National Performance Network (NPN) recently announced inaugural awardees of the Take Notice Fund, a pilot program awarding $5,000 grants to artists and culture bearers of color living and working throughout Louisiana whose bodies of work represent excellence, dedication to their practices, and contributions to this country’s discourse about racial equity and cultural preservation.
The initiative is supported with generous funding from the Ford Foundation’s Creativity and Free Expression program. “This fund has introduced me to artists who I will continue to follow,” says NPN’s Director of Local Programs Stephanie Atkins. “Take Notice definitely means what it says—stop and take notice of the work being done in this state by BIPOC artists. Louisiana has a strong base of creatives. It’s also an art capital.”