Today, Black Women Animate Studios (BWA) and The Titmouse Foundation announced their plan to support BWA’s goal of hiring 200 diverse animation professionals by the end of 2025. To reach this goal, the pair will introduce BWA’s new Equity Excelerator, a talent development program consisting of a series of events, content creation, online learning and visibility opportunities for historically underrepresented and diverse talent.
BWA Studios is a Black female-owned animation house that creates and produces programming and content for all platforms. The studio consciously hires Black women, women of color and nonbinary people of color to build equity in the industry. In its five years in business, BWA has fast-tracked diversity in animation, already having met 20% of its hiring goal.
The studio has offered production services to leading entertainment companies including Hulu, Netflix, Mattel, A&E, Warner Bros. Discovery (HBO, TBS, TNT, TruTV), Paramount and more. BWA’s forte is training, developing and employing diverse talent, and its methodology empowers artists to create premium content and advance their careers.
“Our Equity Excelerator is a tested, multi-pronged approach at solving for the lack of inclusion of Black and diverse talent in animation,” says Taylor K. Shaw, BWA’s Founder & CEO. “We remain at the forefront of creating access, and we’re excited for the continued innovation and opportunity our commitment to championing new voices will bring with the Equity Excelerator and The Titmouse Foundation.”
Talent selected from the Equity Excelerator will be utilized to help support BWA Studios in its mission to continue telling meaningful stories within the branded content and advertising space.
“It’s about time to start helping more Black women get in the door within the animation industry, and hear their stories,” says Shannon Prynoski, President of The Titmouse Foundation. “I am excited to make this a reality with the visionary Taylor K. Shaw, and her leadership team Fatimah Abdullah and JLove Calderón.”
Founded in 2020, The Titmouse Foundation is a non-profit 501(c)(3) public charity run by artists. Its goal is to share the growth and success of the Titmouse animation studio by providing opportunities for students who have been historically underrepresented.
