VSCO Voices
Funding creators who use art to give voice to marginalized communities.
VSCO Voices was a grant program we created and ran in partnership with VSCO for two years. Each cycle, it funded creators who use art as a vehicle to empower marginalized communities in the United States, giving them the money, mentorship, and platform to tell stories that too often go untold.
Our role: Co-creator and funder, in partnership with VSCO
Type: Creator grant program
Focus: Supporting artists telling the stories of underrepresented people in America Duration: Ran for two years
Status: Concluded
Why we built it
Being a creator is hard, and telling hard stories is harder. Arts funding in schools keeps declining, and the capital a creator needs to complete an ambitious, full-time project is difficult to find. On top of that, much of the art that does get funded rarely reflects the most marginalized and underestimated people in the country.
We built VSCO Voices because we believe creators are a force for change. Smart, skilled, beautiful art is essential to the health of individuals and communities, and creators are among the best equipped to build empathy, ask hard questions, and give voice to people who are unheard. This was never about funding a single piece of art. It was about the freedom to make and experience art, and about backing creators as agents of understanding in a divided time. That belief in the creative economy runs through much of our work, from Hidden Ventures to CreativeMornings.
How it worked
VSCO Voices was a six-month program that supported five creators per cohort. Each creator received:
$20,000 in funding to carry out an ambitious creative project.
One-on-one mentorship, pairing each creator with a mentor for feedback, coaching, and support.
A platform to share their work with VSCO's large, young, and diverse community of early-stage creators.
Each year connected to an overarching theme, "What makes us human?" The inaugural 2018 cohort's theme was HOME.
The response
The inaugural cohort showed how much need and talent were waiting for this kind of support:
958 applicants in the first year.
47 states and Puerto Rico represented.
5 finalists selected, reflecting African American, Asian, Latino, and Caucasian creators, and telling stories from Native Alaskan, LGBTQ, immigrant, Latino, rural, and survivor communities.
The funded projects took on real subjects with care and depth: documenting and disrupting the narrative of rural youth violence in one of the nation's poorest counties, creating a safe space for Black women who survived sexual abuse to share and begin healing, and exploring coming of age among Indigenous youth in rural Alaska amid climate change and cultural change. Each paired artistic excellence with a story that deserved to be heard.
Why it mattered to us
VSCO Voices put resources directly into the hands of creators who use their gifts to build empathy and give voice to the overlooked. For two years, in partnership with VSCO, it helped launch careers, elevate untold stories, and affirm a conviction we hold across our work: that people have the right to realize their full potential, and that a creative economy which lets people be their authentic selves makes communities more human.
