Athi-Patra Ruga’s “Umesiyakazi in Waiting” (2015) from the Ford Foundation Gallery’s exhibition Radical Love, curated by Jaishri Abichandani and Natasha Becker. (image courtesy of the artist and WHATIFTHEWORLD, photo by Hayden Phipps)

A grant project supporting cultural critics is offering unrestricted $500 grants for writers of color who have been affected financially by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Critical Minded is a granting initiative that was founded by the Nathan Cummings Foundation and the Ford Foundation with the purpose of affording more opportunities to art and culture critics of color in a white-dominated professional field. The initiative is fiscally sponsored by Allied Media Projects.

To be eligible, candidates must be part of a self-identified underrepresented community in the United States and must have published at least three pieces of cultural criticism in English or Spanish since January 1, 2019. The published articles can cover culture, dance, film/television, food, literary arts, music, theater, or visual art.

The deadline for the application is June 15, 11:59pm EDT. The application processing period will last about a month, after which applicants will receive an email update on the status of their application. Critical Minded says it intends to distribute the funds within two months of the notification email and that it will provide grants to as many critics of color as its relief grants budget allows.

Editor’s note 6/5/2020 7:08pm EDT: The application deadline has been extended from June 8 to June 15.

Hakim Bishara is a Senior Editor at Hyperallergic. He is a recipient of the 2019 Andy Warhol Foundation and Creative Capital Arts Writers Grant and he holds an MFA in Art Writing from the School of Visual...