Today the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation announced the next call for proposals to its Artist as Activist Fellowship program. Applying lessons from the inaugural round of fellowship applications, the foundation will use an alternating thematic frame to guide its open call for proposals. During the 2016 and 2017 fellowship cycles, the thematic frame is racial justice through the lens of mass incarceration. Artists with ambitious projects that tackle this critical issue are invited to seek up to $100,000 in support. Applications to the 2016 cycle are due 5:00pm (EST) on December 7, 2015.
There are 2.2 million people currently in our nation’s prisons or jails(1),  1 million of whom are African American(2). This is a 500 percent increase over the past thirty years and if current trends continue, one in three black males born today can expect to spend time in prison during his lifetime. Together, African American and Hispanics comprised 58 percent of all prisoners in 2008 even though African Americans and Hispanics make up approximately one quarter of the U.S. population(3).
This constitutes an epidemic.  Visit website for more…