Queer/Art posts call for Black trans women/trans femme visual artists
“I Looked Up at the Sky and I, Imagined All of the Stars Were My Sisters” by inaugural Illuminations Grant recipient Keijaun Thomas in 2020. (Photo by Charles Rice via Queer-Art.org.) To commemorate Transgender Day of Visibility, Queer|Art, NYC’s home for connecting and empowering generations of LGBTQ+ Artists, announced Thursday the judges for its third annual Illuminations Grant for Black Trans Women Visual Artists: interdisciplinary artist Jonathan Lyndon Chase; writer, curator, and activist Kimberly Drew, and model, performer, and fashion illustrator Connie Fleming.
This annual $10,000 grant is awarded to draw attention to under-recognized contributions of Black trans women visual artists and provides critical support to their continuing work.
The first of its kind, the Illuminations Grant for Black Trans Women Visual Artists aims to correct the exclusion of Black trans women from the larger art canon and uplift profound lineages of Black trans women artistic practices, mapping avenues for future generations of Black trans women artists.
The Illuminations Grant is made possible entirely through support provided by visual artist Mariette Pathy Allen, whose body of photographic work over the last 40 years has been squarely focused on expanding cultural consciousness around gender and transformation.
