Artists as Catalysts

Is making art essential work?

Artists as Catalysts Hero Image
The work of dancer, choreographer, and multi-disciplinary artist nora chipaumire explores gender and the Black performing body and aesthetic, while defying and deconstructing narratives born out of lived experiences of liberation wars, exiles, and racial and social differences. Photo: Erik Tanner for Mellon Foundation

Artists nourish our economies, communities, and collective spirit. Beyond measure, they expand our notion of who we are as a “we.” Mellon is dedicated to supporting artists across disciplines and creating a more robust and representative ecosystem that champions care for the art and for its creators.

Voice
The State of Nonprofit Theater in America Invites New Possibilities
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Stephanie Ybarra
Program Officer, Arts and Culture
Mellon Foundation
Directed and Choreographed by nora chipaumire

Claiming Oneself Where Art & Culture Meet: “Afro Promo #1 King Lady”

A Black woman stands in an indoor garden in a row of plants. She wears glasses and boots, looking at the camera.
Project EATS, Inc.
Artist Linda Goode Bryant on Creating Food Sovereignty with New York Communities: “Let’s Find the ‘Can’ in ‘Can’t’ ”
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Linda Goode Bryant
Project EATS

“Artists create social connections among huge groups of people through our ability to imagine and transform.”

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Artists work in pairs around small paint-stained benches in a messy studio. In black and white, their hair and clothes indicate that this photo was taken in the early 1900s. Artists work on various stages of sculptures. One artist paints a statue of a camel.
Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art Foundation, Inc.
A New Deal for Artists in the 21st Century
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