A: “Philadelphia’s Cultural Treasures” is a multi-year initiative that seeks to acknowledge and honor Philadelphia’s BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) cultural groups, artists, and organizations and provide critical funding to arts organizations and artists that have made a significant impact on the city's identity, despite historically limited resources.

The program is the regional component of the Ford Foundation’s “America’s Cultural Treasures” initiative, and is a collaborative effort of five regional funders: The Barra Foundation, Neubauer Family Foundation, The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, William Penn Foundation, and Wyncote Foundation.

A: The initiative is organized as three funding opportunities:

• Multi-year general operating grants to organizations that are recognized as “Philadelphia Cultural Treasures;”
• Fellowship awards to BIPOC artists; and
• Project grants to emergent or non 501c3 organizations or collectives of critical value in their communities.

Eligibility will be specific for each opportunity.

A: Each of the three funding opportunities will be guided by the review and recommendations of external panels of local leaders and community members with a range of knowledge and work reflecting diverse neighborhoods in the City of Philadelphia, the field of arts and culture, and other areas of civic participation. These recommendations will be confirmed by representatives from the initiative's participating funders.

A: Following the submission of a Letter of Interest, select applicants will be invited to submit a full application by February 14, 2022, and will then have until April 8, 2022, to complete the application. Following a review by an external panel and confirmation by representatives from the initiative's participating funders, applicants deemed “Philadelphia's Cultural Treasures” will be notified in May 2022 and publicly announced in early June 2022. The timeline for the project grant and artists fellowship opportunities will be announced in 2022.

A: For “Philadelphia’s Cultural Treasures,” a BIPOC-led organization is one whose executive leadership and board (whether board of directors or advisory board, for fiscally sponsored entities) are majority Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.

A: Funding through the general operating support opportunity will be scaled to an organization's annual operating budget. Amounts for the artist fellowships and project grants are to be determined.

A: “Philadelphia’s Cultural Treasures” will begin making grants in 2022, and the initiative will run through 2026. However, the initiative is intended to generate broader conversation and increased giving among current and future supporters of arts and culture.

A: “Philadelphia Cultural Treasures” acknowledges that cultural organizations led by and serving communities of color have long struggled with relatively lower levels of financial resources than their white counterparts. The need to support BIPOC arts and culture communities has been made even more apparent and urgent by the pandemic. The aim of this regional initiative is to begin addressing the systemic challenges threatening the city’s cultural diversity by supporting the recovery of cultural groups, artists, and organizations of color.

A: “Philadelphia Cultural Treasures” is overseen by an advisory group comprised of the representatives from The Barra Foundation, Neubauer Family Foundation, The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, William Penn Foundation, Wyncote Foundation, and Ford Foundation, that provides final approval on all materials and activities related to the program. The design and development of the application, award, and reporting processes of each of the three funding opportunities is led by consultants selected through an RFP process. SadaoGhosh and Tayyib Smith act as consultants to manage the general operating support grants. The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage will manage the project grant and artists fellowship opportunities on behalf of the initiative and will announce those opportunities later in 2022.