Sundance Institute on Wednesday announced two new funds that will contribute $100,000 each to Black, Indigenous and artists of color and arts organizations, specifically those whose work has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The new funds follow Sundance’s Respond and Reimagine Fund, which doled out $1 million to other BIPOC artists who were disproportionally affected by the pandemic.
The first new fund, The Uprise Grant Fund, launches Wednesday with an open application and is intended for artists in particular. $100,000 will be dedicated to 25 emerging, U.S.-based BIPOC artists whose creative development was impacted by the pandemic. The unrestricted fund was created by Sundance Outreach and Inclusion Program and will support personal livelihoods and creative projects.
The second fund, the Arts Organization Fund, specifically goes to other arts groups, with $100,000 being contributed to eight to 10 U.S.-based organizations led by BIPOC and who are working in film, theater or emerging media. This fund continues from the existing Respond and Reimagine plan, and applications will launch this spring.
“These funds intend to address the deeply disproportionate effects the pandemic and racial terror have had on artists of color. With Uprise, our goal is to provide unrestricted financial support to those artists at key moments in their career development with the sole aim of combating the erasure of these important voices from our culture and society,” Karim Ahmad, director of Sundance’s Outreach and Inclusion, said in a statement.
This summer will mark the Sundance Institute’s 40th anniversary. Over the last year, Sundance Institue hosted free master classes and online sessions reaching nearly 500,000 people, with speakers including Patty Jenkins, Kasi Lemmons, Karyn Kusama, Dawn Porter and more. Upcoming events include master classes with Oscar-nominated screenwriter Robin Swicord and “Insecure” showrunner Prentice Penny.