Conserving Black Modernism

Conserving Black Modernism advances conservation planning, training, and storytelling for historic Modern Movement sites across America by Black architects and designers.

From 2014 – 2020, the Getty Foundation’s Keeping It Modern initiative awarded 77 grants totaling $11.8 million to support the conservation of modern buildings in the United States and around the world. However, none of the sites in the U.S. were designed by Black architects.

To address this omission, the Getty Foundation has partnered with the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund to create Conserving Black Modernism, a three-year $4.6 million grant program to preserve 24 modern sites across America by Black architects and designers.

Grant applications are managed by the National Trust. Applications open each year in late fall, with grantees announced the following summer.

For more than a century, the achievements of African American architects and designers have been overlooked and undervalued. Their contributions helped shape the US’s modern architecture movement by fueling innovation and experimentation, pushing the limits on how individuals lived within their built environments.

Long-term funding and conservation management planning for these sites are ongoing challenges, and Conserving Black Modernism addresses both issues. Over three years, the program is building the field’s expertise by supporting convenings for project participants, consultants, and preservationists that foster peer-to-peer learning and professional connections. It is also developing lasting partnerships between the Action Fund, Getty, Black heritage networks, grantees, and national stakeholders working to preserve sites of Black creativity. The grants will also mitigate the erasure of modern architectural sites by Black architects and designers by telling their stories in more lasting, robust, and creative ways.
 

The following individuals served on the advisory committee reviewing grant proposals:

Brent Leggs is the founding Executive Director of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund and a Senior Vice President of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Alaska McInnis is the Director of the National Grants Program for the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund at the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Brandon Bibby AIA, NOMA is a Senior Preservation Architect for the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund at the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Miguel de Baca is a Senior Program Officer of academic programs at the Getty Foundation.

Charles L. Davis II is an Associate Professor of architectural history and criticism at UT Austin’s School of Architecture.

Brian D. Goldstein is an architectural and urban historian and an associate professor at Swarthmore College.

Randy Mason is a Professor in the Department of City & Regional Planning and teaches in the Graduate Program in Historic Preservation at the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design.

Jack Pyburn FAIA is a Principal in the historic preservation studio of Lord Aeck Sargent.

Nakita Reed AIA, NOMA is a Senior Associate at Quinn Evans.

Dayton Schroeter AIA is Vice President and Design Director at Smith Group.