1stDibs Spotlights Black Artist Fund Grant Recipients
Launched in summer 2020 during the Black Lives Matter movement, the Black Artist Fund seeks to combat systemic art-world inequity by platforming and financially supporting Black artists. The initiative has since supported dozens of up-and-coming creative talents with grants totaling more than $43,000. “Providing aid to African Americans shouldn’t just be restricted to those outliers deemed worthy of the title of ‘Black excellence’ or those living under the most extreme of circumstances, but should be offered to each and every artist with the courage, ambition and perseverance to make their dreams a reality,” Darryl Westly, an artist, curator, and Black Artist Fund board member, tells Introspective.
That’s why 1stDibs teamed with the Black Artist Fund to launch the Black History Month Collection of artworks from both emerging and established artists and photographers. The design e-commerce powerhouse enlisted Westly to carefully select artworks from ten grant recipients— Joanne Petit-Frère, Andrew Ross, and Ashley Teamer among them—to feature in the collection, which will be shoppable throughout the month of February. Keep watching the space: Each artist will also receive subscription-free 1stDibs storefronts for one year.