NEW YORK, NY.- The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts announced the recipients of its Fall 2019 grants. $3.93 million will be awarded to 46 organizations from 19 states to support their visual arts programs, exhibitions, and curatorial research. This group of grantees was selected from a competitive pool of over 250 applicants bringing the foundation’s grants total for the fiscal year to $7.94 million, with support going to a total of 92 organizations in 23 states, the District of Columbia, and Canada. The foundation’s overall annual grants budget is approximately $14 million.
“The fall 2019 grant list reflects the foundation’s unwavering commitment to supporting experimental artistic practice around the country,” states Joel Wachs, the foundation’s President, “We are proud to further the important work that each of these organizations does to give artists a platform from which to meaningfully engage with the world around them, whether that means their neighborhood community, their regional context, the contemporary art world or the broader culture.”
Wachs continues, “The selection of grantees highlights the foundation’s commitment to art and exhibition making that takes risks, and to its belief that artists are key contributors to sociopolitical and critical conversations taking place across the country. Recipients hail from the country’s major art centers and beyond including Alaska, Montana, Missouri, North Dakota, and Utah.”
The Fall 2019 Grantees include 19 small to mid-sized organizations that support artists through exhibitions, residencies, commissioning opportunities, mentorships, print and online publications, and targeted advocacy efforts. First time grantees A Blade of Grass (NY) and Stamps Gallery (MI) join 1708 Gallery (VA) and Laundromat Project (NY) in providing support for socially engaged artists working in local communities. Other recipients like Abrons Art Center (NY), Disjecta Interdisciplinary Art Center (OR), and Transformer (DC) will receive funding for their programs nurturing artists at every stage of their careers through mentorships, residencies and a range of public programs.
Additional grants will be given to veteran organizations such as Locust Projects (FL), Real Art Ways (CT), and White Columns (NY) that support local and national emerging artists; Primary Information (NY) and Triple Canopy (NY), publishers of traditional, online and other experimental artist’s projects; and the National Coalition Against Censorship (NY) which defends institutions and individuals whose freedom of expression has been challenged.
The foundation’s Program Director, Rachel Bers notes that, “In a moment when so much is at stake politically, socially and culturally, we are heartened to see such robust artistic engagement with the complexities, inequities and challenges of our time. We applaud the Fall 2019 Grantees for following the lead of artists, for facilitating their creative growth and amplifying their voices so that they can be heard above the fray.”
20 museums will receive support for career retrospectives, focused group shows and thematic exhibitions, many of which approach political themes like the climate and immigration crises. Of note is the grant to the Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archives (BAMPFA) for a survey of recent feminist practices entitled New Time: Art and Feminism in the 21st Century. The exhibition anchors the collective efforts of the Feminist Art Coalition: a group of 60 arts institutions in more than 20 states presenting exhibitions, performances and symposia informed by feminism and timed to coincide with the 2020 presidential election. The coalition evolved through a Warhol Foundation Curatorial Research Fellowship awarded to BAMPFA’s curator Apsara DiQuinzio in 2017. Eight of the Feminist Art Coalition exhibitions are funded by the Warhol Foundation including Deana Lawson at the ICA Boston, Tala Madani at MOCA Los Angeles, and Betye Saar at the ICA Miami, among others.
Additionally, $350,000 will be awarded to seven curatorial research fellows whose investigations into non-binary gender identity, revolutions past and present, and lesser known international art movements will result in publications, exhibitions and new contemporary art scholarship.
