In the fall of 2020, the arts patron Allison Berg listened to the book “From Generosity to Justice: A New Gospel of Wealth” by the Ford Foundation president Darren Walker. She had what she called a lightbulb moment, “hearing Darren speak to the difference between band-aiding a problem and actually taking action to influence systemic change toward equity and justice.”

Berg, who serves on the board of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and collects art by the likes of Louise Bourgeois and Rashid Johnson, had been seeking to give her philanthropy greater focus and to make a more meaningful impact. So, with her husband, Larry, a managing owner of the Los Angeles Football Club and private equity investor, she established the A&L Berg Foundation with a fellowship to help emerging visual arts curators, educators and administrators from underrepresented groups learn to navigate the insular, often elitist, largely white world of visual arts.

“I’ve spoken with these young people and that is how a lot of them see it: as a vast space of whiteness, where they have no one to speak with about their concerns and their experiences,” Berg said in an interview. “They don’t feel like safe spaces.”

The annual fellowship — funded in perpetuity — gives six arts professionals a $10,000 grant each, along with mentoring and workshops culminating in an all-expenses-paid visit to a major arts event, like the Venice Biennale, where the first group attended the V.I.P. preview earlier this year.

In addition, the fellows are given a year of support from Verge, a recruiting and human resources firm, which offers professional guidance, like improving LinkedIn accounts and résumés.