Getty Foundation awards additional $1.8m to Black Visual Arts Archives initiative

The Getty Foundation recently increased its funding for the Black Visual Arts Archives initiative by an additional $1.8 million, bringing the total to $4.5 million across 20 grants. This project focuses on processing, digitizing, and preserving archival materials connected to Black artists and arts organizations in the U.S. Some of the grant recipients include the Auburn Avenue Research Library, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, and the Charles H. Wright Museum, among others. Jacqueline Stewart from the South Side Home Movie Project highlighted the finding of footage from the original Wall of Respect mural from April 1968. Meanwhile, Savannah Wood from Afro Charities stressed the importance of digitizing 133 years of newspaper archives. Miguel de Baca, a senior program officer at the Getty Foundation, initiated this effort in 2022.