A recent profile published by Inside Philanthropy on the Art for Justice Fund’s new Activating Art and Advocacy grants explores the groundbreaking connections formed between current Fund grantees from around the United States.
There are 19 Activating Art and Advocacy grants, funding a total of 11 projects that bring together 28 current Fund grantees. Inside Philanthropy’s article profiles a number of the partnerships, including one between playwright Liza Jessie Peterson and New Orleans-based nonprofit Voice of the Experienced (VOTE), which will bring Peterson to Angola prison in Louisiana to perform her award-winning one-woman play “The Peculiar Patriot.” This project came about after VOTE led other Fund grantees on a tour through Angola, inspiring Peterson, who references Angola in “The Peculiar Patriot,” to stage her production there.
“We launched [this] initiative to spark more of these organic connections,” says Helena Huang, project director of the Fund. Other collaborations and projects include a Mass Incarceration Quilt; an exhibit fusing poetry, printmaking and text from cash bail-centered lawsuits; narrative artworks by prosecutors; and an artist-in-residence program at the Philadelphia Office of the District Attorney.
Learn more about the partnerships created by the Fund’s Activating Art and Advocacy grants here.
