U.S. and International Strategy

Creative expression has the ability to shape cultural narratives, expose injustice, and build cultural power and belonging for both the creator and the audience. Our work in Creativity and Free Expression supports artists, journalists, filmmakers, and other creatives around the world who have singular artistry and voice and whose work sparks dialogues that support racial, gender, and disability justice. We explore how cultural narratives influence contemporary reality and how these expressive forms can amplify the voices of marginalized communities, broaden understanding of how inequality operates in the world, and expand public imagination for what a more inclusive world can look like. We seek to catalyze a future where creatives are an abundant and sustained presence in all societies, free to spark compelling, propulsive dialogues about the complex world around us.

The Challenge

Today, artists, journalists, and filmmakers face many intersecting challenges that disrupt the sustainability of their practices. These include: threats to freedom of expression; deep field inequalities related to gender, race, and disability; volatile business models; tidal shifts in technology; social polarization; and corporate consolidation.

Artists from underrecognized communities remain the least represented and financed, and they are most prone to economic and political marginalization. For example, filmmakers who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) in the United States are the least represented among credited directors, and over 95% of characters with disabilities on television are played by able-bodied actors. Artists and journalists also often face economic precarity due to their disproportionately high likelihood of freelance and gig-economy employment and limited social safety nets.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, their jobs have continued to be cut in record numbers, and many of the job opportunities that remain are controlled by an ever-consolidating number of media companies; six companies control 90% of U.S. media, and even fewer entertainment companies dominate streaming entertainment services. This concentration of resources, amidst rising social polarization and technology-fueled misinformation, contributes to the prevalence of one-dimensional, harmful narratives that drive division and perpetuate inequality.

Artists, journalists, and filmmakers of distinct vision who foster dialogues that support social justice  must be supported in their work. Without them, harmful and limited narratives claim more space across culture and continue to catalyze discrimination and oppression in the form of racism, misogyny, transphobia, and ableism around the world.

The Opportunity

Culture remains a vital space where belief systems and values are shaped and expanded. And in a nation deeply polarized around race, identity, ideology, and gender, and with widening inequality, culture has an urgent role to play in protecting, bridging, healing, and challenging perspectives. 

As demographics in the US shift and the country moves toward having a majority of people of color by 2045, there is greater demand for art, journalism, and films that are truly representative of the nation. Simultaneously, some of the most exciting and powerful examples of storytelling are being created by individuals who have long been overlooked by mainstream culture and society, and we join a field eager to reconsider how to elevate them in ways that include support for groundbreaking exhibitions, fellowships that support artists and journalists that have not been traditionally resourced, and field service organizations that support broader BIPOC field infrastructure.

In a moment of transition and reconsideration for many creative industries, we see an opportunity to rethink the fundamental ways in which artists and journalists are supported economically and rethink the systems that have underserved them. We look to convene critical players to uplift new models of leadership and governance for organizations to better support creatives, as well as fund equitable policies and practices that forecast their long-term resilience and sustainability. We see an opportunity to braid the relations of creative communities, civil society, government, and the private sector to build a future that benefits all artists, journalists, and filmmakers—especially those from underrepresented communities—and frees them from economic precarity.

Grantee Snapshot

TransLash is a nonprofit multimedia organization that uses the power of journalism and personal storytelling to embed new narratives of transgender people, especially those of color, into public consciousness. Its overarching goal is to help decrease cultural hostility towards members of the transgender community—the most marginalized of the marginalized—to save lives and protect democracy. TransLash is led by Imara Jones, a multiple award-winning journalist and Black trans woman, and its team is comprised of nearly 20 journalists and content creators who reflect the diversity of the trans community and the United States.

Kumano I Ke Ala (KIKA) is a community-based organization located in West Kaua‘i, Hawai’i, that works at the intersection of youth education, cultural preservation, workforce training, and food sovereignty. Through support of the arts, KIKA encourages new economic models that have strong potential for reimagining and building community resilience as a form of economic and cultural justice. The organization supports communities in West Kaua‘i as custodians of the land and bearers of Indigenous culture, knowledge, and foodways. By revitalizing traditional agricultural practices and food systems, this kind of restoration mobilizes local culture, youth, farming, and community advocates to engage in community development, linking Hawai’i’s  past with its present.