LILLY ENDOWMENT INC. MAKES $2.5 MILLION GRANT TO THE CLEMENTE SOTO VELEZ CULTURAL AND EDUCATIONAL CENTER
LILLY ENDOWMENT INC. MAKES $2.5 MILLION GRANT
TO THE CLEMENTE SOTO VELEZ CULTURAL AND EDUCATIONAL CENTER
TO FOSTER PUBLIC UNDERSTANDING OF RELIGION AND ART IN THE CONTEXT OF MIGRATION
New York, NY – December 12, 2024 – The Clemente Soto Velez Cultural and Educational Center is honored to announce a $2.5 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. as part of its Religion and Cultural Institutions Initiative. This funding will support Flight and Faith, a five-year multi-phased initiative exploring the intersection of religion, migration, and the art of belief in Latinx communities, connecting timely stories from the U.S.- Mexico border to New York City.
“We are grateful to Lilly Endowment for its generous grant to help create Flight and Faith,” shared Executive Director Libertad Guerra. “The funding comes at a critical and deeply fraught moment in our national discourse surrounding the border. Through documenting stories at the intersection of religion and migration – stories that are by our communities and for our communities – the platform will serve as an urgent information repository for journalists, human rights investigators, historians, policymakers, and activists for decades to come.”
In its first phase, Flight and Faith will intersect with Historias, The Clemente’s multi-year citywide initiative to center Latinx stories in New York City through public programs, research, and artist commissions that explore common themes of migration, spiritual belief, and the importance of the stories of immigrant communities that have shaped NYC. Although New York City is not situated along the border, its high population of migrants makes it functionally akin to a “border state”.
“Flight and Faith is more than a project—it’s a movement that unites art, faith, and the resilience of Latinx communities,” said Sofía Reeser del Rio, Associate Director of Programs and Curator at The Clemente. “We look forward to collaborating with others, using art as a tool to amplify migrant voices and creating a platform for knowledge sharing that transcends institutional walls.”
Flight and Faith builds on a year of dedicated research and project development, made possible by the contributions of several partners and collaborators, including the Flight and Faith project committee: Libertad Guerra, Executive Director and Chief Curator of The Clemente; Macarena Hernández, Texas-based Journalist and Academic, and Podcast Editor for Open Plaza; Miriam Guadalupe Juarez, 2024-2025 Public Humanities Doctoral Fellow at The Clemente; Monxo López, PhD, Curator of Community Histories at the Museum of the City of New York; Sofía Reeser del Río, Programs Director and Curator at The Clemente; Tony Tian-Ren Lin, PhD, Cultural Sociologist and Author of Prosperity Gospel Latinos and Their American Dream, and Program Director of the Leadership Development Initiative at Trinity Church Wall Street; and Sally Szwed, Special Projects Director at The Clemente.
The Clemente is one of 33 organizations from across the United States receiving grants through the latest round of Lilly Endowment’s Religion and Cultural Institutions Initiative. Its aim is to support museums and other cultural organizations as they strengthen their capacity to provide fair, accurate and balanced portrayals of the role religion has played and continues to play in the United States and around the world.
“The United States is widely considered to be one of the most religiously diverse nations today,” said Christopher L. Coble, Lilly Endowment’s vice president for religion. “Many individuals and families trust museums and other cultural institutions and visit them to learn about their communities and the world. We are excited to support these organizations as they embark on projects to help visitors understand and appreciate the diverse religious beliefs, practices and perspectives of their neighbors and others in communities around the globe.”
Further information about Flight and Faith will be announced in early 2025.
###
About The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural & Educational Center
Founded in 1993, The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural & Educational Center is a Puerto Rican/Latinx multi-arts institution with an inclusive and international vision rooted in NYC’s Lower East Side/Loisaida. The Clemente engages diverse audiences in heritage preservation, neighborhood history, and cutting-edge multicultural experimentation, emphasizing the humanities’ role in bridging civic and cultural life.
As a downtown cultural mainstay for three decades, we focus on cultivating, presenting, and preserving Puerto Rican and Latinx culture while embracing a multi-ethnic and international perspective. Committed to operating in a polyphonic manner, The Clemente provides affordable spaces to artists, small arts organizations, and independent community producers, reflecting the rich cultural diversity of the Lower East Side and New York City. Guided by our namesake’s values of culturally grounded multigenerational leadership, local empowerment, and mutuality, we are a collaborative hub for creating and co-producing multidisciplinary contemporary work.
The Clemente is a proud co-founder/partner of LxNY Consortium and the Coalition of Small Arts NYC (CoSA NYC).
Lilly Endowment Inc. is an Indianapolis-based private foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly, Sr. and his sons Eli and J.K. Jr. through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. Although the gifts of stock remain a financial bedrock of the Endowment, it is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff and location. In keeping with the founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education and religion. Although the Endowment maintains a special commitment to its founders’ hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana, it also funds programs throughout the United States, especially in the field of religion. While the primary aim of its religion grantmaking focuses on strengthening the leadership and vitality of Christian congregations in the United States, the Endowment also seeks to foster public understanding about religion and lift up in fair, accurate and balanced ways the contributions that people of all faiths and diverse religious communities make to our greater civic well-being.
###
For images, further background, or interviews, please contact:
Katrina Stewart
Senior Account Coordinator, Visual Arts
Blue Medium
T: +1-212-675-1800