Surdna Foundation - Surdna Foundation -
Thriving Cultures

Clarify

The Outcomes We Seek

  • Increased public and private funding to artists of color and arts nonprofits and creative businesses led by people of color

  • Increased policies in public and private institutions that work effectively to close racial disparities

  • Increased democratic engagement among communities of color

We support projects that interpret and translate the production of creative works to help individuals, communities, and society at large define and understand how to take action.

Participatory Action Research

What We Fund: We fund research institutions that center the learning agendas of communities of color, have the capacity to train community members as researchers, and implement a national program to research Surdna-funded artist projects from the Create portion of our Radical Imagination for Racial Justice strategy.
Accepting letters of intent: No

Cultural Criticism

What We Fund: We fund initiatives and collaboratives that strengthen networks and build infrastructure for cultural critics of color. We support the documentation, interpretation, and critique of racially just practices developed by artists of color in partnership with their communities.
Accepting letters of intent: No

Selection Criteria

General Selection Criteria

  • Demonstrated alignment with Surdna’s six core values
  • Primarily led by and for people of color, artists, women, and/or lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans/gender-nonconforming people (staff, board, review panels, juries, etc.)
  • Informed and capable leadership and staff with the ability to identify and articulate the intersection of race and power with other systems, including, but not limited to, gender, sexual orientation, immigration status, ability, and class.
  • Demonstrated relationships and a history of trust with frontline, grassroots, and/or under-resourced communities
  • Expansive definition of “artist” that includes, but is not limited to, culture-bearers, designers, architects, and media-makers
  • Capacity to serve as an ambassador to the field for achieving racial justice outcomes through cultural strategies
  • Experience, ability, and capacity working with civic- and socially engaged artists
  • Openness to sharing learning opportunities with the staff and board of the Foundation and with other Surdna partners by participating in a community of practice

Additional selection criteria for Participatory Action Research

  • Demonstrated commitment to non-extractive research practices
  • Experience designing and implementing community-based research projects
  • Experience developing community-based ethics review boards

Clarify

You can see all grants given under our Clarify strategy below.
To view other Thriving Cultures grants, please click here.

Year Approved
Organization
Status
Amount
Duration
2025 Critical Minded

The purpose of this closeout grant is general program support to Critical Minded.

 Active $75,000 12 months
2022 Critical Minded

The purpose of this grant is to provide general program support to Critical Minded.

 Closed $375,000 36 months

Related News & Insights
Reports & Publications
June 29, 2020

Celestial Navigation: How to Fund Culture Change in the U.S.

If there was ever a moment for cultural strategy and investment in Black, Indigenous, and artists of color, it is now. Amid a global pandemic and a national uprising against systemic racism, we are witnessing the power of artists, cultural…

Reports & Publications
July 21, 2017

Helicon Collaborative Report: Not Just Money

Helicon Collaborative recently released Not Just Money: Equity Issues in Cultural Philanthropy, a research study conducted with funding from the Surdna Foundation. The study continues Helicon's examination of inequities in arts funding in the…

You can see all grants given under our Clarify strategy below.
To view other Thriving Cultures grants, please click here.

Year Approved
Organization
Status
Amount
Duration
2025 Critical Minded

The purpose of this closeout grant is general program support to Critical Minded.

 Active $75,000 12 months
2022 Critical Minded

The purpose of this grant is to provide general program support to Critical Minded.

 Closed $375,000 36 months