Getty Awards $2.6M to Black Visual Arts Archives Across the U.S.

The Getty Foundation announced that it has awarded $2.6 million for 12 grants to libraries, museums, and universities across the United States through its Black Visual Arts Archives program. Designed to increase access to archival collections across the country that hold vital information about work created by Black artists, the multi-year program provides archivists with wider capacity to organize, catalogue, and digitize materials. A major goal of the program is to increase visibility of archives to the public through exhibitions, community programming, and digital projects.

Cultural and academic spaces hold important records of powerful contributions to the visual arts by Black artists, including artist papers, records about exhibitions, educational programs, and more. However, many of these archives have been difficult to research, often because records are dispersed, not easily discoverable, or simply not yet formally processed.

“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, and we can work towards achieving this by investing in Black archives,” says Miguel de Baca, senior program officer at the Getty Foundation. “Black Visual Arts Archives delivers critical support to make these archives and the stories of creativity, resiliency, and community they hold more accessible to researchers and the general public.”

Five of the twelve projects received their grant a few years ago as part of the pilot phase of the program, which kicked off in 2022. These institutions spent months processing and digitizing archives, and several have launched public-facing projects to showcase previously inaccessible materials.

The New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture used Getty funding to publish a digital zine in honor of the institution’s centennial anniversary. It included a vibrant timeline of the institution’s history and was distributed during their annual Literary Festival. The institution also published its first-ever finding aid for their extensive artist files, which include critical documentation about lesser-known artists, particularly Black and brown women.

Temple University is using its grant to create a virtual reality game that allows players to experience what it’s like to conduct archival research while simultaneously learning about historic exhibitions organized by the Pyramid Club, a social club that was the only Black-owned art gallery in Philadelphia at the time. They also processed 30,000 negatives of rarely seen photographs from the John W. Mosley Photograph Collection, which holds the most comprehensive visual record of Philadelphia’s Black social, intellectual, and cultural life in the 20th century.

Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum used Getty funding to survey and digitize its archival records that document its history as an arts and educational venue for Black artists since the 1960s. Part of their work included digitizing papers related to the District of Columbia Art Association, which unveiled previously unseen materials like photographs of artist, educator, and member Georgette Seabrooke Powell. This research helped inform the museum’s current exhibition A Bold and Beautiful Vision: A Century of Black Arts Education in Washington, DC, 1900–2000.

“Our records are more accessible and user-friendly than ever for scholars and the public,” says Jennifer Morris, archivist at Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum. “We are grateful for a second grant from Getty, which will help us transcribe dozens of recently discovered audio and video recordings of D.C. artists who continue to have a tremendous impact on the region’s creative output.”

Archival projects will now kick off at seven institutions across the nation, including Amistad Research Center in New Orleans, California State University, Los Angeles, Clark Atlanta University, Emory University in Atlanta, Lincoln University of Pennsylvania, Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C., and Visual AIDS in New York City.

“The Amistad Research Center has served as a catalyst for scholarship, public dialogue, and community engagement, anchoring both academic research and grassroots initiatives in historical truth and cultural memory,” says Kathe Hambrick, executive director of the Amistad Research Center. “Funding support from foundations, such as the Getty, is essential for Amistad and greatly appreciated.”

To assist grantees with launching projects, Getty has partnered with professional archivist and consultant Dominique Luster who specializes in Black archives. Grant application inquiries are accepted on an ongoing basis. To learn about how to get involved, contact BVAA@getty.edu.

Black Visual Arts Archives is one of several efforts by Getty to broaden awareness of and preserve Black cultural heritage, including Conserving Black Modernism, African American Historic Places Los Angeles, African American Art History Initiative, and its joint acquisition of the archive of acclaimed architect Paul R. Williams.

Results from the pilot phase of Black Visual Arts Archives will be presented during the annual Society of American Archivists conference, taking place in Anaheim, California, from August 24-27, 2025.