Amani Olu, curator, web designer, and all-around arts wunderkind recently rolled out Humble Postcards, a new project that helps emerging photographers gain exposure while raising funds for the Humble Arts Foundation. HAF was one of the first online galleries to showcase up and coming photography talent, inspiring a host of other online galleries and collectives such as FJORD and Women in Photography. HAF has expanded to include exhibitions in physical galleries and a grant program, which doles out awards bi-annually. They also have The Collectors Guide to Emerging Art Photography coming out soon to highlight up and coming art photographers. (Although, to be honest, there don’t seem to be an awful lot of black photographers included in the list. I recognize a great deal of names from the list and I know they’re not black or brown. But I digress.) To quote from the HAF newsletter, which came out earlier this week:

The Humble Postcard Project is a monthly fund–raising initiative developed by Humble Arts Foundation to ensure the sustainability of its programming, while continuing to provide exposure opportunities to emerging fine art photographers.

Funding for artists has never been easy to come by and with the currently tanking economy, it sure as heck isn’t going to get any easier. So I think we’re going to see more independent, homegrown projects such as this coming from artists and arts organizations so they can keep creating art and providing outlets for artists. I’m excited to see what will come next.