Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh

Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh is committed to creating a vibrant cultural life in Pittsburgh and the region. Both The Heinz Endowments and The Pittsburgh Foundation have made consistent investments towards the initiative since its inception in 1988. Co-managed by both foundations until 2023, the program is now managed by The Pittsburgh Foundation, with financial support from the Endowments.

Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh funding supports the work of individual artists and collectives as well as provide project, planning and operating support for arts organizations. Read the press release for the 2022 cohort here, and see full list of awardees, including project descriptions and social media handles, here.

For application information, including program deadlines, toolkit, and guidelines, click here.

The Initiative

The Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh initiative is an outgrowth of a commitment by both The Pittsburgh Foundation and The Heinz Endowments to create a vibrant and inclusive cultural life in the Pittsburgh region. The foundations have maintained a long-term commitment to arts and culture as important factors in the region’s quality of life, in the well-being of its citizens, and in its image and economy. We believe that a vibrant cultural life includes the notion of diverse cultural organizations and institutions that appeal to the widest array of the region’s citizenry.

The City of Pittsburgh is known for its rich contributions to the canon of Black cultural creativity. Cultural experiences and creative innovations have always reflected the expressions and imaginations of people from the African Diaspora. The Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh program is where access and opportunity connect with Pittsburgh artists – specifically organizations and individuals whose work focuses on the art of African Americans, Africa and the larger African Diaspora - who are thriving in their creative process as a means and a way of life.

This grants program is a step toward building strategies to create an equitable arts ecology. The goals of the program include:

1. Helping to build the careers and support the lives of individual artists.
2. Increasing the sustainability of cultural organizations that focus on Black arts.
3. Building community awareness of the Black arts sector.
4. Supporting efforts toward greater collaboration and the elimination of racial disparities within the larger arts sector.
5. Prioritizing the documentation and discussion of Black artists’ work and well-being as part of the region’s cultural health.
6. Supporting work that directly addresses and calls for the eradication of systemic and structural racism that allows for disparities to exist.

Watch the video to learn more about the Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh program: