We aim to shift dominant narratives about race, class, gender, and ethnicity and build radical solidarity and empathy through voice, creativity, and culture. We support art, media, and cultural criticism that challenge injustice like Firelight Media and the Critical Minded Initiative. We invest in visionaries like the Poor People’s Campaign and Bend the Arc who use faith, spiritual, and cultural practices to seed social transformation and spiritually rooted movements for change.

Funding Overview

We recognize the power of storytelling and the arts to reflect and sustain traditions, languages, history, hopes, dreams, and truths across generations. By raising the voices of poets and prophets, artists, spiritual leaders, and culture shapers to shift the dominant narratives about race, class, gender, and ethnicity, we can expand our collective capacity for radical empathy. We encourage voices and values that challenge imbalanced power dynamics and expand racial and economic justice.

Funding Focus

Through the Voice, Creativity, and Culture portfolio, NCF supports innovative ideas and portfolios that:

  • Artistic Practice: Support arts organizations with a deep commitment to social justice and shift perspectives by supporting new narratives that nurture empathy, understanding, and a culture of shared responsibility.
  • Storytelling Strategies: Support different modes of storytelling — journalistic, critical, and strategic — that contribute to social justice, hold the powerful accountable, and envision a world with respect and empathy at its core.
  • Moral Action: Support religious and spiritually grounded activists and organizations who advocate for social justice and democratic values and shift perspectives by advancing new narratives of radical empathy and shared responsibility.
  • Spiritual Practices: Support spiritual, cultural, artistic, and contemplative practices that nurture the creativity, resilience, empathy, and healing of activists, organizations, and leaders advancing social change.
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Voice, Creativity + Culture
News + Ideas

NCF, Interference Archive Showcase Art from the Contemporary Climate Justice Movement |

A vast movement for climate justice continues to rise worldwide, directly challenging the powerful interests of those most responsible for…
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Rise Up Initiative: Nourishing the Soul of Jewish Justice |

For the past year, Claudia Horwitz, Shifra Bronznick, and I have been working together to discern how the Nathan Cummings Foundation can…
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The Dominance of the White Male Critic |

“It’s 2019 and we are in the middle of a renaissance in black artistic production. And you are telling me…
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The State of Latino News Media |

Click here to read a new report titled 'The State of the Latino News Media', developed by our partners at…
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Why we need more diverse critics at film festivals |

For decades, the critics who have covered this country’s major film festivals have looked like most of the people who…
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Pasado y Presente: Art after the Young Lords, an exhibition commemorating the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Young Lords in New York and the continued power of Latinx Art and Activism |

The ​Nathan Cummings Foundation​ (NCF) in partnership with the ​Loisaida Center​, is pleased to announce the opening of Pasado y…
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Faith Matters Network: Rooted in Resilience Mapping Project

"The Rooted in Resilience Mapping Project is an attempt to capture one view of the significant and expanding body of work…
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2019 Sundance Film Festival: Amid Record High Submissions, Announcing New Hires, Talent Forum, Data-Driven Demographic Initiatives & Critic Stipends |

"The Institute's new Press Inclusion Initiative includes stipend grants to defray travel and lodging costs for over fifty freelance critics and journalists,…
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President’s Remarks: Radical Solidarity – Philanthropy’s Role in Showing Moral Courage |

My friends, it’s good to be with you in Pittsburgh today.  It is an honor to join you for this…
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What We Learned from the State of Latinx Media Panel

Elizabeth Mendez Berry shared her experience as a music writer in the 2000s when music criticism was valued in the industry…
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Teen Girls In Quinceañera Dresses Protest Texas Immigration Law

Teen girls celebrating their quinceañera are protesting on the steps of the Texas capitol Wednesday against a law allowing local…
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Jolt Texas’ We Are Texas Report |

"We Are Texas is a study undertaken by Jolt Initiative in partnership with Ethnifacts and US-ness to better understand the values,…
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