Conserving Baltimore’s First Koreatown – $ 10,000
Lead Artist – Phaan Howng

An installation of historical markers in the Charles North neighborhood and part of Station North Arts & Entertainment District to designate it as an ‘unofficial” Koreatown. The Korean community began to form in the 1960’s reaching its height in the 1990’s. During its peak, the neighborhood consisted of several Korean-owned businesses that ranged from restaurants, a supermarket, to accounting firms, doctors’ offices, and even social service centers. The project hopes that by creating historic markers, it will support an effort to push for the area preservation and advocate for an official neighborhood designation from the city. 

Soft Gather, Quiet Flame – $ 10,000
Lead Artist – Aliana Grace Bailey

Founded in 2023, Soft Gather™ is an artistic practice and series of healing spaces utilizing fiber arts and color therapy designed for Black women and gender-expansive communities. It includes various initiatives and installations that will evolve, travel, and adapt to community needs. People gather and build community through conversation, rest, play, and release. Soft Gather, Quiet Flame consists of monthly intimate gatherings that will provide a consistent, intentional space for participants to explore their quiet power, build meaningful connections, and engage with fiber arts in a setting that honors and celebrates introversion. 

twurl – $ 10,000
Lead Artist – Abdu Ali 

twurl will is a publication project operating as a sociocultural journal that focuses on publishing contemporary literary text, scholarly writings and photographic works by Black gay men, transmen and butch lesbians. twurl will engage with writers, artists, cultural workers, and academics within the global African diaspora. twurl will be the beginning of a life publication project that I plan to work on for many years to come. twurl will investigate and illustrate the contemporary Black gay dilemma, Black gay collective desires and foster as a space for Black gay radical imagining. The Grit Fund will help support in producing the inaugural issue. 

Springboard: Film – A Collaborative Platform for Baltimore Filmmakers – $ 10,000
Lead Artist – Zachary Michel

Springboard: Film is a public-facing, collaborative initiative designed to nurture, elevate, and sustain a vibrant local filmmaking community in Baltimore. This project provides an essential platform for new and emerging local filmmakers to connect with one another, develop new work, and engage with audiences and industry professionals. By facilitating opportunities for creative exchange, mentorship, and public exhibition, Springboard: Film directly addresses the infrastructural gaps in Baltimore’s independent film scene and fosters a resilient ecosystem that supports risk-taking, cultural integrity, and long-term resonance. 

Islam & Print – $ 7,500
Lead Artist – Safiyah Cheatam 

Islam & Print (I&P) is a community print fellowship created by Dan Talib Latif Flounders and Safiyah Cheatam. I&P aims to champion diverse Muslim experiences and strengthen career readiness by building a network of regional, emerging visual artists of all mediums through a five-month screen printing fellowship. I&P strives to prioritize relationship building in cohorts of three to co-work, critique, and produce a collection of print editions that will culminate in a group exhibition of the cohort’s work.  

Move Move Collaborative’s First Decade Celebration – $ 7,500

Move Move Collaborative is a project that seeks to nourish the Baltimore performance community by hosting skill shares, hosting movement artists from out of town, and sustaining an ensemble practice. The First Decade Celebration: the spring intensive with added performances of contributors, our ongoing open studio, and public facing curated movement classes will form an epic celebration of ten years of organizing.

Mind Kontrol University – Webseries Screening – $ 5,000
Lead Artist – Starseed Studios 

MKU (Mind Kontrol University) is an original sci-fi psychological thriller web series produced under Starseed Studios, a newly formed Baltimore-based art collective. This project is deeply collaborative and grounded in community by bringing together a team of local working actors, screenwriters, graphic designers, composers, cinematographers, casting directors, art directors, producers, and wardrobe stylists. 

The Jury

Ada Pinkston is a multimedia artist, educator, and cultural organizer living and working in Baltimore, Maryland. Her performance work has been featured at a variety of spaces including The Smithsonian Arts and Industries Building, The Baltimore Museum of Art, The Walters Art Museum, The Peale Museum, Transmodern Performance Festival, P.S.1, The New Museum, Light City Baltimore and the streets of Berlin, Baltimore, Orlando, Washington DC, and New York. A graduate of Wesleyan University (B.A.) and Maryland Institute College of Art (M.F.A.) she is a lecturer at Towson University. She has presented public lectures on memory and public space at The French Embassy, NYU, UCLA, USC, Columbia University, and The National Gallery of Art. Her work has been supported by The Yaddo Artist Residency and McDowell Colony. Her work can be found in the permanent collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the augmented reality sculpture garden at Magic Johnson Park in South Central Los Angeles. Limited editions of her most recent work can be found at The Mimosa House London.

Chenoa Baker (she/her) is a curator, writer, professor, and descendant of self-emancipators—an overall community art synergist. She worked on Simone Leigh and Simone Leigh: Sovereignty with ICA/Boston, Gio Swaby: Fresh Up at PEM, Touching Roots: Black Ancestral Legacies in the Americas at MFA/Boston, led several exhibitions at ShowUp, and curated Sensory Garden at New Art Center, and Marie B. Gauthiez: We Dwell in Between at Tephra ICA in Reston, VA. In recognition of her curatorial work, she received the WBUR Maker Award which featured her on NPR’s All Things Considered in 2024. In 2023, she won the AICA Young Art Critics Prize. She edits with Sixty Inches From Center and Pigment Magazine and writes for Hyperallergic, The Brooklyn Rail, Public Parking, Material Intelligence, and Studio Potter, to name a few. Ultimately, as a conduit to that power, she returns to a community she’s cultivated: Elbow Grease, an editorial advocacy group for women and nonbinary labor in the arts.

Jackie Andrews (they/them) is a queer multidisciplinary artist, writer/researcher, creative archivist, and arts administrator based outside of Baltimore, Maryland. Jackie’s studio work explores collage, textiles, jewelry, and installation. They often use their creative practice to create dialogue with their queer identity and interests in collecting, archiving, culinary history, and art history. Their work has been exhibited in galleries across the United States; at New York City Jewelry Week; and at Munich Jewelry Week. Jackie holds a BFA in Sculpture with a minor in Art History from Towson University.

Jackie was the co-founder of Power Clash Art, an experimental publishing platform in operation June 2020-2021, and the founding Editor of Future Heirloom, NYC Jewelry Week’s blog, from August 2021-2022. Their writing has been published in Metalsmith Magazine and Queer Earth Food, among others.

Jackie has worked as a philanthropy professional and consultant since 2022, serving small arts nonprofits, performance companies, a traveling museum, and individual artists from across the United States. They have previously worked in fundraising at the Walters Art Museum, specializing in Institutional Giving.

Nathalie von Veh (she/her) is a curator and arts worker based in Silver Spring, MD. She received her MFA in Curatorial Practice from Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in 2020. Since 2014, Nathalie has been a core team member at the alternative art space, Washington Project for the Arts (WPA). While at WPA, she helped to implement an artist-organized mission and produced dozens of exhibitions, publications, and events. A recent highlight is WPA’s symposium “How can we gather now?” (2023) which took place in Washington, DC and featured 32 artists, writers, and organizers from all over the world. She is currently the Resident Storyteller for WPA, Manager of Wherewithal Grants, and adjunct faculty at MICA.

Originally from Seoul, South Korea, Shin Yeon Jeon earned her BFA in Oriental Painting from Ewha Womans University, and her MFA in Studio Art from Towson University in 2007. She taught in Maryland, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Ohio for 19 years as an adjunct faculty and Assistant/Visiting professor of Art of 3D Studio Art and Ceramics. She has taught many art courses, including Ceramics, Introduction to Photography, Elementary and Secondary Art Education, 2D Design, 3D Design, Beginning Drawing, Figure Drawing, The Human Figure: Modeling & Mold Making, and Sculpture. Shin Yeon has written over 72 articles, published in journals and magazines such as Ceramic Art Monthly in Korea, Ceramics TECHNICAL in the US, Ceramics: Art and Perception in Australia, and New Ceramics: The European Ceramics Magazine in Germany. She is a recipient of the Artist Relief Award in OR, in 2021 and Individual Artist Award in Visual Arts from the Maryland State Arts Council (MSAC) in 2015. You can see some of her artwork on her website www.shinyeon.com.