The Getty Foundation has awarded $2.6 million in grants to 12 libraries, museums, and universities nationwide to support the preservation and accessibility of Black visual arts archives. This initiative, part of the Black Visual Arts Archives program, aims to highlight the often overlooked contributions of Black artists, architects, and cultural institutions to American art and culture.

Launched in 2022, the program addresses challenges faced by cultural and academic institutions in organizing and digitizing archival materials. These archives include artist papers, exhibition records, and educational program materials, which have historically been difficult to access due to their dispersed nature and lack of formal processing.

Miguel de Baca, senior program officer at the Getty Foundation, emphasized the initiative’s importance: “We need a fuller understanding of the influence of Black artists, architects, and cultural institutions to tell a more complete history of American art and culture.” The program seeks to make these archives and their stories more accessible to researchers and the public.

Among the recipients of this year’s grants are the Amistad Research Center in New Orleans, California State University Los Angeles, Clark Atlanta University, Emory University, Lincoln University of Pennsylvania, the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum in Washington, D.C., and Visual AIDS in New York. The funding will help these institutions process, catalog, and digitize their collections, preserving a rich history for future generations.

Building on a 2022 pilot program that awarded initial grants to the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and Temple University, the Getty Foundation continues fostering a more inclusive understanding of American art history.

This article was written and researched using information from the Getty Foundation, The Art Newspaper, Broadway World, Say Art, and Ocula.