Jan 24, 2022 - News

Building a more inclusive Atlanta arts community

Thomas Wheatley

A man wearing all white leans against a table near a big blank screen in a black room — A dress rehearsal of the play "In the Solitude of Cotton Fields" at 7 Stages. Photo: Erik S. Lesser/AP

Nearly 30 Atlanta arts organizations are receiving thousands of dollars in grant funding from the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta

45% of this $1 million round’s funding was awarded to BIPOC-led or -serving organizations, the foundation said in a statement. 72% of the 18 applicants of color received funding.

Why it matters: Over the decades, Black artists and creators have played an overlooked, underfunded and important role in the city’s arts communities.

Arts and cultural organizations generate an estimated $434 million in economic impact in metro Atlanta, according to a 2017 Americans for the Arts study.

Flashback: In June 2020, artists and advocates called out the foundation after a $580,000 round of emergency COVID funding did not include Black-led arts organizations.

Arts groups said the foundation's Metropolitan Atlanta Arts Fund had awarded only 10 percent of its total giving to BIPOC-led or -serving organizations since it was founded in 1993.

Foundation officials partnered with arts groups to make the competitive grants more inclusive and accessible and promised to focus on equity.

The following round, more than 90 percent of the funds went to arts organizations founded or led by people of color.

Details: The awards announced last week include T. Lang Dance ($15,000), Dad’s Garage ($35,000), Soul Food Cypher ($10,000), Flux Projects ($30,000), and Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theatre Company ($90,000) and others.

Six organizations are first-time recipients of foundation arts funding.

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Building a more inclusive Atlanta arts community

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