CINCINNATI – Tens of thousands of dollars in grant funding and artist stipends aim to support the preservation and growth of Black and Brown culture in greater Cincinnati.
What You Need To Know
- Grant funding is available to art-minded nonprofits and community groups looking to celebrate Black culture
- ArtsWave also plans to show off 18 talented Black and Brown artists during an exhibit at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
- The grants are part of a years-long effort by ArtsWave to bring more diversity to the local art scene
- Artists view the grants as a way to use their voices to tell their community's story
ArtsWave announced on Monday the availability of $100,000 in grants to support African American-led arts organizations and those that serve predominantly Black audiences. The nonprofit funder of the arts also outlined details of its latest showcase featuring new works from local artists of color.
Both programs are part of ArtsWave’s overall diversity, equity and inclusion accessibility strategy.
With funding from the community, the Cincinnati-based organization supports a variety of nonprofits and artists each year. They help produce concerts, stage performances, exhibitions, school-based programs, public art pieces, and festivals and events, like BLINK.
Over the past four years, ArtsWave has sought unique ways to invest in artists of color, said Janice Liebenberg, the grant-making organization's vice president of equitable arts advancement. She called doing so an integral way to ensure unique voices are heard, but also that the entire greater Cincinnati community receives representation.
“Our goal is to amplify and promote every artistic voice in our community,” said Liebenberg.
Through the Circle’s African American Arts Grants Program, ArtsWave aims to strengthen the long-term capacity for nonprofits and community groups to present, create and curate arts-centric programming.
Organizations eligible for the grant fund must have a mission related to the Black experience. Most of their annual spending needs to go to cultural activities as well.
In the past, grant dollars supported Cincinnati Music Accelerator’s business academy for local musicians, the construction of a new dance floor for the Cincinnati Black Theatre Company and the operation of a "Hip Hop Youth Orchestra" and related programs at Elementz Hip Hop Cultural Art Center on Race Street.
ArtsWave also provided funding to the 36th annual Juneteenth Festival in Eden Park last weekend. The event included more than 200 performing artists.
The timing of the opening of the grant application intentionally aligned with the Juneteenth holiday, according to ArtsWave.
“These investments represent our commitment to doubling down on programs that serve the BIPOC (Black, indigenous and people of color) community,” Liebenberg said.
The application process is now open and will remain open through July 28. ArtsWave created an early submission feedback period from June 19 to July 14 for first-time applicants.
A webinar on Wednesday, June 21, will go over the ins and outs of the grant application process. It starts at noon. ArtsWave is also hosting free, online grant writing workshops on Thursday, June 29, and Thursday, July 6, respectively. Both events go from noon to 1 p.m.
ArtsWave plans to release the names of the recipients in late August.
Monday’s announcement also included details about ArtsWave’s third annual showcase of new Black and Brown artists. Titled “Truth & Healing Artist Showcase,” the exhibit at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center will run from July 14–16 and July 30, with the visual art exhibition in place through Sept. 10.
ArtsWave received 48 proposals. A panel of community members selected 18 local Black and Brown artists determined to best capture the idea of “truth and healing.” Each selected artist received $10,000 to get their project off the ground.
The projects examine the current state of health and race in the United States, and connect those topics to major historical events. They also present a vision for a more equitable future, per ArtsWave.
Deqah Hussein-Wetzel is one of this year’s awardees. She also received a Black and Brown Artist Grant in 2020 for her Urban Roots podcast series “Lost Voices of Cincinnati.” It tells the story of urban renewal in three African American neighborhoods: Evanston, Avondale and South Cumminsville.
A historic preservationist by trade, Hussein-Wetzel’s newest project “Urban Renewal Means Negro Removal” build off her previous work by exploring how the construction of Interstates 71 and 74 affected those neighborhoods.
The short documentary uses both archives and audio-visual storytelling to tell the stories of those communities and the people who lived there.
Her project will be on display with her 17 co-grantees at the Freedom Center in July.
“Intentionality matters,” Hussein-Wetzel said of the decision by ArtsWave to seek out diverse grant recipients. Beyond promoting her own artistic voice, the showcase provides a platform to share the stories of the people and communities she covers as well.
“I’ve definitely heard from a lot of people, especially people in Avondale, saying how touching and meaningful it was to have their story told so other people would learn about it,” she added.
Through the ArtsWave grant, Hussein-Wetzel ended up developing a new passion for podcasting. She said those dollars made it possible to find an “experimental way” to tell important but often untold stories.
Being intentional about funding Black and Brown artists enables talented artists to survive the early days of being “struggling artists,” Hussein-Wetzel said. She stressed the funding and community support received through the ArtsWave program empowered her to turn art and unique voices into their career.
In 2021, she decided to start a nonprofit production company, Urbanist Media, to continue to tell these types of stories. Her team is partnering with Cincinnati Public Radio this June to produce Juneteenth Cincinnati Shorts, weekly 90-second tributes to people and places important to local African American history.
“I’m really appreciative of ArtsWave for not only giving me and other young artists a chance to have their voice heard, but really providing a chance to develop a voice of their own,” Hussein-Wetzel said.
To date, ArtsWave has provided $742,108 in grants to 67 artists of color over the past three years through the Black and Brown Artists Program.
This program is supported by the City of Cincinnati, Macy’s, Duke Energy, Fifth Third Bank, the Greater Cincinnati Foundation and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.
The showcase aims to invite as many members as possible of the community to experience the artwork and appreciate the message it conveys, Liebenberg said. But a secondary goal is to create more paid art opportunities for artists.
She referred to situations like Hussein-Wetzel’s as a “wonderful byproduct” of ArtsWave’s seed investment.
“We’ve had artists from the showcase who’ve had their work travel the country, in some cases internationally,” Liebenberg said. “It really speaks to the power of art.”