joint acquisition of the archives of 20th-century architect Paul R. Williams.
“We need the impact on black artists, architects and cultural institutions to tell a more complete history of American art and culture, and we can achieve this by investing in black archives,” Miguel de Baca, senior program officer at Getty Foundation, said in a statement. “The Black Visual Arts Archives provide key support to produce these archives and stories of creativity, resilience, and communities that are more accessible to researchers and the public.”
