Junebug Productions awarded a grant from billionaire philanthropist
26th July 2021 · 0 Comments
By Ryan Whirty
Contributing Writer
Junebug Productions, a local performing arts center and production company that focuses on uplifting African-American culture and communities, recently received a grant from novelist and billionaire MacKenzie Scott as part of the $2.7 billion that Scott is donating to hundreds of community organizations across the country.
Although Junebug representatives aren’t releasing details about the exact amount it has received from Scott, Junebug Productions’ Executive Artistic Director Stephanie Mckee-Anderson said the grant will significantly help Junebug enhance its productions and its outreach to the community helping anchor and bolster Junebug’s financials.
Junebug production team
Mckee-Anderson said that Junebug and other minority-run and -focused non-profits like Junebug, especially ones that work to tell the African-American story through artistic endeavors, face a particularly difficult challenge when it comes to reaching secure financial footing and fiscal health.
“We’re a culturally specific non-profit,” she said, “where there’s an even more disproportion in funding.”
Such is particularly the case for cultural arts organizations in the South, many of whom face a constant struggle to not just stay afloat but thrive and enhance their communities. That’s why entities like Junebug can only survive with a combination of high-profile funding sources and a dedicated group of local advocates and supporters who believe in an organization’s mission.
“All the people who love us, who love and believe in what we do, these are the people who sustain us,” Mckee-Anderson said. “They’re the ones who come to work and believe in you and encourage you to move forward.”
She added that Junebug and other community arts organizations should be accessible to all so the artists involved can share their passions and their gifts.
“We believe in the art, and we believe the art is for everyone,” she added, “therefore everyone has the right to participate and enjoy the power of art.”
Junebug has been a New Orleans artistic institution for roughly 40 years.
In her latest round of philanthropic donations, Scott distributed $2.7 billion to a total of 286 high-impact community organizations across the country.
In a June 15 blog post, Scott singled out arts organizations and endeavors as efforts that need and deserve the financial help they need to thrive.
“Arts and cultural institutions can strengthen communities by transforming spaces, fostering empathy, reflecting community identity, advancing economic mobility, improving academic outcomes, lowering crime rates, and improving mental health,” she wrote, “so we evaluated smaller arts organizations creating these benefits with artists and audiences from culturally rich regions and identity groups that donors often overlook.”
She wrote that she hopes to help spur fellow philanthropists to invest time and money into community efforts dedicated to cultural, political and social uplift.
“People struggling against inequities deserve center stage in stories about change they are creating,” she wrote. “This is equally — perhaps especially — true when their work is funded by wealth. Any wealth is a product of a collective effort that included them. The social structures that inflate wealth present obstacles to them. And despite those obstacles, they are providing solutions that benefit us all.”
Mckee-Anderson agreed, saying that hopefully philanthropists like Scott can help forge a new, innovative economic and financial paradigm that more equitably distributes resources to more people and organizations who need it.
“There is enough for all of us,” she said. “We can be models for a redistributing of wealth. [Scott’s grant] is like winning the lottery for a non-profit.”
This article originally published in the July 26, 2021 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
