ANNE SPENCER HOUSE & GARDEN IS ONE OF 33 SITES AWARDED NATIONAL GRANT FUNDING FROM THE AFRICAN AMERICAN CULTURAL HERITAGE ACTION FUND
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The African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund (AACHAF), a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, announced its award of $150,000 to the Anne Spencer House & Garden Museum. With more than $80 million in funding, the Action Fund is the largest U.S. resource dedicated to the preservation of African American historic places.
The Anne Spencer House & Garden Museum, located in Lynchburg, Virginia, is one of 33 organizations in 2022 to receive a total of $3 million in funding from the Action Fund to protect and preserve sites representing African American history.
Renowned Harlem Renaissance poet Anne Spencer’s house and garden was both a place of reflection and a gathering space for African American leaders and creatives, including W.E.B. Du Bois, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Zora Neale Hurston. The museum will create an executive director position to oversee programming and restoration work. The grant is the result of an ongoing partnership between the organization's Shaun Spencer–Hester, the UVA School of Architecture's Professor Lisa Reilly and Assistant Professor Elgin Cleckley, and the UVA Department of English's Professor Alison Booth.
Recently, Professors Reilly, Cleckley, and Booth were also awarded a UVA 3Cavaliers grant for Edankraal en Route: Reviving an African-American Space of Cultural Exchange in Segregated Lynchburg to work with students to develop an architectural, landscape, and literary digital project to enhance access to and knowledge of the Anne Spencer House and Garden.
Since its inception in 2017, the Action Fund has supported 160 places through its National Grant Program for a total investment of $12.4 million. This year’s list further demonstrates the beauty and complexity of African American life, and includes historic sites tied to Black arts, culture, civic engagement, entrepreneurship, sports, medicine, education, religion, and social justice. These often-overlooked places hold aspects of history that must be protected—and used to draw inspiration and wisdom for the benefit of all Americans.
"The cultural landscapes and historic buildings featured in this year’s list showcase the breadth and depth of African American life, history, and architecture across generations,” said Brent Leggs, Executive Director, AACHAF. “At the National Trust, we aim to broaden the public's understanding of the Black experience in America, while also underscoring the very urgent need to identify and protect these sites for the benefit of the communities they have long served. We commend this year’s grantees for advancing this movement and stewarding these invaluable cultural assets into the future.”
Action Fund grants support preservation efforts across four categories:
- Building Capital: Supporting the restoration and rehabilitation of cultural assets important to Black history
- Increasing Organizational Capacity: Providing leadership staff positions within non-profits stewarding Black heritage sites
- Project Planning and Development: Funding planning activities tied to the development of preservation plans, feasibility studies and fundraising
- Programming and Education: Advancing storytelling through public education and creative interpretation
About the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund
The African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund is a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation in partnership with the Ford Foundation, The JPB Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and other partners, working to make an important and lasting contribution to our cultural landscape by elevating the stories and places of African American resilience, activism, and achievement. Visit savingplaces.org/actionfund.
About the National Trust for Historic Preservation
The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a privately funded nonprofit organization, works to save America’s historic places. Visit SavingPlaces.org | @savingplaces
