Newark Mayor Ras Baraka on Tuesday announced the recipients of the 2022 Creative Catalyst Fund awards. A total of 114 grants will be awarded to individual artists and artists’ collectives, with an average award of $3,200; and 34 grants will be awarded to small and midsized arts organizations with an average award of $10,100.
Baraka created the fund in January 2020 as a multiyear initiative providing the local community of artists and small and midsized arts organizations up to $1 million annually for at least three years. The fund has awarded a total of $2.35 million in grants in its first three years. Grantees use the funds to help pay for operating costs, space rentals, staff, programming costs, supplies and equipment, and COVID-related expenses.
The list of the awardees can be viewed here.
“Newark has a long history as a center of the arts, and our administration has supported the arts in word and deed, creating great works like the second-longest public mural on the East Coast. We are proud, privileged and humbled to write a new chapter by supporting this year’s grantees. Their works will define the voice and talent of a new generation of Newark artists for our present and future,” Baraka said.
The Creative Catalyst Fund is administered by the city’s Division of Arts and Cultural Affairs in partnership with Newark Arts, and was designed with support from Bloomberg Associates, the pro bono municipal consulting arm of Bloomberg Philanthropies.
The arts are estimated to contribute more than $178 million to Newark’s economy, support roughly 5,000 local jobs and generate $15.5 million in local and state taxes.
“Newark Arts is honored to help administer the Creative Catalyst Fund again this year,” said Felicia Swoope, executive director of Newark Arts. “This fund demonstrates Mayor Baraka’s continued commitment to supporting and uplifting Newark’s vibrant and cutting-edge arts community. The fund helps level the playing field for the arts in Newark as recovery from the pandemic continues.”
For more insight into Baraka’s arts initiatives, spearheaded by the city’s arts and cultural affairs director, fayemi shakur, view the Arts & Culture Annual Report here.
