Ujima Invests $80K into Artists & Cultural Organizers in Boston

Boston Ujima Project is pleased to present our 2022 Ashe Ashe Grantee Cohort and 2022-24 Arts & Cultural Organizing Fellow!

 

2022-24 Arts and Cultural Organizing Fellow

Shantel Miller is a painter creating a visual language to transcend the lived and imagined experiences of her inner world. "Throughout the course of the Fellowship, I will use the 20k to continue working on a project that I started in 2021 which involves engaging with Black Churches in Dorchester, MA to learn about the history of these churches, their current state, and future hopes to come," Miller says.

The Ujima Arts & Cultural Organizing Fellow will spend two years in an emergent, self-determined program tailored to the needs and interests of the fellow. ACO Fellows receive $20,000 in support for their work over the fellowship.

 

Ashe Ashe Cultural Assembly Grantees

Last year, Boston Ujima Project held its first-ever Cultural Assembly, Ashe Ashe, alongside many partners including Black Economic Council of MA, Artisans Asylum, Mass MoCA's Assets 4 Artists, The CreateWell Fund, Mayor’s Office of Art & Culture, Mayor’s Office of Resilience and Racial Equity, Massachusetts Area Planning Council and New England Foundation for the Arts.

For the first time, we gathered foundations, non-profits, governmental bodies, and arts institutions to collectively distribute $60,000 in funding to artists and organizers of color across Greater Boston. The grant recipients were chosen through a participatory process undertaken by Ujima's Voting Members, who chose their top five preferences.

The $5,000 grants will fund the creation of innovative new projects by 12 individuals and collectives working across visual arts, film, literature, and socially engaged and multidisciplinary practices. 

Read about our ACO Fellow and Ashe Ashe Grantees full on our Medium.