Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh is an arts program of The Pittsburgh Foundation.
Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh is an arts program of The Pittsburgh Foundation.


The City of Pittsburgh is known for its rich contributions to the canon of Black cultural creativity. Cultural experiences and creative innovations have always reflected the expressions and imaginations of people from the African diaspora. The Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh program is where access and opportunity connect with Pittsburgh artists who are thriving in their creative process as a means and a way of life.

The program is committed to helping to create a vibrant cultural life in Pittsburgh and the region. Until 2023, the program was co-managed in partnership with The Heinz Endowments. Currently the program is managed by The Pittsburgh Foundation, with both foundations consistently making investments towards this initiative since 1988.  

The program goals are to:

  • Help build the careers and support the lives of individual artists.
  • Increase the sustainability of cultural organizations that focus on Black arts.
  • Build community awareness of the Black arts sector.
  • Support efforts toward greater collaboration and the elimination of racial disparities within the larger arts sector.
  • Prioritize the documentation and discussion of Black artists’ work and wellbeing as part of the region’s cultural health.
  • Support work that directly addresses and calls for the eradication of systemic and structural racism that allows for disparities to exist.

2024 APPLICATION CYCLE 
Congratulations to the 2024 Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh awardees! 

View the 2024 awardees

Read the news release

Download 2024 program guidelines

About the Grant Review Panel

Applicants to the 2024 grantmaking cycle in the Aboveground Railroad and Project Support funding streams were reviewed and recommended by a grant review panel of Pittsburgh-based and national artists from varied artistic disciplines: Raymond Thompson; Camaro West; Jeremy McQueen; Erika Denae J; Azure D. Osborne-Lee; Bekezela Mguni; Bridgette Perdue; Jeanna Chery; and Lenworth McIntosh “Joonbug.”

If you have questions about Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh, please email us at arts@pghfdn.org


About Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh: The Advancing Black Arts program is where access and opportunity meet with Pittsburgh artists who are thriving in their creative process as a means and a way of life. Video by Emmai Alaquiva for The Heinz Endowments and The Pittsburgh Foundation.
 

Read more about past awardees:

Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh awards $1.2 Million to artists and arts groups

Grants will provide general operating and project support.

Advancing Black Arts provides record $1.61 million in grants

Program supported by two local foundations and philanthropist MacKenzie Scott.

Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh awards $836,450 in latest slate of grants

PITTSBURGH, NOV. 1, 2021- Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh, a joint program of The Pittsburgh Foundation and The Heinz Endowments, has awarded 127 grants totaling $836,450 in the initiative’s 2021 grant-making cycle, including $440,000 in operating support for individual artists and art programs.

Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh announces $456,000 in grants

Projects funded by this joint program of The Pittsburgh Foundation and The Heinz Endowments include a documentary about Black American women, an artist residency at Guardians of Sound to work with the Hip Hop Orchestra Music Instruction project, a series of cookout events to cultivate Black joy and a three-month visiting playwright fellowship that honors the legacy of August Wilson.

Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh announces $427,660 in grants

A total of $427,660 in grants has been distributed to regional artists and arts programs in the second of two funding cycles for 2018. New in this latest round are three $10,000 grants for special projects and nearly $50,000 more in funding than was awarded in the spring to individual artists and residencies.

Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh announces $229,000 in grants

A locally produced comic book series, a holistic healing guide coupled with therapeutic workshops for African American youth, and a series of documentaries that highlight the lives of homegrown jazz legends are all projects being funded this spring by the Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh grant-making program, which recently awarded $229,000 to regional artists and art programs.