Heinz Endowments award $5.4 million to 16 organizations promoting Black culture

Pittsburgh's Heinz Endowments have awarded $5.4 million in grant funding to 16 organizations producing work that promotes Black communities and culture.

Announced Thursday, the organizations include 1Hood Media, Afro American Music Institute, Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company, Manchester Bidwell Corporation, Boom Concepts and others, with the amounts ranging from $150,000 to $1 million.

To select the grantees, Heinz partnered with the city's POISE Foundation, which seeks to "assist the Black community in achieving self-sustaining practices, through strategic leadership, collective giving, grantmaking and advocacy," according to the POISE webpage.

The grants are the first awarded through the Pittsburgh’s Cultural Treasures program, which Heinz launched this summer. The program is a part of a larger national initiative by the Ford Foundation intended to build support and awareness of arts and cultural organizations representing communities of color. The Ford Foundation provided $5 million in funding to 10 regional foundation partners in seven cities, which the Heinz Foundation matched with an additional $5 million. The program will run four years and focus on Black-led cultural organizations.

Read more: https://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2021/12/03/Heinz-Endowments-grants-black-arts-culture-5-million/stories/202112030119