Intro & History
The Urban Artist Initiative/New York City (UAI/NYC) provides artists of color in all disciplines and in all five boroughs with general support to advance their artistic and professional development. UAI/NYC was designed specifically for artists who identify their heritage as African, Latino, Asian, or Native American, and also embraces the diversity that exists within communities of color. UAI/NYC is one of the major projects of the Creative Communities program of Leveraging Investments in Creativity (LINC), which aims to forge a nationwide network of communities that work to make improvements in the local environment for artists.

UAI/NYC was formed in 2006 by a consortium of the Asian American Arts Alliance, the Association of Hispanic Arts, the Harlem Arts Alliance, and the Queens Council on the Arts, in partnership with the Bronx Council on the Arts and the New York Foundation on the Arts. The consortium now also includes the Smithsonian National Museum of the Native American (working in conjunction with the American Indian Community House and Amerinda). Along with major support from the JPMorgan Chase Foundation, UAI/NYC is funded in part by LINC via the Ford Foundation, the Buddy Fund for Justice of the Rockefeller Philanthropic Advisors, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and the Booth Ferris Foundation.

In 2006, in the groundbreaking first cycle of the UAI/NYC program, 90 grants were awarded in the range of $250-$2,500 per artist for a total of $125,000. Last year, fellowship winners each received $2,000. Click here for a list of 2007 UAI grantees.