Meet Our 2022 Narrative Infrastructure Grantees
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In 2022, the Pop Culture Collaborative proudly made $2.2 million in narrative infrastructure grants to 27 inspiring field partners.
Since the Pop Culture Collaborative was founded in 2016, we have prioritized support for both Narrative Infrastructure, the investment in leadership, intelligence, collaboration, industry power, innovation, and community building that collectively builds narrative power; and Narrative Immersion, the narrative ocean of content and experiences, that when millions of people are immersed in everyday, that gradually normalize new realities, behaviors, and identities for millions of people. Since then we have invested almost $25 million in grants and other resources in alignment with one foundational idea: narrative infrastructure makes narrative immersion possible.
We need a pop culture narrative change field—led by Black and Indigenous peoples, people of color, immigrants and refugees, and Muslim peoples, especially those who are women, queer, trans and nonbinary, and/or disabled—that are equipped with the narrative infrastructure they need to immerse the majority of people in America in an irresistible, wondrous vision of an American society shaped by pluralist culture and rooted in justice.
We are delighted to announce our 2022 narrative infrastructure grantee partners. Learn more about their work here.
- Aspen Institute. Exploring the relationship people in the United States have to our nation’s history.
- Barcid Foundation. Creating talent pipelines for Native film and television artists.
- Big We Foundation. Cultivating the vision and leadership of BIPOC girls and womxn to build a culture that is safe and sustainable.
- Break the Room Media. Developing a talent pipeline for live action and animated film and television writers from immigrant, refugee, Muslim, Indigenous and LGBTQIA communities.
- Breaking Light Studio. Supporting a slate of BIPOC creators’ project development, decision-making, and collaboration skills through community workshops and a writers’ intensive program.
- Caring Across Generations. Advancing pop culture narratives about caregiving and the role of caregivers in our society.
- Center for Cultural Power. Accelerating the power of immigrant, refugee, disabled, and/or trans emerging television writers through the Artists Disruptors Fellowship Program.
- ColorCreative. Launching the Find Your People Program, a new pipeline initiative that organizes communities of BIPOC artists and crew members inside the entertainment industry.
- Department of the Future. Identifying the global distribution pipelines that are implicated in the spread of disinformation.
- Harness. Organizing artists, activists and entertainment leaders to use the power of storytelling to imagine and co-create a more equitable and just world.
- Dear Hollywood. Advancing Latinx equity and inclusion in Hollywood through the Dear Hollywood (Demanding Equal Access and Representation in Hollywood) initiative.
- Institute for the Future. Researching toxic digital narrative ecosystems and their cultural impact on society.
- Institute for Social Policy and Understanding. Conducting research on Americans’ willingness to lend public support to anti-Muslim and undemocratic state policy.
- IntoAction. Developing and sharing narrative-focused rapid response digital content.
- Latinx House. Creating a hub for Latinx creatives in the entertainment industry and launching the first Raizado Festival.
- Noor Theatre. Supporting Middle Eastern artists to develop narratives and produce pop culture projects.
- Open Television. Building an ecosystem of BIPOC queer, women, transgender, nonbinary, and/or disabled digital storytellers in the US.
- Opportunity Agenda. Bringing together artists, entertainers, influencers, advocates, activists, and funders to develop an aspirational vision for a just and abundant future.
- Pillars Fund. Organizing content creators and cultural strategists to work together as in developing entertainment projects that defy stereotypical Muslim tropes.
- Revolutionary Love Project/Community Partners. Producing educational tools, training courses, artwork, films, music, and mass mobilizations that center the voices of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) communities.
- Soze Foundation. Supporting the release of author and artist Paola Mendoza’s new young adult book SOLIS, the sequel to her best-selling novel Sanctuary.
- Starfish Accelerator. Developing a creative village ecosystem of mentors for Starfish Fellows Cohort to develop and release new pop culture story IP.
- Storyline Partners. Advancing authentic, accurate, and equitable narratives in television and film.
- The League. Developing a research and analysis program that integrates audience insights and trend forecasting into social justice work.
- Think Tank for Inclusion and Equity/Women in Film. Empowering underrepresented television writers to transform the industry into one in which all writers and all stories can thrive.
- TransLash Media. Through the power of nonfiction storytelling and narrative change, centering the humanity of trans people in the national, social, and cultural landscape.
- United We Dream Network. Creating a new understanding of immigrant justice as racial justice, anchored in love, pride, abundance and collective care.