Disability Futures Receives $5 Million in Funding From The Ford Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundations

The Ford Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundations have committed $5 million in funding to the Disability Futures program, Realscreen reports.

This comes after the Disability Futures fellowship launched last fall, the first of its kind created by and for disabled practitioners. The program 20 disabled creatives around the U.S. with unrestricted $50,000 grants.

The new funds will help support the initiative through 2025.

The inaugural Disability Futures fellows include Jim LeBrecht, Navild Acosta, Patty Berne, Eli Clare, John Lee Clark, Sky Cubacub, Jen Deerinwater, Rodney Evans, Ryan J. Haddad, Jerron Herman, Carolyn Lazard, Riva Lehrer, Jeffrey Yasuo Mansfield, Mia Mingus, Perel, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Alice Sheppard, Christine Sun Kim, Tourmaline and Alice Wong.

The fellows' work will be honored this week at the first Disability Futures Virtual Festival, beginning today, July 19. The free festival will feature art and ideas from leading disabled artists, writers, performers and designers. Registration to the festival is open to the public on Disability Futures' website.

Read more on Realscreen.