A revolutionary arts ecosystem empowering BIPOC artists, organizations, and communities.

BANF is revolutionizing the local funding landscape and breaking down silos within the arts ecosystem to create transformative opportunities where they can dream, connect, collaborate, and create.

About

BIPOC Arts Network and Fund, or BANF, revolutionizes the local funding landscape, breaks down silos within the arts ecosystem, and welcomes everyone to support and learn from BIPOC arts communities. We utilize equity-focused and community-participatory funding initiatives; community-informed evaluation and learning practices; and asset-based network building strategies to inform leadership, advocacy, and action.

BANF was created in a time of crisis to provide resources and networks that support the vibrant Black, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian American, Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern and other communities of color of Greater Houston in fully displaying their power, values and traditions.

Nominate Community Reviewers

BANF is seeking public nominations for Community Reviewers, or panelists, who will join the organization’s leadership to engage in a peer review process to consider grant applications. Community Reviewers may include independent artists, educators, patrons, community leaders and organizers.

Nominate yourself or someone you know below:

Programs

Crisis Relief

At its launch, BANF invested $2 million into BIPOC-founded and led organizations and fiscally-sponsored artist collectives that promote, preserve, and celebrate Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, and other communities of color through arts and cultural programming. This one-time investment was an effort to provide direct and urgent support for Houston’s BIPOC arts ecosystem in the face of the pandemic and compounded crises.

Artist Awards The Artist Award initiative is a $1M, three-year investment directly to artists. Fifty artists, through two rounds of funding (2023/2025), will each receive $20,000 and engage in an eighteen-month learning community.

Houston Cultural Treasures

The Greater Houston regional initiative of the Ford Foundation’s America’s Cultural Treasures will invest $5M of direct resources and technical support in the arts organizations that have anchored our communities of color and shaped Houston’s dynamic and diverse culture that we benefit from today.

Cultural Treasures Accelerator

The Cultural Treasure Accelerator (CTA) initiative catalyzes resilience and stability through a one-time opportunity fund grant and a peer network. Awardees recognized in the CTA initiative will receive a $20,000 grant and a 12-month peer network experience. Application opens April 23. Deadline is May 27.

2025 BANF Artist Awards

A one-time investment of $20,000 in 25 artists who will form an 18-month learning community to transform the artistic landscape of Greater Houston.

BANF in the News

Selected coverage of the awards featuring some of our grantees:

Blog Stories

black history month 2025 BANF BIPOC ARTIST HOUSTON-02

Black History Month: Celebrating Legacy and Future through Art

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25 BIPOC Artists to Lead Houston’s Creative Renaissance in 2025

Water for the Desert: How One BANF Awardee is Expanding Arts Access for the Underserved

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Leadership

Sixto Wagan
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Black Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) Arts Network and Fund

Sixto Wagan is the Executive Director for the BIPOC Arts Network and Fund. He leads BANF along with a seven-member Steering Committee and a nine-member Accountability and Advisory Council made up of a diverse group of artists, curators, scholars, organizational leaders and foundation partners, who guide goals and priorities.

Before joining BANF, Wagan was the inaugural director for the Center for Art and Social Engagement (CASE) at the University of Houston. He also led the contemporary art center, DiverseWorks, serving a multitude of capacities including artistic director, co-executive director and performing arts curator.