Instagram and the Brooklyn Museum Reveal the 2022 #BlackVisionaries Recipients
Known for their annual initiative to highlight and celebrate Black artists, designers, and organizations, Instagram and the Brooklyn Museum have revealed the winners of their 2022 #BlackVisionaries program.
Uplifting, centering, and investing — these are three goals of the #BlackVisionaries program that rewards five $100,000 Visionary Small Business Grants for Black-led organizations in the United States and five $30,000 Emerging Visionary Grants for U.S.-based individuals focused on art and design. This year, Instagram and the Brooklyn Museum are also providing a mentorship to each grant recipient in partnership with Mobile Makers, a nonprofit organization that offers youth design and skill-building workshops in Chicago and Boston communities.
This year’s committee of artists and designers led by curator and writer Antwaun Sargent, included Elle Decor Editor-in-Chief Asad Syrkett, Academy Award-winning costume designer Ruth Carter, and Head of Metaverse Design, Ian Spalter. The committee selected the 10 grant recipients from nearly 2,000 applicants, totaling over $650,000 in awards.
$100,000 Visionary Small Business grant recipient
Dedicated to their work of discovering and highlighting Black designers, Black Fashion Fair is a “conceptual retail, educational, and cultural experience” founded by Antoine Gregory. Their purpose is to “include everyone interested in discovering the contributions and influence of Black people in fashion, art, design and popular culture.”
$100,000 Visionary Small Business grant recipient
Founded in 2016 by Joseph Cuillier and Shani Peters — two multidisciplinary artists based in New Orleans — The Black School educates its students on Black history, radical Black politics, and creativity via a three-part ecosystem including art workshops, the Black Love Fest, and their Design Studio. By using a community-engaged approach, the Design School is a design firm with a mission to “apply experimental and iterative creative problem solving processes to real world issues in an attempt to connect with communities and their needs.”
$100,000 Visionary Small Business grant recipient
Following the murder of George Floyd in 2020, Dark Matter University is an anti-racist design justice network founded by Jerome Hartford to “collectively seek the radical transformation of education and practice toward a just future.” Hartford, a Black, queer architect and public artist, is based in Harlem, New York, and co-directs at the NY-based architecture studio BRANDT : HAFERD.
$100,000 Visionary Small Business grant recipient
This NYC-based art gallery and online marketplace was founded in 2021 by Paull Hill, and their mission is to create equitable opportunities for young, emerging BIPOC, women, non-binary, and Gen-Z artists that are overlooked by the current art market. Between their recent feature in Vogue and hosting interactive exhibits in Manhattan, Strada is currently “reinventing the art world” to be more inclusive.
$100,000 Visionary Small Business grant recipient
Located in New York City, Pacific is a multidisciplinary creative studio and publishing house founded by Elizabeth Karp-Evans and Adam Turnbull in 2017. According to Pacific, their work is focused on “creating design and communication systems that innovate and build community at the intersection of art, publishing, placemaking, technology, and culture.”
$30,000 Emerging Visionary grant recipient
Christopher Joshua Benton is an American artist based in Abu Dhabi and Cambridge, working in film and installation. Benton works closely with communities to instigate collaboration and share stories of power, labor, and hope.
$30,000 Emerging Visionary grant recipient
Anaïs Duplan is a trans poet, curator, and artist, and he recently published “I NEED MUSIC” along with three other books. He is a professor of postcolonial literature at Bennington College, and has taught poetry at The New School, Columbia University, and Sarah Lawrence College, amongst others.
$30,000 Emerging Visionary grant recipient
Albert L. Hicks IV is the co-founder of Ayem, a design and research studio, alongside Marcus Washington Jr. As a studio, Ayem explores how communities, spaces, and objects shape culture, language, and perspective.
$30,000 Emerging Visionary grant recipient
Jaline McPherson is a designer, artist and writer working currently in the field of spatial design seeking to elevate stories of Black cultural landscapes and ethnobotanical histories. She believes that through design and storytelling, new found ways of healing and joy can be redefined for Black and born communities.
$30,000 Emerging Visionary grant recipient
Cornelius Tulloch is a Miami-based interdisciplinary artist and designer. With work transcending the barriers of photography, fine art, and architecture, Tulloch focuses on how creative mediums can be combined to tell powerful stories. His interdisciplinary practice is inspired by Black and Caribbean cultures, histories, and everyday life.