Instagram with the Brooklyn Museum is debuting the 2022 #BlackVisionaries program, an effort to empower, center and invest in aspiring Black voices within art and design, which will include an award of $650,000 in grants to Black artists, Black designers and Black small businesses.
For the last three years, Instagram has collaborated with the Brooklyn Museum and Antwaun Sargent, writer, curator and #BlackVisionaries Creative Chair, to uplift and support historically excluded creative voices.
“Most folks who don’t have traditional pathways into spaces like the arts and design just need opportunity,” says Sargent. “A grant like this could mean a world of opportunity.”
Last year, the #BlackVisionaries program awarded five Black designers, including a Black-led small design business, $205,000 in grants. This year, the program will award 10 #BlackVisionaries grants, including five $100,000 Visionary Small Business Grants for Black-led organizations in the US focused on design.
With the support of Meta Open Arts, #BlackVisionaries is also awarding five $30,000 Emerging Visionary Grants for individuals focused on art and design based in the U.S.
Instagram and the Brooklyn Museum will also award mentorship to each grant recipient together with Mobile Makers, a nonprofit organization that offers youth design and skill-building workshops in Chicago and Boston communities.
Applications for this year’s #BlackVisionaries program opened on June 28 and closes on July 29, and you can apply here.
