The JFK Community Center in Buffalo, New York, designed by Robert T. Coles, the first Black Chancellor of the AIA, is just one of a handful of projects that has received funding from the National Trust for Historic Preservations Conserving Black Modernism campaign. The program now entering its third iteration is a part of the National Trusts larger African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund. Today, the foundation announced a third round of funding for the Conserving Black Modernism program. An additional $1.55 million will be allocated to support modern buildings designed by Black architects and designers. This brings the total investment for the program up to $4.65 million. Launched in 2017, the National Trust for Historic Preservation launched its African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, in an effort to invest in and restore cultural assets to use preservation as a force for enacting positive social change. Conserving Black Modernism, the campaign within the Action Funds National Grant Program, supported by the Getty Foundation, is dedicated to persevering historic modernist buildings created by. To date, the Action Funds National Grant program has funded 304 Black historic sites across the country.Many of the current funded projects include churches and university buildings, such as the Ira Aldridge Theater at the College of Fine Arts at Howard University. Completed in 1961, the theater was designed by Black architects Paul R. Williams, and Hilyard Robinson. Robinson was the first Black graduate to earn an architecture degree in Columbia GSAPPs history. Important buildings continue to be threatened, and a third year of Conserving Black Modernism will deliver much needed project support and critical training in communities across the country to ensure a robust network of professionals are in place to care for this heritage into the future. said Joan Weinstein, director of the Getty Foundation in a statement.The Getty Foundation grant will fund renovation and preservation projects and facilitate educational opportunities and professional networking at the various sites. Additionally, it aims to strengthen partnerships among the Action Fund, Getty, Black heritage networks, grantees, and national stakeholders dedicated to preserving sites of Black-designed modern architecture. African American architects and designers have been left out of the modern architecture movement for over a century. Because of this, many pioneers of the Black modernism movement remain unknown, despite the incredible work they have done to fuel innovation, experimentation and push the limits of how people interact with the built environment, said Brent Leggs, executive director of the Action Fund and senior vice president of the National Trust. With the support of the Getty Foundation, the Action Fund will continue to leverage historic preservation as a force that ensures the contributions of Black people and culture are protected and included in the narrative of our nations heritage.This is the Getty Foundations 18th grant to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Applications for this next round of Conserving Black Modernism grants will be accepted beginning January 10, 2025. Grantees will be announced in July 2025. For more information, you can click here.