Eleven fellowships totaling $1,185,000 have been awarded to Black, Latino, Asian, and Indigenous Philadelphia artists. These unrestricted grants are provided as part of Philadelphia’s Cultural Treasures (PCT), a funding initiative administered regionally through a collaboration among The Barra Foundation, Neubauer Family Foundation, The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, William Penn Foundation, and Wyncote Foundation.
The Philadelphia’s Cultural Treasures artist fellowships recognize and reward the efforts of remarkably talented, Philadelphia-based Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) artists and cultural workers who make a material difference in their communities over and above the already challenging work of sustaining their own careers. This year’s fellowship recipients are artists working in visual art, traditional craft, music, performance, and community-based art forms. Many of the artists have made a meaningful difference in Philadelphia’s cultural landscape for more than 20 years, using the arts to preserve a cultural heritage, shine a light on important community stories, and support other local creatives.
The 2024 Fellows are: Naw Doh, Ruth Naomi Floyd, Leo Gadson, Charlyn Magdaline Griffith-Oro, Vaughnda Hilton, Germaine Ingram, Anthony Mendez, Michelle Angela Ortiz, Alex Shaw, Richard J. Watson, and the artist collective FORTUNE, comprised of Andra Palchick, Heidi Ratanavanich, and Connie Yu. More information about each fellow is provided below.
The fellowship awards range from $75,000 to $120,000 in unrestricted funds, with the higher amounts awarded to artists whose contributions have made an impact on the region for 20 years or more. Additionally, $15,000 in retirement savings are awarded to each fellow along with professional development opportunities to promote their well-being and assist with advancing their work.
The Philadelphia’s Cultural Treasures program is a component of America’s Cultural Treasures, which was initiated by the Ford Foundation in 2020. Recognizing a persistent history of unequal access to resources among Black, Indigenous, and People of Color communities—the impacts of which were further compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic—Ford partnered with local philanthropic leaders nationwide to implement a relief effort to honor and celebrate BIPOC cultural groups, artists, and organizations. The three-year initiative has infused $9.9 million of new funding into the greater Philadelphia region to support this community.
Read the full press release at philadelphiasculturaltreasures.org/artist-fellowships.
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The 2024 Philadelphia’s Cultural Treasures fellows are:
Naw Doh: Since arriving in Philadelphia from Burma in 2002, Naw Doh has been a community leader for other resettled Karen refugees from Burma, working to preserve their culture through traditional weaving, storytelling, music, dance, and gardening practices. She is a master practitioner of fiber art traditions at risk as the Karen people face continued persecution, founding Weaving a Karen Future in 2020, which grew into the Karen Community Association of Philadelphia in 2024. She also serves as a translator for Karen youth and elders.
Charlyn Magdaline Griffith-Oro: Trained as a sociologist and ecologist, Griffith-Oro is an interdisciplinary social practice artist concerned with ancestral lineage, systems of power, and collective care as world-building. Their work includes visual art, film, performance, and ritual gathering that tends to the “expanses of Black life,” often referencing archives and exploring their Caribbean identity. They are the founder of Wholistic.art, a creative agency centering cultural production in community development, and the Free Brunch Program, a no-cost food sharing project.
Leo Gadson: Gadson is one of the first jazz producers in Philadelphia and the founder of the Producer’s Guild, which has presented and supported jazz in Philadelphia since 1975. He has presented and collaborated with a wide range of jazz performers, including Cecil Taylor, Ahmad Jamal, and Jackie McLean, showcasing exemplary Black musicians for Philadelphia audiences for half a century.
Vaughnda Hilton: Hilton is an Indigenous artist, descending from the Blackfeet, Seminole, and Creek nations, who performs and teaches traditional dances and songs, building connection and belonging within Indigenous communities. She shares tribal culture through public events and partnerships with Indigenous leaders and Philadelphia city government. She is the founder and CEO of Native Nations Dance Theater and AfroDanze and served as president of the United American Indians of the Delaware Valley, among other education and advocacy group leadership roles.
Ruth Naomi Floyd: Floyd is a vocalist, composer, flutist, photographer, historical researcher, educator, and justice worker. As a jazz vocalist, she has recorded six albums expressing themes of theology, history, and justice. Her performances, lectures, and photography, along with historical work on extraordinary Philadelphians like Octavius Catto, Marian Anderson, and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, expand on these themes as well as beauty, culture, and the arts.
Germaine Ingram: Ingram’s multidisciplinary creative practice spans dance and vocal improvisation, choreography, performance, oral history, songwriting, archival research, cultural preservation, and filmmaking. She began her arts career in the 1980s, employing jazz tap dance to explore the cultural contributions and internal lives of Black people, especially Philadelphians and women. As both a leader on a range of creative projects and a collaborator and mentor for other artists, Ingram’s practice illuminates history, animates collective memory, preserves cultural traditions, and pursues social justice.
Anthony Mendez: Mendez is the director and lead percussionist of Los Bamberos De La Calle, a musical group performing traditional and contemporary bomba and plena music and dance. This Afro-Puerto Rican musical style dates back to the 17th century with a connection to the African and Indigenous Taino roots in the Caribbean. In addition to performing, he has taught these musical traditions to Philadelphians across generations and cultures for two decades.
Michelle Angela Ortiz: A visual artist, muralist, and filmmaker, Ortiz has created more than 50 large-scale public works and has led public art projects around the world. Her socially engaged practice examines issues of immigration, socio-economic inequalities, and human rights, working with communities to reveal their strength and spirit and translate their stories into rich, emotive imagery.
Alex Shaw: Shaw is a percussionist, composer, cultural producer, and educator specializing in Afro-Brazilian musical traditions and the Brazilian martial art of Capoeira Angola. In addition to composing music for theater, dance, and film, he has served as director and lead vocalist of the musical ensemble Alô Brasil and section leader in the Spoken Hand Percussion Orchestra.
Richard J. Watson: Watson is a visual artist whose work encompasses paintings of landscapes and traditional forms as well as collage, found objects, clothing, music, literature, and poetry. He has served as artist-in-residence at the African American Museum in Philadelphia for more than 20 years. His visual works blend elements of memory, dreams, ancestral references, issues of social politics, and daily life.
FORTUNE: FORTUNE is a print collective, assembled by and for queer and trans Asian publics. Conceived by Andra Palchick, Heidi Ratanavanich, and Connie Yu, FORTUNE approaches printing and self-publishing as a practice of learning, gathering, remembering, and making multiple. Their risograph print studio, Many Folds Press, provides accessible, responsive print services to broaden reach for queer and BIPOC stories. The studio’s catalogue includes resource guides and functional objects distributed through alternative, slow, or intentional means.
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America’s Cultural Treasures is a national initiative created by the Ford Foundation to acknowledge and honor the diversity of artistic expression and excellence in America. It has generated more than $276 million in critical funding to more than 100 organizations across the country led by and/or serving communities of color that have made a significant impact on America’s cultural landscape, despite historically limited resources.