BROOKLYN, NY—On September 21, Etsy announced a new program under its Etsy Uplift Initiative. As described in a press release, “this program serves to provide financial opportunities to historic artisan communities that often face economic hardships, while simultaneously recognizing and celebrating their artistic contributions to history and culture.” Together with partners Nest, Souls Grown Deep, and Bloomberg Philanthropies, the online retail company launched the Uplift Makers Program by supporting the shops of artisans from two celebrated groups: Gee’s Bend quilters and Gullah basket weavers.
Etsy has made a grant investment of $75,000, which will provide services such as professional photography, design and merchandising mentorship, shop content creation, shop management training, and shipping and fulfillment assistance. Etsy will also be waiving transaction fees and providing listing fee support for a period of time, in support of these growing shops.
ATLANTA—South Arts, an Atlanta-based regional arts organization that aims to increase access to arts and culture in the South, is currently offering multiple project grants, mentorship programs, and artist fellowships with application dates as soon as November 3, 2021. Opportunities include In These Mountains: Central Appalachian Folk Arts & Culture – 2021 Emerging Traditional Artists Program, Traditional Arts Touring Grants, and NC ArtsMarket Scholarships. Applications and guidelines are available via the websites linked above.
DOTHAN, AL—The Wiregrass Museum of Art (WMA) announced grant support for an artist residency and upcoming exhibition with Sydney A. Foster, from the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation and the Alabama State Council on the Arts, in the amounts of $25,000 and $5,800, respectively.
Foster, an Alabama native, has worked closely with WMA since 2019, exhibiting photography in her first solo exhibition, Walks in the South. In the upcoming exhibition, Sydney A. Foster: Realities and Reflections, the artist explores the unique characteristics of the Wiregrass region. The exhibition will focus on new works created throughout her residency.
ATLANTA—The National Endowment for the Arts has awarded a 2021-2023 Our Town Grant to Emory University for the Praise House project, placing site-specific public art installations in three separate locations throughout the metro Atlanta area: Decatur Square, South View Cemetery, and the Emory University campus.
The Praise House project comes from a partnership between Emory Arts and Atlanta artist-activist, Charmaine Minniefield, who will introduce the project at Emory’s upcoming symposium, “In the Wake of Slavery and Dispossession: Emory, Racism and the Journey Towards Restorative Justice.”
The Emory installation will also commemorate the legacy of the late activist historian and Stuart A. Rose Library curator of African American collections, Pellom McDaniels III, who passed in April 2020.
NEW YORK—On September 21, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation announced $15 million in grants supporting nineteen projects and organizations through the Foundation’s newly established Humanities in Place program. Humanities in Place will focus on work that includes or incorporates historic and community spaces, museums and other institutions, and media and conveners of cultural heritage and public experiences.
These first grants, ranging from $150,000 to $3.5 million, will be given to several Southern organizations and institutions, including: Historic Clayborn Temple (Memphis, TN); Historical Preservation Authority of the City of Birmingham (Birmingham, AL); IDEAS xLab (Louisville, KY); Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice (Durham, NC); Scalawag (Durham, NC); and Tuskegee University (Tuskegee, AL).
