Image Credit: The Afronaut Hugo Mendes

10/04/2024

Greetings!

Due to historic, systematic, and socioeconomic reasoning, young Black artists cannot fulfill their creative passion. This is a cultural emergency; directly threatening how visual history is created and preserved in the Black Diaspora. I would like to help lessen that burden for emerging Black artists through my unrestricted use funding program. Specifically, those attending my Alma Mater: The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Here's how:

SAIC is a world-renowned art school and staple in the art world.

From 2022-2023, the percentage of Black student enrollment has dropped from 8% to 5%. In 2023 SAIC's student body consisted of 3,402 students with only 5.1% reporting as Black.

More information on SAIC's student demographics can be found here. (2023 SAIC Demographics).

Since the scholarships inception in 2022, we have made the following strides:

• 1200% increase in applicants

• 118% increase in funding

• Increased number awardees

• Scouting for potential board members

• Created a data base of previous applicants to contract them for their creative abilities

We are asking for support towards our 2025 Scholar Goal:

Collect $3,500 to award 3 deserving artists from 3 tiers: one freshman, one sophomore-senior, one grad student.

Awards will tier as following:

Freshmen: $500

Soph-Senior: $1,000

Graduate Student: $1,500

The remaining $500 would be used to pay for administrative fees in regards to digital platforms (GoFundMe fees, QR code registration, and Jotform fees), copyright permission, and print materials.

Being Black and attending SAIC is an amazing experience that allows our people a different set of eyes, ears, and hands to guide our making process. It allows Black artists to have a hands-on experience in narrating and creating our new history.

This fund would not be possible without donors like you. Thank you for your dedication to the arts and defying the cultural norm of scholarship coming mainly from corporations and institutions. Your efforts are seen, appreciated, and expressed by our constant dedication to funding and most importantly, support the vision of our Black artists.

Below are photos of our previous winners and a brief description of their practice. Thank you for taking the time to read about my fundraising cause.

IG: ramartscholarfund