Getty Images Partners with UNCF to Create a HBCU Scholarship

NEW YORK, Aug. 11, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Getty Images, a world leader in visual communications, and UNCF (United Negro College Fund), have announced the creation of the UNCF-Getty Images Scholarship for students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

The program will provide scholarships to students attending HBCUs across the United States and will be funded by revenue created by the inaugural Getty Images Photo Archive Grants for HBCUs, that aims to support the digitization of the invaluable visual history of HBCUs.

For more information or to apply to the Getty Images Photo Archive Grants for HBCUs, go to: https://grants.gettyimages.com/hbcu-grant

"We thank Getty Images for its partnership and investment in our students' futures. The Getty Images Photo Archive Grants for HBCUs exemplifies Getty Images' commitment to support HBCUs and to give a visual life to previously untold stories," said Dr. Michael L. Lomax, President and CEO, UNCF. "There is a wealth of unseen imagery within the archives of HBCUs that have rarely been seen, and these grants from Getty Images will be an essential part of the on-going documentation and preservation of Black history."

Recently launched in partnership and with financial support with the Getty Family and Stand Together, a philanthropic community tackling some of the biggest challenges of our times, the Getty Images Photo Archive Grants for HBCUs Program commits $500,000 towards the digitization of HBCU photographic archives. The Grant will support the digitization of up to 100,000 archival photos for two HBCU Grant recipients. HBCUs will retain all copyright, and original photos will be returned to the HBCUs after scanning, along with the newly digitized photos. Getty Images will represent the digitized photos, making this content available for educational and non-commercial uses, providing a new revenue source for the HBCU Grant recipients.

Cassandra Illidge, Vice President of Partnerships at Getty Images, said, "Our industry and Getty Images has not historically worked from a foundation of diversity, equity and inclusion. We have built a program to not only honor the legacy and history of HBCUs and their contribution to American History, but a program which will support our students' futures. For Getty Images to move the world, we must ensure that all content creators, their work, and their stories can be preserved.   We are committed to making content accessible and to ensure a more authentic representation of history."

All revenue from the HBCUs photos on www.gettyimages.com will be distributed to HBCUs and to continue impacting the Grants Program: Fifty percent will go to Grant recipients, who will retain all copyright of the visual assets; twenty percent will be reinvested to fund the Getty Images Photo Archive Grants for HBCUs each year; and the remaining thirty percent of royalties will be distributed to the new UNCF-Getty Images Scholarship with the goal of supporting the educational future of HBCU students. The scholarships will become available to students in 2022.

Stand Together CEO Brian Hooks said, "Stand Together is excited to build on our longstanding support for the HBCU community by participating in this important project alongside Getty Images and UNCF. By bringing images from HBCU archives to millions more people, the new curation will help celebrate the unique contributions that HBCUs, their graduates, and faculty members have made and continue to make to our country."

Getty Images Co-Founder and Chairman Mark Getty said, "At Getty Images we are excited about this partnership with HBCUs to digitize significant parts of their photographic archives. A photographic archive tells a story; it's a visual history of who we are. As a society we can only learn from history if it tells everyone's story. This partnership is an important step in that direction."

Applications to the Getty Images Photo Archive Grants for HBCUs will be accepted through Thursday, September 30, 2021, at 11:59 p.m. PT.

SOURCE press.gettyimages.com