The South Side Community Art Center's archives alone contain 3 million photographs documenting 133 years of Black lives and news. This extensive collection is now bolstered by a $250,000 grant from the Getty Foundation, part of its focused initiative to preserve Black visual arts archives. This additional funding in 2026 aims to secure the future of these invaluable historical records.
While historical underfunding for Black visual arts archives remains vast, the Getty Foundation is making a substantial, sustained, and growing programmatic investment to counteract this neglect. This directly confronts centuries of cultural neglect and long-standing inequities in preservation.
This sustained investment marks a growing recognition within major philanthropic institutions of the urgent need to preserve and make accessible historically marginalized cultural heritage. It will likely inspire similar efforts across the sector, setting a new standard for cultural philanthropy.
Preserving Decades of History: Key Recipients and Their Work
The Getty Foundation's grants support crucial archiving work. The South Side Community Art Center in Chicago, for example, received $250,000. Its Afro newspaper archives contain 3 million photographs documenting 133 years of Black lives and news, according to The Art Newspaper. The 3 million photographs documenting 133 years of Black lives and news highlight the vast, often overlooked, historical treasures held by community institutions.
Another Chicago institution, the University of Chicago's South Side Home Movie Project, received $170,000 from the Getty Foundation, as reported by the Chicago Sun-Times. This project focuses on preserving and digitizing home movies created by South Side residents. Funding both large-scale archives and specialized, community-driven projects indicates Getty's recognition of diverse preservation needs, from historical collections to grassroots efforts. This approach validates entire historical narratives previously at risk.
