From Philanthropy News: The Barr, Kresge, and William Penn foundations have announced $13 million in funding to support arts and culture programs that help address systemic and intersectional societal challenges.
The commitments will support the Culture and Community Power Fund (CCPF), a funding collaborative formed in 2022 by Barr, Kresge, and Penn to serve as “a lab for investing in, connecting, and amplifying efforts to help build community power through art and culture.”
CCPF previously awarded unrestricted, multiyear grants totaling $5.8 million to six organizations in five cities—Ashé Cultural Arts Center in New Orleans, the Boston Ujima Project, the Center for Transforming Communities in Memphis, Northend Christian CDC in Detroit, and the Asian Arts Initiative and Village of Arts and Humanities in Philadelphia. Over the next two years, the fund will work with those grantee partners to invest an additional $3.6 million in other organizations, individuals, and groups in their communities to launch new experiments or build on existing efforts. In addition, the fund will invest over $1.5 million to provide opportunities for learning and sharing among practitioners, investors, and civic leaders; commission national research; and learn from and amplify the work of its grantee partners.
“The fund’s work builds upon…the efforts of many others working to advance racial equity and the self-determination of communities most impacted by structural oppression,” said CCPF co-director Erik Takeshita. “By sharing broadly what we are learning…we hope to add to this existing body of knowledge, mobilize more investors, and inspire additional practitioners to leverage the power of art and culture to help build community power.”