CREATING FOR BLACK FUTURES
What is your dream project centered on the Global African Diaspora?
Through the Creative Futures Grant, Black Artists and Designers Guild is providing opportunities to four selected Black undergraduate and graduate students in Architecture, Design and Fine Art to receive the $5000 award, a chance to join the canon of Black Art & Design and bring their art and design dreams closer to becoming reality.
The Creative Futures Grant is intended to support the kinds of projects that Black students in the arts may want to do but are not necessarily supported to create at their educational institutions. The grant seeks to activate young professionals toward actualizing all the phases of a professional project: from ideation to research to working through the steps of what the final project might look like in the world.
Be creative. Think BIG and outside the box. Think about what you want someone looking at your work a century from now to feel. Proposals can be for anything from a permanent public art installation, building, monument, and anything in between. It could be a project you are already engaged in outside of your school work, it may be a project that you want to bring to fruition at some point in your career. This is an opportunity to bring your vision, and the histories and practices of Black designers and makers who have not always been visible firmly, into the global story of architecture, arts, and design.
Applications must include a statement on the concept and design rationale, a detailed budget, CV, portfolio, proof of enrollment and two letters of recommendation.
I ask you, what will your legacy be? Do you know? Have you thought about it? Do you have an answer? What will you leave as your legacy?
-Margaret Taylor Burroughs
Q & A
Who can apply?
Black-identifying third and fourth-year undergraduate students & graduate students currently enrolled at US-based institutions. US citizenship is not a requirement for eligibility but you must have a US-based bank account for award disbursement.
Number of Awards:
4 (two undergraduate students, two graduate students)
Award Amount:
$5,000
Applicable Disciplines:
Visual Arts, Furniture, Lighting, Textiles, Interior Design & Architecture
Note: Graphic, Fashion and Jewelry Design disciplines are not eligible for this grant.
In keeping with BADG’s commitment to the representation of Black talent and culture in visual arts, architecture & interior design to explore ideas and vision of how our traditions can transform to meet the demands of the futures we are building.
Selection Process
Selections will be based on the strength of the application. Remote interviews will be scheduled with the jury in early August. Winners will be announced in late August.
Additional Perks
In addition to the $5,000 grant award, other perks include:
An opportunity to present winning ideas to BADG members and special guests during a members' meeting.
(3) 1-hour mentorship sessions with selected BADG members in preparation for the convening. Mentors would be identified based on applicant profiles. Mentorships would last 3-6 months.
Inclusion in BADG online proposal archive.
One-on-one meetings with a network of experienced public art professionals around the country who can help bring focus and growth to your project and overall career.
What if I have more questions?
Please email education@badguild.info with any questions
Where can I apply?
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JURORS
Xenobia Bailey
Xenobia Bailey is a fiber artist working primarily in crochet, textiles, and needlecraft. She is known for her African-inspired crochet hats and large crochet pieces and mandalas. She will tell you that her work is an accumulation of materials in the tradition of African-American art, and reflective of the music of the 1960s she grew up with. She studied at University of Washington and Pratt Institute.
Xenobia’s public art can be seen: in NYC at the MTA Hudson Yards #7 Subway line extension; at The Winter Garden Gallery and Palm Tree Public Space in Battery Park (Summer 2021); at the MLK Memorial Library in Washington DC (Fall 2021). Her work is in many private and permanent collections including the Museum of Art and Design; NYC’s Schomburg Center; Boston Children’s Hospital; and the American Embassies in Djibouti and Accra, Ghana. She currently works and lives between NYC and Philadelphia.
Natalie Bennett
Natalie D. A. Bennett, Ph.D. is a scholar-activist whose research, teaching, administrative work and activism centers the lives of Black women and girls. Her interests are transnational in scope, located at the intersection of black feminisms, gender/class/sexuality, migration and social policy in the Caribbean and Black diaspora.
Dr. Bennett has taught at public and private universities in the U.S., including University of Illinois at Chicago. She has published on LGBT immigrants of color; transnational migration and Caribbean immigrant women’s labor; racial and sexual identities among African American lesbians; and the politics of same-sexualities in Jamaica.
Her current work promotes literacies (print, cultural) through community-based art education in Jamaica. She has also co-produced the Chicago Free Black Women's Library Pop-up.
Dr. Bennett received her Bachelor of Science (Biology and Sociology) from Union College, and her doctorate (PhD) in Sociology from University of Michigan. She is currently working on a Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.FA.) in Art Education.
Patti Carpenter
Patti is principal of carpenter + company and an award- winning designer in globally sourced home décor, personal accessories, fragrance and gifts, with experience in product design and development, merchandising and color + trend forecasting.
As a micro-enterprise specialist with U.S. presidential recognition for domestic and international expertise in artisan development, small producer and entrepreneurial training, and economic development, she has designed and sourced Private Label collections for Bloomingdales, Neiman Marcus, Crate & Barrel, The Phillips Collection, ABC Carpet and Home, Donna Karan Urban Zen, and Ralph Lauren. She has worked in 57 countries.
Patti is an expert in Color + Trend research and forecasting and consults with Pantone. She is the Global Trend Ambassador for Maison & Objet, Paris. She is an active board member of SERRV International, BADG, and the co-founder of the Kaleidoscope Project.
Michael Harrell
Michael Harrell is an accomplished, multi-hyphenate designer with an extensive body of work that spans over 30 years in fashion, film, theater and television. As a hybrid design talent, his work is an eclectic combination of a visual storyteller combined with a master craftsmanship evolving from his years of work and travel in over 25 countries.
Honing his skills at Christian Dior, Donna Karan, Diane Von Furstenberg and Anne Klein, Michael eventually merged his love of music with his fashion sense when he became the costume designer for the legendary singer Patti LaBelle. Throughout his career, he has worked with an array of global celebrities including Mariah Carey, Gwen Stefani, Harry Styles, Madonna and more. His costume building/tailoring and master technical skills have featured on the stages of countless major Broadway productions such as Tina: The Musical. Walt Disney’s Frozen, A Raisin in The Sun and more.
Jack Travis
Jack Travis’ career of 40 years has evolved a triumvirate approach of educating students, practitioners and citizens nationally and internationally to the legacy of Blacks in Architecture and the defining of a Black design aesthetic.
Jack Travis established his namesake design studio in June, 1985. To date the firm has completed several residential interiors projects for such notable clients as Spike Lee, Wesley Snipes and John Saunders of ABC sports. Jack Travis is currently an adjunct professor of interior design at Pratt Institute and at the Fashion Institute of Technology. In 1992, Travis edited, African American Architects: In Current Practice, the first publication to profile the work of black architects in the United States.
In 1977 Jack Travis received his Bachelor of Architecture degree from Arizona State University and in 1978 a Master of Architecture degree from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. Mr. Travis is an NCARB Registered Architect in the state of New York since 1981and an NCIDQ licensed Interior Designer since 1988. In 2004, Jack Travis received his "Fellowship" in the AIA, and in 2006 Mr. Travis was inducted into the Council of Elders of the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA), the highest honor that each organization bestows upon its individual members.