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Mac Miller Fund Establishes $75K Grants For BIPOC Artists

The Mac Miller Fund is continuing to give back to the Pittsburgh community. 

This month, the Mac Miller Fund announced plans to award 75 micro-grants of one-thousand-dollars each to Black, Indigenous and People of Color artists.  The “What’s The Use” rapper and producer’s fund was started in 2018 by his family shortly after the accidental overdose of Malcolm McCormick, professional known as Mac Miller.

Organizers say those within Pennsylvania counties such as Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette and  more are eligible for the grants.  Applications for the program are open from now until July 23rd and winners will be informed by September 1st the latest.

As reported on The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Mac Miller Fund’s first two grant recipients each received $50,000 in May 2019. They were awarded through the Hope Academy of Music and the Arts, an after-school arts education outreach program at East Liberty Presbyterian Church, and MusiCares, a California-based charity of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to assist musicians in need.

“The BIPOC Artist Micro-Grant program is a way for the foundation to carry forward Mac Miller’s creative and artistic legacy and his family’s vision for helping artists, particularly younger artists, recognize their full potential,” Kelly Uranker, vice president of the Pittsburgh Foundation’s Center for Philanthropy, said in a statement.

Grants will be practice-based, so recipients can use the awards on whatever they choose. The microgrants’ distribution will be determined by a committee that will include BIPOC artists. Applicants will be informed of decisions by Sept. 1.