The Wallace Foundation Awards 4 New Research Grants to Arts and Culture Organizations and Social Science Researchers Rooted in Communities of Color
PRESS CONTACTS
Julie Danni
The Wallace Foundation
JDanni@wallacefoundation.org / 212-251-9742
Joanna Yamakami / Emma Gold / Delaney Smith
Resnicow and Associates
Wallace@resnicow.com
212-671-5150
NEW YORK, JANUARY 15, 2026—Today, The Wallace Foundation announced four new research grants awarded to arts organizations rooted in communities of color and social science researchers. Through this funding, awardees will investigate issues ranging from the impact of community-based youth arts programs on individual and community well-being to the creation of tools that uplift cultural practices and histories. The selected grantees—The Center for Community, Heritage, and the Arts at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte; First Peoples Fund; Education Policy Initiative at Carolina (EPIC) at University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill; and The W.O.W. Project—have been awarded a total of $1,950,000. In alignment with its current major arts initiative, Advancing Well-Being in the Arts, the foundation has invested over $14 million over the past four years toward research for studies within the initiative, which is producing a total of more than 50 new studies for the field.
These four most recent awards are Research-Practice Partnership grants, which support the work of scholars and research teams partnering with arts organizations rooted in communities of color to address shared questions of interest that are of importance to the field. These grants include support for early career scholars from a variety of disciplines across the social sciences to encourage and expand interest in conducting research in the context of the arts and culture.
“Arts organizations are vital resource hubs that support their communities in myriad ways. The Wallace Foundation is honored to support this latest group of research grantees as they address issues that are critical to their organizations, communities, and broader arts ecosystem,” said Bronwyn Bevan, Vice President of Research at The Wallace Foundation.
Selected through an open call for requests for proposals (RFPs), each organization will receive funding for the implementation of individual research projects of their own concept and design. Funded by Wallace in recognition of a historical lack of investment in arts organizations rooted in communities of color and the under-documentation of their contributions, these projects are designed to answer questions pertinent to the field, and ultimately to advance practice, inform policy, and help build thriving communities.
These research projects are aligned with Wallace’s five-year, $107 million arts initiative, launched in 2021. As part of this work, the foundation is partnering with arts organizations rooted in communities of color to advance their well-being, enhance understanding of their contributions to community, and ultimately to help build a more equitable and sustainable arts ecosystem. In May 2022, Wallace selected 18 organizations with budgets above $500,0000 for the first phase of the initiative. These organizations are carrying out individual projects designed to advance their organizational well-being, gathering insights along the way. A second phase is also underway, supporting studies related to the process of developing equitable and sustainable processes of regranting funds to a wide array of smaller arts organizations with budgets below $500,000, executed in partnership with regional arts organizations and arts service organizations across the country.
For more information on this initiative, including open RFPs, please visit Wallace’s website.
ABOUT THE GRANTEES AND THEIR RESEARCH-PRACTICE PARTNERSHIP PROJECTS
The Center for Community, Heritage, and the Arts at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte
The Center for Community, Heritage, and the Arts (CHArt) at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, in partnership with three local youth arts organizations—Black Girls Film Camp, Lorien Arts, and The Arts Empowerment Project—will investigate how community-based youth arts programs impact individual and community well-being. Using a blend of social science and arts-based research methods, this study will examine how participation in youth arts supports youth’s social mobility, sense of belonging, and civic engagement. Beyond youth outcomes, the team will explore how youth arts programs impact teaching artists and mentors, including mental health, economic stability, and civic involvement, as well as broader community-level effects on cultural and social capital. This research, culminating in a virtually disseminated database and plan, will strengthen the evidence base for youth arts and provide actionable insights to advance community well-being in Charlotte and beyond.
Dr. Jimmeka Anderson, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Black Girls Film Camp, stated, "Too often, the contributions of community-rooted youth arts organizations are under-documented and undervalued, but this research-practice partnership creates space for practitioners and scholars to learn alongside one another and ensures that the voices of youth, teaching artists, and mentors are central to the knowledge being produced. We are excited for this work to generate actionable insights that benefit communities in Charlotte and across the country."
First Peoples Fund (Rapid City, S.D.)
Building on their decades-long commitment to strengthening the Indigenous Arts Ecology, First Peoples Fund (FPF) is partnering with NORC at the University of Chicago to document and map artistic and cultural assets that sustain thriving Native communities in three locations and to develop and share a toolkit enabling other communities to do the same. Using culturally responsive, participatory methods, the project will capture these assets in participants’ own words and through a Native-designed framework, elevating Native perspectives in academic and policy discourse. The study will generate rich data on the scope and community-defined value of arts and cultural resources and provide a data-driven tool for self-advocacy and strategic community development.
Education Policy Initiative at Carolina (EPIC) at University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
Mexican folklórico holds profound significance across the U.S., even beyond the Borderlands, and serves not only as an artistic practice, but as a vehicle for transmitting cultural knowledge, fostering intergenerational community ties, and supporting youth development. Despite its deep roots and ties to its communities and the land itself, folklórico remains precariously situated within the broader arts ecosystem, facing persistent concerns around inequitable access, limited school-based arts infrastructure, and intergenerational knowledge loss. Over the next three years, Compañía de Danza Folklórica Arizona (CDFA), DanzaCultura Mexicana, student members of Grupo Folklórico Miztontli at the University of Arizona, and the Education Policy Initiative at Carolina (EPIC) at University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill will incorporate oral histories, organizational case studies, and survey data to explore how Mexican folklórico groups support cultural identity and transmission of cultural knowledge and practices (e.g., dance techniques and vestuario, or costume-making). In doing so, this research will strengthen the evidence base around intergenerational cultural transmission. By collecting oral histories and interviews with seamstresses, instructors, and practitioners rooted in the folklórico tradition, the project will also lay the foundation for a Digital Garden—a bilingual, community-centered online resource featuring cultural archives, instructional toolkits, and other celebrations of folklórico.
“We are honored to present, in partnership with the Education Policy Initiative at Carolina (EPIC), ‘Preserving, Expanding, and Equitably Supporting Mexican Dance Traditions: Access to the Art of Mexican Folklórico in Schools and the Community in Tucson, Arizona.’ Our mission is to promote and preserve the art of Mexican folklórico dance by providing culturally enriching educational opportunities, fostering community engagement, and empowering dancers of all ages to celebrate their heritage through performance and artistic expression. This project reflects our shared, longstanding commitment to equity, sustainability, and the preservation of cultural traditions. Rooted in participatory and equity-centered research practice partnerships, our work seeks to strengthen the sustainability of arts organizations of color and broaden access to folklórico and its rich resources for youth, families, and the wider community,” shared Chantal Ralls, Founder and Director of CDFA.
W.O.W. Project (New York City)
W.O.W. Project is a women, queer, trans and youth-led community art initiative in Manhattan's Chinatown. Since 2017, W.O.W. has nurtured new generations of cultural workers and community stewards through Resist, Recycle, Regenerate (RRR), a year-long peer-to-peer leadership development program that brings together Asian American youth from across New York City. Through Chinatown-based arts and activism, youth learn about Asian American history, build intergenerational understanding, and use creative practices as tools for identity formation, community care, and social justice. In partnership with Dr. Diane Wong of Rutgers University-Newark, The W.O.W. Project will co-develop a youth-informed participatory arts (YIPAR) framework to examine how culturally sustaining out-of-school programs in Manhattan’s Chinatown foster identity development and well-being among Asian American youth, particularly in the face of gentrification-driven displacement.
“The way forward calls for research–practice partnerships that involve young people in defining what true community well-being requires in this pivotal moment. The collaborative development of the Youth Informed Participatory Arts Research (YIPAR) framework will deepen our understanding of the lasting
impact of community arts on young people and ensure they have a meaningful voice in shaping the future,” shared Dr. Diane Wong, Assistant Professor at Rutgers University.
# # #
About The Wallace Foundation
The Wallace Foundation is an independent, nonpartisan research foundation focused on the arts, school leadership, and youth development. The foundation collaborates with grantees and research partners to design and test innovative approaches to address pressing problems in the fields it serves. The evidence-based insights shared by the foundation support policymakers and practitioners in their efforts to improve outcomes, enhance community vitality, and help all people reach their full potential. www.WallaceFoundation.org
