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Friday, October 02, 2020
Mellon Foundation to Provide $5 Million to Aid Black Theaters
The New York Times: Black theaters across the country will receive a significant financial boost thanks to a multimillion-dollar program announced today by the Billie Holiday Theater, a Black-led artistic institution in Brooklyn.
6 comments:
Andrew Morris
said...
I love reading articles about artists supporting innovative policies and ideals in the great borough of Brooklyn. I found the history of the Billy Holiday theatre in Brooklyn to be very interesting, as the theatre was founded in 1972 as a result of the civil rights and Black Arts movement. The Andrew Mellon foundation is making a big statement by providing the largest ever one time investment in a Black Theatre. Hopefully this will put pressure on other grants and foundations to help support black arts and businesses. The article also mentions the coalition of theatre artists putting out the statement "We see you White American Theatre" and it shows how this influential statement is bringing some action.
I recall reading an article last week that outlined a similar situation; the Mellon Foundation contributing greatly to give grants to artists that were struggling to upkeep livable conditions as a result of work loss from COVID. It's very exciting to see the Foundation once again chipping in for a cause like this. As racial injustices are being witnessed by more and more people across the country, it seems like there is a lot of emphasis on reforming predominantly white institutions, whereas the strengthening of black institutions has been left by the wayside. Like Andrew mentioned above, I hope that as a result of this, a precedent is set for more financial grants with significant weight to contribute in ways like this. Once again, I believe that the Mellon Foundation and the creators of the program, the Billie Holiday Theater, are making a great investment into the future of theatre itself.
This is such an amazing investment in american Black theatre. The Mellon foundation, as Harrison said, has been doing a lot in terms of investing money into such important causes. Also by the Mellon Foundation giving the largest single investment into black theatre says a lot about the intentions of the organization and how promising american Black theatre is when given the correct resources. I don’t know much about the Billie Holiday theatre but reading about its origin I can tell it holds a valuable place in the hearts of black people in Brooklyn. The Billie Holiday theatre in Brooklyn has taken on such a long awaited cause. Their initiative along with the funding from the Mellon foundation will prove to be an amazing investment. The Black Seed is going to be so fruitful and the work coming out of black theatres across America will give hope to future black performers, designers, managers, and administration in the theatre world.
I found this article so inspiring. I was so happy to hear that a large donation was provided to aid black theatre and theatre makers here in america. I think this step in providing financial assistance is a great way in which people of privilege can help to promote diversity equity and inclusion in the american theatre industry. Sometimes we look around and see that although the people on stage may be diverse more often the people working off stage are not as diverse in race. The monetary setbacks of the design and technical industry and not having the resources to take unpaid internships is a great barrier for black artists to overcome. I think this donation will help to break some of these barriers and make theatre accessible for more people. Although this solution does not fix the pre-existing faults of mainly white theatre companies in america, the black theatres are given a platform and will hopefully have more opportunity and resources to create and lead.
Putting this kind of money into helping produce BIPOC art, specifically in this case black American theatre, is amazing. I used to intern at a local theatre company that specifically put on shows that had more that ¾ of both the cast and the crew as BIPOC individuals. My first ever production with them was the Black American Film Festival and following that I had the chance to work with a diverse group of both people and shows. With the funding from the Mellon Foundation, way more black American theatre companies can produce the pieces they want and spread the word about their art. I am glad they are putting their resources to good use and being vocal in the realm of representation where they had the option to do not do anything at all. This also might provide an incentive to theatres with a majority of white employees to expand their horizons, not only through their staffing choices, but also through the plays or musicals they put on.
Reading about how a community can actually stand together and uplift different members of their community is the best type of news. I read too often now the news of the opposite, how members of our community are being put down and disregarded in a series of systemic unequal actions. However, here, I was presented not only with news of donations being made in the name of black theater, but work being done! I don't think I expected to see so many levels of a plan, but as I read, I could sense this greater cause that is being worked towards. The mention of all 88 black theaters in the country made me think about how widespread this plan of action is, and the other "prongs of the plan" like the leadership circle and marketing campaign show how deep this plan is trying to reach. These are stories integral to the development of our society and I love this plan of spreading black stories and supporting black institutions in order to make a difference against the racial injustices we witness.
6 comments:
I love reading articles about artists supporting innovative policies and ideals in the great borough of Brooklyn. I found the history of the Billy Holiday theatre in Brooklyn to be very interesting, as the theatre was founded in 1972 as a result of the civil rights and Black Arts movement. The Andrew Mellon foundation is making a big statement by providing the largest ever one time investment in a Black Theatre. Hopefully this will put pressure on other grants and foundations to help support black arts and businesses. The article also mentions the coalition of theatre artists putting out the statement "We see you White American Theatre" and it shows how this influential statement is bringing some action.
I recall reading an article last week that outlined a similar situation; the Mellon Foundation contributing greatly to give grants to artists that were struggling to upkeep livable conditions as a result of work loss from COVID. It's very exciting to see the Foundation once again chipping in for a cause like this. As racial injustices are being witnessed by more and more people across the country, it seems like there is a lot of emphasis on reforming predominantly white institutions, whereas the strengthening of black institutions has been left by the wayside. Like Andrew mentioned above, I hope that as a result of this, a precedent is set for more financial grants with significant weight to contribute in ways like this. Once again, I believe that the Mellon Foundation and the creators of the program, the Billie Holiday Theater, are making a great investment into the future of theatre itself.
This is such an amazing investment in american Black theatre. The Mellon foundation, as Harrison said, has been doing a lot in terms of investing money into such important causes. Also by the Mellon Foundation giving the largest single investment into black theatre says a lot about the intentions of the organization and how promising american Black theatre is when given the correct resources. I don’t know much about the Billie Holiday theatre but reading about its origin I can tell it holds a valuable place in the hearts of black people in Brooklyn. The Billie Holiday theatre in Brooklyn has taken on such a long awaited cause. Their initiative along with the funding from the Mellon foundation will prove to be an amazing investment. The Black Seed is going to be so fruitful and the work coming out of black theatres across America will give hope to future black performers, designers, managers, and administration in the theatre world.
I found this article so inspiring. I was so happy to hear that a large donation was provided to aid black theatre and theatre makers here in america. I think this step in providing financial assistance is a great way in which people of privilege can help to promote diversity equity and inclusion in the american theatre industry. Sometimes we look around and see that although the people on stage may be diverse more often the people working off stage are not as diverse in race. The monetary setbacks of the design and technical industry and not having the resources to take unpaid internships is a great barrier for black artists to overcome. I think this donation will help to break some of these barriers and make theatre accessible for more people. Although this solution does not fix the pre-existing faults of mainly white theatre companies in america, the black theatres are given a platform and will hopefully have more opportunity and resources to create and lead.
Putting this kind of money into helping produce BIPOC art, specifically in this case black American theatre, is amazing. I used to intern at a local theatre company that specifically put on shows that had more that ¾ of both the cast and the crew as BIPOC individuals. My first ever production with them was the Black American Film Festival and following that I had the chance to work with a diverse group of both people and shows. With the funding from the Mellon Foundation, way more black American theatre companies can produce the pieces they want and spread the word about their art. I am glad they are putting their resources to good use and being vocal in the realm of representation where they had the option to do not do anything at all. This also might provide an incentive to theatres with a majority of white employees to expand their horizons, not only through their staffing choices, but also through the plays or musicals they put on.
Reading about how a community can actually stand together and uplift different members of their community is the best type of news. I read too often now the news of the opposite, how members of our community are being put down and disregarded in a series of systemic unequal actions. However, here, I was presented not only with news of donations being made in the name of black theater, but work being done! I don't think I expected to see so many levels of a plan, but as I read, I could sense this greater cause that is being worked towards. The mention of all 88 black theaters in the country made me think about how widespread this plan of action is, and the other "prongs of the plan" like the leadership circle and marketing campaign show how deep this plan is trying to reach. These are stories integral to the development of our society and I love this plan of spreading black stories and supporting black institutions in order to make a difference against the racial injustices we witness.
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