Two South Side-based visual arts organizations will receive part of a $1.8 million grant from the Los Angeles-based Getty Foundation to support Black visual arts archives, the foundation announced Wednesday.
The South Side Community Art Center will receive $250,000, and the University of Chicago’s South Side Home Movie Project will receive $170,000. The two organizations, out of eight total recipients, have been recognized for their work preserving the history of Black art in the U.S.
“It is such a privilege to be in the position of partnering with these organizations so that they can steward their collections even better than they had been before,” said Getty Senior Programming Officer Miguel de Baca. “It’s absolutely vital.”
De Baca said he knew about the Community Art Center’s work from his time teaching at Lake Forest College. The UChicago Home Movie Project, however, contacted the foundation about the grant directly, which de Baca encourages other organizations to do as well.
The South Side Community Art Center, a Bronzeville landmark located at 3831 S Michigan Ave, was founded in 1940 as part of the Works Progress Administration, a New Deal agency aimed at lowering mass unemployment during the Great Depression. It’s the oldest Black American arts center in the country, and fostered the work of such Black creatives as Gordon Parks and Charles White.
The art center is currently closed for renovations and is expected to reopen next year. It received a $2 million grant from Chicago’s Driehaus Foundation last year to restore the building and build a major addition that will double its footprint.
Jada-Amina Harvey, the public programs and engagement manager at the center, said two South Side-based organizations receiving the national grant “speaks to the fervor and devotion, in which Black Chicagoans and Black South Side Chicagoans give to the work of preservation.”
“Black archives are a part of this nation’s fabric, a part of our world history, and certainly our local Chicago heritage, “ Harvey said, adding that the grant is a “critical investment” in the center’s collection preservation along with its operation capacity.
Harvey also said she, along with the entire art center, is “a fan” of the South Side Home Movie Project, the second Chicago-based recipient of the award.
For two decades, the Home Movie Project has preserved and digitized home movies created by South Side residents. Jacqueline Stewart, professor of cinema and media studies at UChicago, has gathered more than 1,200 films dating back to the 1930s.
“To have the Getty Foundation recognize that home movies are essential records of Black visual arts history is profound,” Stewart said in a statement. “I am filled with immense gratitude to the families who have entrusted us with their precious memories, the partners who have amplified our reach, and the team that has tirelessly built this invaluable archive. Together, we’ve created a living testament to the resilience, creativity, and everyday beauty of the South Side.”
The foundation is funding a two-year project to identify, digitize and make publicly accessible rare documentation of mid-20th-century Black visual arts. Stewart said the organization will also build a website resource guide featuring curated clips, art-historical essays, and a finding aid to support future research and teaching.
A yet unidentified photographer at 1963 Lake Meadows Art Fair, from the South Side Home Movie Project’s Nicolas Osborn Collection.
South Side Home Movie Project, Arts + Public Life at the University of Chicago
The Home Movie Project is also planning programs to bring the films back to the South Side community, including a screening series that invites local artists to add a soundtrack to the silent footage, Stewart said.
“Each of these repositories offer something different, but it contributes to this overall story about the importance of Chicago in a national conversation about African American arts and culture,” de Baca said.