Webster University

01/17/2025 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 01/17/2025 12:10

Professor Kwon’s Project Highlighting Black Artists Earns a National Endowment for the Arts Grant

Professor Kwon's Project Highlighting Black Artists Earns a National Endowment for the Arts Grant

January 17, 2025

A study proposed by Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology Jong Bum "JB" Kwon, and supported by the St. Louis Regional Arts Commission (RAC) was approved for a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Announced this week,the grant for $45,000 will be matched by funding from other sources.

Kwon's research examines the lives of young Black creatives, including their aspirations, the ways they've learned to navigate the racially charged and segregated region, and how they understand and engage with the region's arts ecosystem. Kwon is the lead researcher and principal investigator in the project, assisted by MK Sadiq, the research and evaluation manager at the Regional Arts Commission. RAC is also providing funding for workshops and interviews.

"There's tremendous Black creative talent and positive energy in St. Louis.My hope is, that by building an inclusive arts infrastructure, the local arts sector - which already generates hundreds of millions of dollars for the region - can further grow and everyone thrive," Kwon said upon learning of the grant. "I'm humbled and deeply grateful for the support from the NEA, RAC, Webster University, and most importantly, the young Black creatives who have motivated this study and shared their valuable time to offer insight into the region's arts sector."

Kwon's grant is one of 18 Research Grants in the Arts from the NEA for funding to support a broad range of research studies that investigate the value and/or impact of the arts, either as individual components of the U.S. arts ecosystem or as they interact with each other and/or with other domains of American life. Overall, the NEA announced $36.8 million in arts grants in a number of categories this week to organizations and researchers in all 50 states.

NEA Director of Research & Analysis Sunil Iyengar said, "The research undertaken by these NEA grant recipients, including Webster University, covers a compelling array of fields and topics. The studies will contribute to a formidable body of research that is strengthening public knowledge about the arts' benefits to our lives and communities."

Kwon teaches Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Urban Studies, Globalization, Race and Ethnicity, Ethnographic Methods, and a range of topical courses including Modern Korea and Film, Anthropology of Capitalism, and Asians in America in the Department of Global, Languages, Cultures and Societies at Webster.

He received his doctorate from New York University and is a former Fulbright Scholar and University of California President's Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles. His work appears in many prominent journals on topics such as neoliberalism and policing in South Korea; multi-racial immigrant labor organizing in Koreatown Los Angeles, CA; masculinity and the cultural politics of memory in Korean social and labor movements; global unemployment; the Ferguson Uprising; and suburban, middle-class, college-educated,

liberal, white mothers' experiences of moral and racial anxiety in the wake of widespread protests sparked by Michael Brown, Jr.'s killing in 2014.

In addition to his academic work, Kwon has been involved with racial justice and equity projects in the St. Louis region, including with Forward through Ferguson; Focus St. Louis; and Before Ferguson, Beyond Ferguson; and has given public lectures and workshops on racism and racial equity.

Visit the NEA webpage to see the full list of organizations that received grants this week.