liquid blackness Receives Mellon Foundation Grant “Liquid blackness: Encounters with the Black Arts”
Liquid Blackness, Limited (LBL) has been awarded a three-year Mellon Foundation grant of $750,000 to support its scholarly and creative ecosystem devoted to the study of aesthetic practices in the contemporary arts of the Black diaspora. Mellon's funding will allow liquid blackness to expand its decade-long practice of fostering “Encounters with the Black Arts” designed for scholars, curators, artists, and the general public. Dr. Alessandra Raengo, Georgia State Distinguished University Professor of Moving Image Studies, who is liquid blackness founder and leader, is the grant's PI with Dr. Lauren McLeod Cramer (Cinema Studies Institute, University of Toronto) as co-PI.
Liquid blackness’s research on the visual arts of the Black diaspora has demonstrated the presence of Black aesthetic sensibilities in contemporary sonic and visual culture. It has shown how—moving nimbly between filmmaking and installation art, high art and popular culture, art galleries and digital platforms—Black contemporary artists are producing the most consequential visual aesthetics of our times. With the Mellon Foundation's support and liquid blackness's unique combination of critical, pedagogical, and archival interventions, the initiative will build the Black aesthetic fluency and best practices in the study of Black arts and artists necessary to understand their social value in scholarly and other social settings.
Over the next three years, liquid blackness will develop pedagogical toolsets that enhance its open access pedagogy; advance a deeper understanding of Black aesthetics and its role within the contemporary creative industries; build a self-sustaining archive of Black arts of the present; and expand the range and depth of its community-facing Black arts programming and mentorship through a combination of symposia and study groups.
To make this work possible, the Mellon grant will fund four new research, artistic, and managerial positions: Research Fellow, Dr. Daren Fowler; Creative Fellow, Dr. Derrick Jones; Artist in Residence, Anna Winter; and Project Manager, Corey Couch. Through the work of these scholars and artists, liquid blackness will be able to sustain existing operations and expand the production of research and archival material both within scholarly communities and in public-facing events.
About Liquid Blackness Limited
Liquid Blackness, Limited (LBL, www.liquidblackness.com) is a non-profit that supports a scholarly and creative ecosystem (the liquid blackness Project) devoted to the study of aesthetic practices in the contemporary arts of the Black diaspora. Through scholarly research, study groups, creative projects, open access publications, digital design, and public events (symposia, artist talks, teach-ins, art shows) designed for scholars, curators, artists, and the general public, LBL promotes Black aesthetic fluency while mentoring the next generation of scholars and creatives committed to inquiry in Black aesthetics and the agenda of Black Studies.
About The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is the nation’s largest supporter of the arts and humanities. Since 1969, the Foundation has been guided by its core belief that the humanities and arts are essential to human understanding. The Foundation believes that the arts and humanities are where we express our complex humanity, and that everyone deserves the beauty and empowerment that can be found there. Through our grants, we seek to build just communities enriched by meaning and guided by critical thinking, where ideas and imagination can thrive. Learn more at mellon.org.
For press inquiries: liquidblacknesslimited(at)gmail.com
