Silver Eye

We are thrilled to announce a new initiative The Visual Arts Coalition for Equity (VACE)

We are VACE: eight small visual arts organizations in Pittsburgh that have come together to make our field more equitable, visible, and sustainable. We are committed to collectively sharing resources and ideas, advocating for each other, and fostering new collaborations. While we retain our own missions, we will unify our voices to challenge the systemic inequity that has persevered in the visual arts. We know that we will have a greater impact by combining our resources and energies.

We are grateful to announce that VACE has been awarded more than $100,000.00 in grants through the Arts Equity Reimagined Fund. This funding will allow us to further develop our coalition and to create a new program to build equity in the arts, the VACE Fellowship. This Fellowship is a paid arts leadership training program designed to support people who identify as BIPOC, LGBTQIA, and others who have been marginalized by our field. The VACE Fellowship will provide coaching, mentorship, networking opportunities and hands on professional growth experiences from all of the VACE organizations. A call for applications for the VACE Fellowship will be announced through all the member organizations in the late spring.

ABOUT VACE

VACE is a mixture of nonprofits, collectives, and for-profit visual arts organizations throughout Pittsburgh. We are made up of Associated Artists of Pittsburgh, BOOM Concepts, Brew House Association, Bunker Projects, Casey Droege Cultural Productions, Nafasi on Centre, Silver Eye Center for Photography, and Women of Visions. The organizations of VACE consistently present outstanding, diverse, and thought-provoking visual art in Pittsburgh. Through our programs and exhibitions, the organizations of SPACE create opportunities for visual artists of all demographics in our city. VACE represents the future of Pittsburgh’s cultural landscape.

ABOUT Arts Equity Reimagined

The Covid-19 Arts Working Group (CAWG), a collaboration of 17 foundations and an anonymous donor in the Pittsburgh metro area, presents the Arts Ι Equity Ι Reimagined Fund, in response to the ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 crisis, as well as long-standing disparities in funding for small and marginalized arts and cultural organizations in the southwestern Pennsylvania region. The current list of collaborating foundations:

Allegheny Regional Asset District
Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation
The Benter Foundation
The Buhl Foundation
Community Foundation for the Alleghenies
The Community Foundation of Westmoreland County The Community Foundation of Fayette County
Eden Hall Foundation
The Fine Foundation
The Grable Foundation
The Heinz Endowments
Henry L. Hillman Foundation
The McCune Foundation
Richard King Mellon Foundation
Opportunity Fund
The Pittsburgh Foundation
Henry John Simonds Foundation

Stay tuned for more news and information about VACE!