Congratulations to CSI faculty member, Lauren Cramer whose research project, liquid blackness has been awarded a three-year Mellon Foundation grant of $750,000.
Lauren is a founding member of liquid blackness, a research group that collaboratively studies radical aesthetics in the visual arts and filmmaking of the Black diaspora, from the 1970s to the present. Lauren is also a co-Editor of liquid blackness, an online scholarly journal of aesthetics and Black Studies.
Over the next three years, liquid blackness will use the Mellon Foundation Grant to enhance its open access pedagogy, advance a deeper understanding of Black aesthetics and its role within the contemporary creative industries, build an archive of contemporary Black arts, and expand community-facing Black arts programming and mentorship.
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is the largest supporter of the arts and humanities in the United States.