In recent months, the COVID-19 pandemic has taken a heavy toll on the cultural sector, resulting in budgetary shortfalls and mass layoffs at a host of arts institutions. A recently announced grant program by the Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation aims to support some of the independent arts publications that have been affected.
On September 15, the Rabkin Foundation announced the nine recipients of its $20,000 award for non-profit arts journals. Stretching from the East to West coasts of the continental US, the independent publications have established themselves as specialists in the field of arts journalism.
The grantees are Arts.Black of Detroit, Michigan; BOMB and the Brooklyn Rail of Brooklyn, New York; Bmore Art of Baltimore, Maryland; Burnaway of Atlanta, Georgia; Glasstire of Houston, Texas; the Maine Arts Journal of Portland, Maine; the New Art Examiner of Chicago, Illinois; and X-TRA of Los Angeles, California.
“Artists, galleries and museums are struggling to survive. Writers and editors of America’s visual art journals are also in need of support,” the Rabkin Foundation press release reads, noting that, “Non-profit entities have been especially hard hit by the pandemic and economic downturn.”
The grants are intended to offer general support in maintaining the operations of each journal.
