About TBP

Mission:

The Beautiful Project (TBP) is a community-based arts organization in Durham, North Carolina that uses storytelling and visual arts to advance the healing and representational justice of Black girls, gender-expansive youth, and women.

What We Believe

We believe in mutual care as a strategy for our full recognition and collectively wield pens and lenses to boldly add to the stories too often told about us, without us.

We also believe in the importance of partnering with families, community groups, schools, and arts institutions to boldly and unapologetically create images of Black girls, gender expansive youth and women just as they are, daring them and the world that engages them to see the many, varied ways that we are indeed, beautiful.

Theory of Change

TBP teaches youth ages 12-22 how to use their voice and power at the intersection of images, stories, and justice to advocate for their wellness and recognition by providing:  

  • Free access to arts education and applied training in visual arts, storytelling, cultural literacy, creative production, and other topics. 

  • Opportunities to participate in youth-led and intergenerational exhibitions, campaigns, films, and publications. 

  • A community of care that provides holistic support and mentorship for creatives wanting to explore, articulate themselves, and create.

We partner with families, community groups, schools, and arts institutions to explore and elevate the stories, images, needs, and dreams of Black girls, gender-expansive youth, and women.

Why Black girls, nonbinary youth, and women? 

TBP began in 2004 with our Founder Jamaica Gilmer’s dream to impact Black girls through photography. Over time, others joined her in a collective vision to build a dream house where Black girls and gender-expansive youth could articulate themselves, their needs, and freedom-dreams. We focus on this population for a few reasons: to address the gender and race-based harm they experience, to increase the representation of this population in the arts, and to counter the narrative injustices this population experiences which influence policy, institutions, media representation, and the culture more broadly.

Can I participate in TBP programs if I'm not a Black girl?  

While many of our programs target Black girls and gender-expansive youth, we partner with community organizations and art institutions to provide workshops, productions, and publications to a diversity of audiences.