Black Visual Arts Archives

Black Visual Arts Archives is a pilot program to expand understanding of the contributions of Black artists and architects to American art by activating archival collections related to their work.

Since 2022, the Getty Foundation has been working with a pilot group of five organizations to survey and process publicly accessible collections that contain crucial information about Black visual art in the United States. These libraries, universities, museums, and community centers all hold important repositories, ranging from individual artist papers to institutional records related to exhibitions, public programs, and educational departments that engaged Black artists.

Amid growing scholarly commitment to expanding the collective understanding of the story of American art, we believe making these collections more accessible to art historians, curators, and other researchers will generate new insights and create more opportunities to celebrate publicly the important but underrecognized achievements of Black artists in the United States.

Pilot grants have been awarded to the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum; the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection at Temple University; Fisk University; and the Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection at Chicago Public Library. Grantees engage in a range of activities including the inventory, processing, rehousing, and digitization of collections.

Partners are also encouraged to develop public programming that activates the archives for broader engagement. The pilot cohort will convene during the program to enhance knowledge sharing among participants and build a community of practice around the stewardship of Black visual archives.