Mac Miller Fund to Award $1,000 Grants to 75 Diverse Artists in Pennsylvania

The Mac Miller Fund from the Pittsburgh Foundation has announced plans to award $1,000 grants to Pennsylvanian artists of color.

Applications for the micro-grants are open now through to July 23 and will go to 75 Black, Indigenous, and artists of color to help contribute to their work. To be eligible, applicants must be a member of the arts community and live in the counties of Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Greene, Indiana, Mercer, Lawrence, Somerset, Venango, Washington, or Westmoreland. If chosen, recipients can use the money however they choose as the grants are practice-based, not project-based.

"The BIPOC Artist Micro-Grant program is a way for the foundation to carry forward Mac Miller’s creative and artistic legacy and his family’s vision for helping artists, particularly younger artists, recognize their full potential," said Kelly Uranker, the vice president of the Pittsburgh Foundations Center for Philanthropy.

In 2019, the Mac Miller Fund donated $100,000 to the YMCA Lighthouse Project in Pittsburgh. The grant was to be paid over a three-year period, and aids with the restoration of the Tuff Sound Recording Apprenticeship Program. The foundation was first announced following Mac Miller’s death at age 26 in September 2018.

Earlier this year, the rapper’s album Swimming was certified platinum, making it his first record to do so. It was the last album from him released during his lifetime, but a posthumous record entitled Circles followed in 2020.