Brooklyn’s creative community has remained a beacon of light throughout the pandemic, with people and groups supporting their communities even as they have struggled to make ends meet themselves.
Brooklyn Arts Council has recognized that “strength and resilience” with its largest amount of funding ever distributed to support the borough’s artists and arts organizations: $1,322,000.
238 Brooklyn-based artists and cultural organizations will receive funding as part of BAC’s Community Arts Grants and Creative Equations Fund and SUCASA program. Of those 238, 163 individual artists will receive a total of $715,000 through the arts grants.
“As Brooklyn recovers from the effects of the pandemic, we see the strength and resilience of artists in our borough,” said Charlotte A. Cohen, BAC’s executive director. “Their spirits invigorate and lift up communities and remind us of the diversity and vibrancy that are deeply rooted in Brooklyn.”
As part of the awards, $295,000 will be given to 34 grantees in the Creative Equations Fund’s four categories: Justice, Equity, & Sustainability (performing arts); Cultural Heritage & Diversity (dance); Social Innovation (cultural entrepreneurs); and Advocacy & Immigrant Voices.
Cohen said that the Creative Equations Fund, which was launched in 2021, reflected BAC’s “deep commitment to equity and social justice” by supporting community-engaged artists, arts organizations, cultural entrepreneurs and researchers who have dedicated their creativity to solving social problems.
BAC’s Brooklyn-wide SU-CASA Creative Aging program also awarded an additional $312,000 to 41 artists for arts programming in 48 senior centers.
Katherine Steinberg, director of arts and culture at The American Immigration Council – a 2022 grantee, said the partnership with Brooklyn Arts Council would support a wide range of immigrant and refugee artists “that are part of the vibrant New York City community.”
“In challenging times art can be a powerful tool for building empathy, creating connection, and highlighting our shared humanity,” Steinberg said.
Grantee James Allan Clements, co-artistic director of What Will the Neighbors Say? Theater, said the company was “beyond proud to make art in our borough, for our borough and by our borough.”
“As a company mainly comprised of immigrants and first-generation American folks, we have found our creative home-away-from-home here in Brooklyn and are overjoyed to be part of the vibrant arts community here.”
For a full list of grantees, click here.
