Ten BIPOC artists in Detroit will be getting a boost from the Gilbert Family Foundation over the next three years.
The Gilbert Family Foundation’s newly announced Seed and Bloom program in partnership with United States Artists will give $150,000 to artist-run businesses and community organizations like Norwest Gallery of Art, House of Jit, and Sidewalk Detroit.
The funding will be distributed as $75,000 in the first year, $50,000 for the second year, and $25,000 in the third year. Grantees will also receive business coaching and resources to help them grow their artistic practices.
“Artists are entrepreneurs and innovators. Their art not only helps us think differently about beauty, humanity, and society, it also catalyzes deeper social connections across our city,” said Gilbert Family Foundation Executive Director Laura Grannemann. “Through Seed and Bloom: Detroit, we aim to expand access to neighborhood-based art by supporting artists and their organizations with technical assistance, capital, and more.”
Norwest Gallery of Art owner and Womxnhouse Detroit founder Asia Hamilton tells Metro Times she hopes to secure a new location for Womxnhouse. The residency program previously brought together cohorts of women and nonbinary artists who filled Hamilton’s childhood home with art installations. The residency was put on hold in 2023 but Hamilton is plotting a comeback for either this year or 2025.
Hamilton says she has been talking with Nour Ballout who runs artist residency Habibi House about purchasing a collaborative space together that would be used for both Womxnhouse and Habibi House artists.
She also has plans to eventually purchase a bigger space for Norwest Gallery, which she currently leases in the Grandmont Rosedale neighborhood.
“My goal this year is to do things differently,” she says. “I’m going to invest the money into my business so the business can make more money. We’re going to have more programming in the space — paid events, classes, summer camps.”
Danielle Eliska Lyle’s Neighborhood Bodega production company, which focuses on telling stories about women and the Black diaspora, is also one of the selected projects for Seed and Bloom.
“Neighborhood Bodega is a multimedia production house committed to telling stories about women and Black culture/the Black Diaspora,” the filmmaker tells Metro Times. “The focus will be on strengthening the foundation and momentum of the production company by producing narrative works as well as encouraging organic efforts for a collective that fosters working relationships for a Black and brown film crew."
Other projects chosen for Seed and Bloom include Halima Afi Cassells’s apparel swap meetup the Free Market of Detroit, Garage Cultural, BULK Space, Tiff Massey Studios, and filmmaker Juanita Anderson’s Indija Productions.
