- By opportunity-fund
- December 5, 2020
Healthy Start supports women, children, fathers, families and communities through comprehensive community-based programming, systems coordination, advocacy, research and training. Their programming spans Allegheny and Westmoreland Counties. They use a multidisciplinary team model which is inclusive of Community Health Workers, Certified Lactation Consultants and Counselors, Lamaze Certified Childbirth Educators, Certified Doulas, nurses, licensed mental health clinicians, researchers, Community Health Advocates and other public health practitioners who touch the entire community—galvanized in support of a vision where communities are devoid of health disparities and all babies have the opportunity to thrive.
- By opportunity-fund
- December 5, 2020
Handmade Arcade support Pittsburgh’s maker movement by providing craft-based artists, designers, and makers with opportunities to sell products, build community, network, and share their artistic practice. Handmade Arcade celebrates the cutting edge of craft by connecting creators and consumers through making, sharing and learning. They achieve it by:
- Inspiring creativity and experimentation through the process of making
- Supporting creative commerce for local crafters, creative entrepreneurs, and small business owners
- Honoring the intersection of tradition and innovation
- Providing an alternative marketplace to mainstream retail
- Creating a welcoming atmosphere that promotes inclusivity and diversity.
- By opportunity-fund
- December 5, 2020
$10,000 to support the two-year implementation of the Gwendolyn J. Elliott Institute (GJEI) Speaker’s Bureau to educate the public on the inequities affecting Black girls, as well as better equip organizations/agencies and service providers to deliver informed quality services to Black girls in the Southwestern PA region.
Gwen’s Girls empower girls and young women to have productive lives through holistic, gender-specific programs, education, and experiences.
- By opportunity-fund
- December 5, 2020
$10,000 to Fractured Atlas for Other Border Wall Project to support Other Border Wall Project in their biggest initiative to date: O.B.W. 2020. They seek support for an international exhibition, public engagement-art making and conceptual campaign for their Fall 2020 exhibition opportunity at 937 Gallery in Pittsburgh.
Other Border Wall Project is started and led by an all-women team of three: Tereneh Idia, Leah Patgorski, and Jennifer Myers (formerly Meridian), who formed in the early months of the Trump administration to create work in opposition to the proposed wall at the US/MX border. Our combined strength is rooted in our individual capabilities and successes. Tereneh Idia is an internationally based fashion designer and founder of Idia’Dega, a global eco-design collaboration with OMWA: Olorgesailie Maasai Women Artisans of Kenya and The Beading Wolves, an Oneida family of artisans. Leah Patgorski is an artist and designer working with sculpture and site-specific textile installations. Jennifer Myers is a visual artist working with drawing, sculpture, and performance. Selina Lee, a student at Carnegie Mellon University, has provided fantastic research and assistance as our intern. We are based in Pittsburgh and Southern Virginia.
Fractured Atlas empowers artists, arts organizations, and other cultural sector stakeholders by eliminating practical barriers to artistic expression, so as to foster a more agile and resilient cultural ecosystem.
- By opportunity-fund
- December 5, 2020
$5,000 t0 Fractured Atlas for folkLAB to support the creation and documentation of three performance projects, including beginning development on our first touring work, and to assist in creating additional co-programming and partnerships with local community organizations whose missions intersect with our own.
folkLAB is an interdisciplinary, devised, performance project and an artistic community network dedicated to fair representation, compensation and access in the arts. Our two series in Our Voice and miniMythologies foster the creation of brand new performances created by under-represented artist and inspired by the intersection of personal narrative, myths or archetypes, and identity. Through this work we aim to create a new, decolonized folklore that truly represents our diverse world as it is today.
Fractured Atlas empowers artists, arts organizations, and other cultural sector stakeholders by eliminating practical barriers to artistic expression, so as to foster a more agile and resilient cultural ecosystem.
- By opportunity-fund
- December 5, 2020
CORNINGWORKS is a vehicle for the multi-disciplinary dancetheater productions by Beth Corning that combine sophistication, clarity of theatrical concepts, visceral choreography, and dynamic musicality. Humor co-exists with serious examination of such issues as art and myth, gender and aging. With a seasoned and passionate voice Corning, along with renowned collaborators, explore and expose captured glimpses, and startling slices of the human condition.
- By opportunity-fund
- December 5, 2020
City Theatre Company specializes in new play development. They are the largest theatre in Pittsburgh dedicated to a full season of all new work, commissioning and producing plays by writers at the forefront of the industry.
- By opportunity-fund
- December 5, 2020
City of Asylum creates a thriving community for writers, readers, and neighbors. They provide sanctuary to endangered literary writers, so that the writers can continue to write and their voices are not silenced. And they offer a broad range of free literary, arts, and humanities programs in a community setting to build social equity through cultural exchange. City of Asylum anchors neighborhood economic development by transforming blighted properties into homes for our programs.
- By opportunity-fund
- December 5, 2020
Balafon West African Dance Ensemble, founded by the late “Mama” Kadiatou Conte a native of the Republic of Guinea, seeks to see an elevated appreciation for African dance around the world. They create enriching opportunities to experience the joyful spirit and culture of traditional West African dance centering the contributions of women. Balafon is inspired by the belief that dance uplifts our lives and is led by these core values:
Community – Unifying people through common connections.
Creative Spirit – Inspiring full self-expression.
Excellence – Voraciously learning and letting our light shine.
Freedom & Well-Being – Liberation with courage and care.
Heritage – Honoring the gifts of our ancestors and carrying forward their wisdom.
- By opportunity-fund
- December 5, 2020
The Prisoner Justice Campaign (fiscally sponsored by Abolitionist Law Center) was formed around 6 prisoners, who were prison activists and litigators. The men were targeted because they contributed to a year-long investigation and report that detailed abuse, horrific conditions and human rights violations in the solitary units at SCI Dallas in Dallas, Pennsylvania. After one of them was subjected to torture, they held a peaceful protest in solitary confinement and were brutally attacked by guards with pepper spray and tasers, then charged with riot. A campaign comprised of activists from many movements, mothers, religious leaders and the community rallied around the men for 7 years. These men successfully litigated their own case with help of a stand-by attorney and were exonerated.
The Prisoner Justice Campaign assists and supports prisoners in our county jails, state prisons and immigrant detention facilities. It would also support and protect jailhouse lawyers and prisoner whistle-blowers while they expose and litigate human rights violations and other issues as it pertains to mass incarceration.
