51 new grants totaling more than $14 million were approved by the Board of the Henry Luce Foundation in November. These commitments include projects selected in three grant competitions:

In addition to the work supported through these competitions, the Foundation continued its emphasis on strengthening and disseminating knowledge by and about underrepresented communities and encouraging innovative approaches to research and teaching in emerging areas of study.

Amplifying knowledge by and about underrepresented communities

A grant to IndiJ Public Media will fund the expansion of Indian Country Today (ICT), the most prominent Indigenous media outlet in the nation, which both serves Indian Country directly and feeds stories to non-Indigenous media. ICT—already established in Alaska, New Mexico, and Washington—will add bureaus in additional regions with large Native populations, allowing it to deepen and grow its editorial coverage.

The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) will foster and promote the ideas and discoveries of Black and Indigenous women innovators working in public interest technology and social entrepreneurship. The newly conceived Convergence Fellowship Program will support two cohorts of women as they address the specific challenges that arise from deep societal needs, including those unique to these communities.

Reflecting the Foundation’s growing engagement with AAPI communities, a grant to University of California, Riverside’s AAPI Data project—a public resource for demographic data and policy research on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI)—will build a national consortium of applied researchers, policy staff, and local leaders to improve public understanding of AAPI communities through community-engaged research.

American Art Loan Exhibition Competition

A key goal of the Foundation’s American Art Program is to empower and assist art museums in advancing representation and equity in contemporary society. The twelve projects chosen through this year’s loan exhibition competition further this goal and demonstrate the new seriousness with which museums are addressing diversity and focusing greater attention to women artists of color. Seven exhibitions will showcase art by women of color including the first major retrospectives of:

  • Elizabeth Catlett (an artist and activist whose work gave voice to communities of color and the struggle for Civil Rights) at the Brooklyn Museum;
  • Faith Ringgold (an artist, author, and educator who pursued radical protest through her painting series) at the New Museum, and
  • Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (a member of the Salish and Kootenai Tribes and a seminal figure in the development of Indigenous and American art history) at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Among the awarded thematic exhibitions is an innovative project co-organized by the Mississippi Museum of Art and Baltimore Museum of Art. The two institutions have assembled an intergenerational group of Black artists who will research, reflect on, and create work about their personal family histories and migration narratives as they challenge and rewrite the dominant narrative of the Great Migration.

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Fostering innovation in teaching and emerging areas of study

 

The Asian Studies Development Program, a collaboration of the East-West Center and University of Hawai’i, will continue its work helping educators integrate Asia-related content into undergraduate curricula. Through two teaching workshops focused on China and Southeast Asia, participating faculty will work collaboratively to develop teaching materials, design courses, and draft strategic plans for expanding Asian studies offerings at their institutions.

The Rubin Museum of Art in New York City will produce a traveling exhibition, publication, and digital resource platform on the history of Himalayan Art. It will be made available to students, educators, curators, and the public to learn about the cross-cultural significance of the Himalayan region.

Finally, a $1 million grant to longtime partner Interfaith Youth Core will launch the Black Interfaith Project, which will convene Black religious leaders, intellectuals, artists, and activists as they study and build on interfaith efforts across diverse Black communities.

Together with the many other grants approved by the Foundation’s Board, these commitments reaffirm the Henry Luce Foundation’s dedication to promoting a more just and compassionate society.

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