Grants support artists of color

Hartford Foundation advisory group awards $400K to 3 programs

Artists of Color Unite!, the advisory group created in May by the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, is putting its money where its mouth is.

The group is awarding three large grants, totaling $400,000, to encourage new work and help local artists of color. It is also helping create and implement those programs.

Some of the help directly addresses the specific challenges of the coronavirus crisis that has shuttered galleries and performance spaces and severely limited opportunities for working artists. The grants also set up some programs that will help artists of color in the long term.

The largest of the three grants, $200,000, is for the not-forprofit Conference of Churches and its groundbreaking “health and wellness social enterprise” 224 EcoSpace in the Asylum Hill neighborhood. It will go to manage the Artists of Color Incubator, which will offer 10 fellowships to local artists, teaming them with local arts organizations. The grant money will pay for stipends, workshops, training and the hiring of master artists from around the U.S. to lead online seminars. At the end of the fellowships, the artists will all give presentations, and two of them will be given further funding to implement their own art projects. It’s a way of giving artists the resources and opportunities to further their careers.

The Hartford Free Center, a community space on New Britain Avenue for performances and networking, received $150,000 to work with Artists of Color Unite! to streamline funding requests