The Forman Arts Initiative and Philadelphia Foundation have announced the inaugural recipients of grants from Art Works, a five-year, $3 million initiative that provides support for community-based organizations and emerging artists.

Recipients include four individual artists, who were awarded two-year unrestricted grants of $10,000 a year: José Ortiz-Pagán, who works as a printmaker, sculpturer, painter, and performance artist and strives to facilitate community change; Jorge Rullán Fantauzzi, a choreographer whose recent project with the Brooklyn Center for the Arts provided access to classical art forms for underprivileged youth; Sabriaya Shipley, an educator, poet, playwright, and performance artist whose work centers around supporting Black and Brown youth; and Tshay Williams, a filmmaker and screenwriter who focuses on making portraits that celebrate Black lives.

Five community-based organizations also were awarded two-year unrestricted grants of at least $50,000 a year: Bearded Ladies Cabaret, a group of cabaret and drag performers who draw inspiration from traditional theater, dance, and opera to provide audiences with an intersectional experience of popular culture, sexuality, gender, and artistic invention; Big Picture Alliance, which engages, educates, and empowers Philadelphia youth through filmmaking and digital media arts learning experiences; BlackStar, which creates the spaces and resources needed to uplift the work of Black, Brown, and Indigenous artists working outside of the confines of genre; Twelve Gates Arts, which is focused on uplifting South and West Asian diasporic artistic voices within the local cultural landscape; and Scribe Video Center, which is dedicated to teaching the art of media making and exploring the use of video both as an artistic medium and as a tool for achieving progressive social change.

"The breadth and quality of the applications really excites us," said Jennifer Rice, co-founder of the Forman Arts Initiative, which, along with Philadelphia Foundation, launched Art Works as its first program. Art Works is specifically designed to support arts, culture, and creativity working in partnership with under-served communities. "These artists and organizations are creating work that puts Philadelphia in a class by itself, and they represent of our city's deep and diverse creativity."

(Photo credit: Big Picture Alliance)