Carmen Graciela Díaz's Blog

In her statement on Black History Month, The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Acting Chairman, Ann Eilers, expressed ''the contributions of Black artists to our nation’s creative and cultural wealth is unparalleled and help to define our country’s artistic legacy.''

Creatives in Place, a listening project featuring 22 Bay Area artists and their stories of living through the COVID-19 pandemic, gentrification and more during these complex times was recently launched by the Akonadi Foundation and Tao Rising.

For the month of February, GIA’s photo banner features work supported by Richmond Memorial Health Foundation.

A new report examines how recent labor policies intended to improve conditions for independent workers affect arts workers. The report Arts Workers in California: Creating a More Inclusive Social Contract to Meet Arts Workers’ and Other Independent Contractors’ Needs emphasizes ''the need to reimagine employment policies for the future of artists and gig workers.''

In a recent email, Borealis Philanthropy reflects on the first three years of the Racial Equity in Philanthropy (REP) Fund, 2020 learnings, and how their commitment to "racial equity values and practice shows up beyond the job."

Antwaun Sargent, who for about a decade, has written about and curated exhibitions devoted to Black artists, as ArtNews reported, has been named Gagosian's new director and curator. His first show, according to The New York Times, will examine what he calls “notions of Black space.”

Arts Activation Fund: Corona Memorials, a public-private partnership between the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs and Community Partners, seeks to commission approximately 70 creative-tributes by 70 lead artists “to reflect the lifetime of a person who has died from COVID-19 by engaging the family or dearest friends of the deceased."

An article in The Washington Post discusses a movement of arts workers that "asserts that the arts are as foundational as farming or manufacturing" with "an aim reinforced daily by the financial devastation the coronavirus pandemic has spread throughout the nation’s creative economy."

Miguel Cardona, President Joe Biden’s pick to become the next U.S. education secretary, "considered majoring in art education — influenced by an excellent art teacher he had," as The Hechinger Report stated recently.

The inaugural issue of the Nonprofit Wakanda Quarterly, a quarterly publication that seeks to "provide space for Black nonprofit leaders to flex their intellectual muscles in a way that will truly move the sector forward," according to George Suttles, one of the drivers of this publication, is out.