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# Creative Capital Grants $1.75M to Artists, 76% of Whom Are POC
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/creative-capital-grants-1-75m-to-fund-artists-projects/
- Published: 2020-12-08T17:00:56.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:38:44.000Z
- Description: The Black Schoolhouse and a comedic film by Suha Araj are among the 35 projects receiving $50,000 grants.
- Author: Valentina Di Liscia
- Tags: News, Creative Capital, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 09:08 (2019, 2020, part 3)

A total of 35 multidisciplinary projects have received $50,000 in funding each thanks to the 2021 Creative Capital Awards. The projects span a vast gamut of genres and mediums, from documentary film and sculpture to musical theater and social practice.

The pool of recipients is remarkably diverse: 76% identify as people of color, 55% as female, and 10% as having a disability. Grantees range in age from their 20s to their 70s and are based in 12 different states and territories. The winning applications were selected from nearly 4,000 submissions by an eight-member panel composed of curators, past awardees, and other arts professionals.

Among the recipients are Joseph Cuillier III and Shani Peters of the Black School for their project [the Black Schoolhouse](https://hyperallergic.com/anti-racist-art-sales-and-fundraisers/), a community center that will provide civic engagement activities in New Orleans's Seventh Ward. Another grantee, filmmaker Suha Araj, will use the funds to produce *Pickled (Khsara)*, a comedic feature-length film about women and marriage set in the Palestinian diaspora*.* Meng Jin, a San Francisco-based writer, will write *Mothers and Girls: A Fake Memoir*, a novel narrated by the daughter of a Chinese poet and a white American scholar of Chinese literature.

In addition to the $50,000 grant, winners will receive career development services, in line with Creative Capital's commitment to supporting artists in the long term rather than providing one-time cash infusions.

"We look forward to seeing these projects grow to make their mark on the world, in spite of the tremendous challenges this year has posed for so many artists," said Leslie Singer, Creative Capital’s Interim Executive Director, in a statement.

Applications for the next cycle of Creative Capital Awards will open on February 1, 2021\. A full list of 2021 recipients and their projects is below.

2021 Creative Capital Awards Grantees

**Suha Araj**  
Brooklyn, NY  
*Pickled (Khsara)*  
Comedy, Narrative Film

**People’s Kitchen Collective** 
**(Sita Kuratomi Bhaumik, Jocelyn Jackson, Saqib Keval)**  
Oakland, CA; Las Vegas, NV; Mexico City, Mexico  
*Earthseed*  
Artistic Activism, Social Practice

**Wafaa Bilal**  
New York, NY  
*In a Grain of Wheat: Cultivating Hybrid Futures in Ancient Seed DNA*  
Bio Art, Sculpture

**Shirley Bruno**  
Brooklyn, NY  
*Just Come/Been To*  
Experimental Film, Narrative Film

**William D. Caballero**  
Los Angeles, CA  
*TheyDream*  
Animation, Documentary Film

**The Black School (Joseph Cuillier III, Shani Peters)**  
New York, NY  
*The Black Schoolhouse*  
Social Practice, Cultural Organizing

**Reid Davenport**  
Oakland, CA  
*I Didn’t See You There*  
Documentary Film

**Amaryllis DeJesus Moleski, Terence Nance**  
Brooklyn, NY; Los Angeles, CA  
*Kiara Daja Diamond and the 777 Satisfactions*  
Graphic Novel, Animation

**Anne Finger**  
Oakland, CA  
*Wheeling in Berlin*  
Literary Nonfiction

**Shana M. griffin**  
New Orleans, LA  
*DISPLACED*  
Social Practice, Multimedia

**Mitchell S. Jackson**  
Chicago, IL  
*John of Watts*  
Literary Fiction

**Lars Jan**  
Los Angeles, CA  
*ROAM*  
Multimedia Performance, Augmented Reality

**Meng Jin**  
San Francisco, CA  
*Mothers and Girls: A Fake Memoir*  
Literary Fiction

**Crystal Kayiza**  
Brooklyn, NY  
*The Gardeners*  
Documentary Film, Experimental Film

**Adam Khalil, Bayley Sweitzer**  
Brooklyn, NY  
*Nosferasta*  
Video Art, Narrative Film

**Jenny Lion**  
Minneapolis, MN  
*untitled (Nevada, Utah)*  
Documentary Film, Video Art

**Marie Lorenz, Kurt Rohde, Dana Spiotta**  
New York, NY; San Francisco, CA; Syracuse, NY  
*Newtown Odyssey*  
Opera, Sculpture

**Sabrina Orah Mark**  
Athens, GA  
*Happily: Essays on Motherhood and Fairytales*  
Literary Nonfiction, Digital Media

**Derek McPhatter**  
Chicago, IL  
*NightQueen Performance Suite*  
Theater, Musical Theater

**Julian Terrell Otis**  
Chicago, IL  
*Resolved: Critiquing Contemporary Music Through Improvised Performance*  
Music Performance, Artistic Activism

**Will Rawls**  
Brooklyn, NY  
*\[siccer\]*  
Dance, Animation

**Tomeka Reid**  
Brooklyn, NY  
*Women of the AACM*  
Artistic Activism, Music Performance

**Marc Anthony Richardson**  
Philadelphia, PA  
*The Serpent Will Eat Whatever is in the Belly of the Beast*  
Literary Fiction, Poetry

**Sandy Rodriguez**  
Los Angeles, CA  
*Book 13: After the Conquest – Codex Rodriguez Mondragon*  
Painting, Installation

**Sherrill Roland**  
Durham, NC  
*The Jumpsuit Portal*  
Social Practice, Multimedia

**Bayeté Ross Smith**  
New York, NY  
*Art of Justice*  
Artistic Activism, Installation

**Jules Rosskam**  
Philadelphia, PA  
*Desire Lines*  
Documentary Film

**Legacy Russell**  
New York, NY  
*BLACK MEME*  
Literary Nonfiction, Digital Media

**Elaine McMillion Sheldon**  
Knoxville, TN  
*King Coal*  
Documentary Film, Experimental Film

**Débora Souza Silva**  
Oakland, CA  
*Black Mothers*  
Documentary Film, Artistic Activism

**Martine Syms**  
Los Angeles, CA  
*Dumb World*  
Narrative Film, Video Art

**Anna Tsouhlarakis**  
Boulder, CO  
*Indigenous Absurdities*  
Social Practice, Installation

**Jessica Vaughn**  
Brooklyn, NY  
*Working Procedures*  
Sculpture, Installation

**Jordan Weber**  
Des Moines, IA  
*4MX Greenhouse*  
Artistic Activism, Architecture and Design

**Simone White**  
Brooklyn, NY  
*or, on being the other woman*  
Poetry, Multimedia Performance