Philly arts nonprofits to get a share of $2.25 million PA Humanities’ grants. Here’s how three will use it.

PA Humanities has awarded $2.25 million to 24 nonprofit arts groups around the state in a new “Wingspan” grant program.

Organizations were awarded either $50,000 or $100,000 to be spread over two years. Half of the money will be disbursed by the end of this year, and again in 2024 to mark the 50th anniversary of PA Humanities. Founded in 1973, it was once known as the Pennsylvania Humanities Council and remains an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The Wingspan grant recipients are divided into two “Wingspan Learning Community” cohorts: 12 BIPOC organizations that are led by or that serve Black, Indigenous or People of Color communities, and 12 organizations serving rural communities. Six groups in the Philadelphia region received grants.

Jen Danifosenior program officer at PA Humanities, said the recipients are grouped into “learning cohorts,” who will meet virtually a few times a year to build a network to share information and learn about fundraising, organizational development or staffing needs.

“We call it capacity building or strengthening,” Danifo said. The idea was to not just give them money, but add a component where the nonprofits can network.

Danifo said many people think of the humanities as academic subjects such as literature, history, or philosophy.

“That’s true, but for us it’s about putting the humanities in action and trying to make it accessible to the everyday person,” she said. “We live the humanities every day by asking questions about who we are, what’s our identity and what’s going on around us in the world.”

For example, among the Philadelphia-area BIPOC nonprofits that received grants are: the Cambodian American Girls Empowering of CultureTrust Greater Philadelphia, which received a $50,000; the Chester Cultural Arts and Technology Center, in Delaware County, which received a $100,000 grant; and Indigenous People’s Day Philly, Inc., which received a $50,000 grant.

Funding for the Wingspan program was provided by Spring Point Partners and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The Inquirer spoke with leaders of three other Philadelphia Wingspan recipients: ¡Presente! Media, a Latinx community journalism collaborative; Twelve Gates Arts, an art gallery and showcase for artists from South Asia, Southwest Asia and North Africa; and the Friends of the Tanner House, an organization working to redevelop the historic home of the internationally acclaimed Philadelphia artist, Henry Tanner.

Before the world shut down because of COVID-19, Latinx filmmakers Gabriela Watson-Burkett, Kristal Sotomayor, and Melissa Beatriz had already been talking about the need to tell the stories of the Spanish-speaking communities in Philadelphia.

During the pandemic, the Philly-based trio launched a new community journalism project called ¡Presente! Media — a collective that produces both short documentary films and written stories.

“We are digital journalists, and we write bilingual articles and produce short documentaries,” said Watson-Burkett, one of ¡Presente!’s three cofounders and now its program director.

Watson-Burkett is originally from Brazil. Sotomayor, who developed the marketing department, was born to Peruvian parents. And Beatriz, who designed development, is of Uruguayan descent.

The collaborative organizes events to bring people together to discuss issues the community faces. Last year, it launched “The Motherhood Project,” to document the obstacles facing Black and Latinx women as they seek maternity health care and raise their children.

They produced one short documentary featuring a woman who spoke of prejudiced treatment she experienced at a medical appointment — “until she showed up with her white American husband. She noticed a difference in how she was treated,” Watson-Burkett said.

¡Presente! Media will use the $50,000 Wingspan grant to pay for staffers, reporters, photographers, translators and producers.

The founders chose the name “¡Presente! Media” as a rallying cry to announce to the world: “We’re here!,” she said.

» READ MORE: 10th annual Philadelphia Latino Film Festival tells the city’s stories — and the world’s

Aisha Khan is one of the cofounders and the executive director of Twelve Gates Arts, an art gallery in Old City that opened 14 years ago.

The name “Twelve Gates,” was inspired by the gates that surround ancient cities around the world. Think Marrakesh in Morocco, Lahore in Pakistan, or Delhi in India.

“Gates separate cities, but also, gates open to allow for the cross-cultural exchange of ideas and for starting dialogue,” said Khan, who grew up in Pakistan.

When Khan, her husband Atif Sheikh, and third cofounder Mehrin “Mir” Masud-Elias opened Twelve Gates, there weren’t many galleries showing art created by people from South Asia, Southwest Asia, or North Africa.

“Historically, art was shown in the oldest parts of cities all over the world,” Khan said. “So when we landed in Old City, [at 106 N. 2nd St.], we loved it.”

Twelve Gates Arts received a $100,000 grant that will be disbursed over two years.

Until now, the gallery has had only one full-time staffer, Khan, and two part-time staffers. Khan said the grant will help pay for an additional full-time staffer. It will also be used to spread the word about its mission.

“We want to support contemporary artists from the South Asian diaspora,” she said. “We especially want to help emerging artists. Philadelphia is a hub of artists and art schools. We want students to come and learn about what’s happening in the diasporic world.”

The Friends of the Tanner House was launched in December 2021 to save the house where internationally acclaimed artist Henry Tanner lived from about age 13 to young adulthood.

The Tanner House, at 2908 W. Diamond St., is a National Historic Landmark on both the Philadelphia and National Register of Historic Places.

However, the Friends group is also making the case that the historic designation for the house should be broadened to recognize the accomplishments of several other members of the Tanner family.

Christopher Rogers, the project lead for the FOTH, said the organization will use the $100,000 grant to continue working with community members to establish programs and create a dialogue about the needs of the community.

The Wingspan grant money cannot be used for renovations to the house, but can be used for cultural programming about what the house means to its North Philadelphia community.

“We want to look at the legacy of the different family members through the lenses of faith, family, freedom, art, health and education,” Rogers said. "They all made accomplishments across these fields and themes.”

For instance, Henry Tanner’s father, Bishop Benjamin Tucker Tanner was not only a bishop in the African Episcopal Methodist Church, but he was the editor of the church’s newspaper, The Christian Recorder, and he worked to build Freedmen’s schools to educate newly emancipated people who had been enslaved.

The artist’s sister, Halle Tanner Dillon Johnson, was a medical doctor, who was educated in Philadelphia but went to work at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. She was the first woman of any race or ethnicity to pass the Alabama licensing exams. She was recruited to Tuskegee by the school’s founder, Booker T. Washington.

And Henry Tanner’s niece, Sadie T.M. Alexander, was the first Black person to earn a doctorate degree in economics in the United States and was the first Black woman to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

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» READ MORE: Once ‘the center of the Black intellectual community in Philadelphia,’ the Henry O. Tanner House could be demolished

With the grant, FOTH will be able to hire a part-time community engagement coordinator to support the partners network the group has developed.

A complete listing of the Wingspan recipients can be found here.