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.
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. Applications are open through July 31, 2023.
BANF in the News
Selected coverage of the awards featuring some of our grantees:
Leadership
Sixto Wagan
PROJECT DIRECTOR
Black Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) Arts Network and Fund
Sixto Wagan is the Project 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.
Steering Committee
Kevin Anderson
Founding Chief Executive Officer
The T.R.U.T.H. Project
Inclusion, Engagement and Training Director
Stages Theatre
Director of Education and Community Projects
Kinder Foundation
Bao-Long Chu
Program Director – Arts and Parks
Houston Endowment
Ashley DeHoyos Sauder
Curator
DiverseWorks
Tony Diaz
Writer, Activist
and Political Analyst
Nicole Moore-Kriel
Program Officer
Powell Foundation
Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished Professor, University of Houston
Kheli Willetts
Principal
Dira Professional Development
Community Consultants &
Accountability and Advisory Council
Anthony Almendarez
Artist and Composer
Sebastien Boncy
Photographer and Educator
(aka TAME, The Aspiring Me)
Rapper, Music Producer, and Performance Artist
Eureka Gilkey
Executive Director
Project Row Houses
Torrina Harris
Poet, Organizer, and Educator
Cynthia Woods Mitchell Assistant Curator
Blaffer Art Museum
Rosa Ana Orlando
Curator
Kristi Rangel
Artist and Educator
Lanecia Rouse Tinsley
Artist and Curator
Sophia Torres
Choreographer and Educator
Dr. Michelle Tovar
Director of Education
Buffalo Soldiers Museum
Frances Valdez
Executive Director
Houston In Action