NEW YORK, NY.- The Art Dealers Association of America Foundation announced the museums across the country selected as its 2020 grantees: Asia Society Texas Center (Houston, TX), Frost Art Museum, Florida International University (Miami, FL), Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (Los Angeles, CA), Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art (Chicago, IL), The Rockwell Museum (Corning, NY), and Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University (New Brunswick, NJ). Marking a record number of grantees for 2020, the Foundation has awarded these six museums $10,000 each for the development and realization of exhibitions and virtual programs to be presented in the next two years.
Established in 1970, the ADAA Foundation is generously funded by members of the Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA), the nation’s leading non-profit organization of fine art dealers – reflecting the profession’s commitment to advancing art historical scholarship and promoting the appreciation of art and art history. The Foundation provides annual funding to small- and mid-sized museums to support curatorial research and exhibition development, the scope of which was expanded in 2020 to include education and community engagement programming, both in-person and digital.
Each year, the ADAA Foundation invites a different and randomly-selected group of art museums to apply, all with annual operating budgets of under five million dollars and located across the four major quadrants of the U.S. This approach ensures that grants meaningfully impact institutions for whom exhibition development and research funding is often more difficult to obtain. Selected by the ADAA Foundation Board, which is comprised of ADAA member dealers, the grants are chosen based on museums’ proposals for programs that represent significant contributions to scholarship; offer new and distinct insights into art history; and advance art appreciation and education for its audiences. Presentations supported by this year’s grant program span from “digital field-trips” for students and educators, to exhibitions examining multi-dimensional narratives of identity, immigration, and community.
“ADAA members are steadfast in their dedication to supporting projects and institutions that advance scholarship and encourage understanding of art history, both for the field and the public,” said Michael Findlay, President of the ADAA Foundation and Director of Acquavella Galleries . “Given this challenging year for museums, and our entire field, we felt it was extremely important to expand the scope of the grants in 2020 to include virtual programs and ensure that museums have the resources to reach audiences online, as well as in-person. In addition to the range of online programs the grants support this year, we are so pleased to help realize exhibitions that reflect such a wide range of artistic perspectives and reorient the art historical canon.”
Six museums were awarded 2020 ADAA Foundation grants to support the following exhibitions and programs:
Making Home: Artists on Immigration
Fall 2021
Asia Society Texas Center, Houston, TX
Examining global immigration through the work of artists such as Zarina Hashmi, Tuan Andrew Nguyen, Hayv Kahraman, Beili Liu, and Phung Huynh among others, Making Home: Artists on Immigration invites personal connections and enquiry into shared experiences. The exhibition and its slate of associated public programs discuss immigrant histories in Asia, Africa, and the U.S. and shared experiences that magnify themes of exile and displacement, nostalgia, decolonization, and familial ties. Each of the featured artists addresses the complicated nexus of immigration on a global scale, while drawing deeply from their personal histories. Houston’s vibrant immigrant history lends this exhibition local resonance, as it proposes connections to the area’s myriad communities, including those who may not yet view the museum as a resource for inspiration and reflection.
Place and Purpose: Art Transformation in Coconut Grove, 1963-1989
June 12, 2021 through September 18, 2021
Frost Art Museum, Florida International University, Miami, FL
Offered in both physical and digital formats, Place and Purpose applies historical and art historical lenses to South Florida’s artistic roots in the neighborhood of Coconut Grove—which represented a haven for artists, writers, musicians, and art enthusiasts, including the Miami Black Arts Workshop (MBAW) from the 1960s to 1980s. The exhibition not only illuminates the art of this era, contextualized by contemporary works, but advocates for diverse, creative communities amidst gentrification. The exhibition is accompanied by a new publication and online archive documenting the Grove’s cultural history; satellite exhibitions at the Coconut Grove Library and FIU’s Green Library; and educational programming that, among other opportunities, includes an artist panel with founders and members of the MBAW.
Witch Hunt
Fall 2021
Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (ICA LA), Los Angeles, CA
The group exhibition Witch Hunt showcases the work of 15 international artists who examine social and political constructs through the lens of feminism. The artists featured in the exhibition commit to feminist methodologies as both a lived experience and an artistic point of view that is intersectional and transdisciplinary, engaging across gender, race, class, religion, ethnicity, and geography. Curated by ICA LA Good Works Executive Director Anne Ellegood and Hammer Chief Curator Connie Butler, the exhibition is presented simultaneously at ICA LA and the Hammer Museum, creating a single exhibition situated across two locations that cross-pollinates the museums’ audiences. Witch Hunt coincides with the nationwide initiative, the Feminist Art Coalition, in which dozens of arts organizations across the country are presenting projects informed by feminisms in 2020–2021.
Digital Field Trips
September 2020 through December 2022
Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, Chicago, IL
With a series of 20 online videos or “digital field trips,” Intuit aims to build teachers’, students’, and general audiences’ knowledge of outsider art through virtual experiences. The digital field trips will feature works of art from the museum’s permanent collection in short, thematic 20-30-minute videos hosted by museum staff and, in some cases, featuring artists and outsider art experts. Video content is designed for elementary, middle, and high school students; general audiences; English language learners; and people with disabilities. Housed on Intuit’s YouTube channel, the digital field trips will be disseminated through Intuit’s extensive Teacher Fellow Alumni network, the Chicago Public School (CPS) Office of Arts Education, and CPS Ingenuity to arts education programs at universities; and through Intuit’s live programs, website, and e-newsletters.
Digitization of The Rockwell Museum’s School Tour Programs
2021
The Rockwell Museum, Corning, NY
Engaging 16 surrounding school districts that have geographically limited access to the Rockwell Museum, this digitization project sees the production of ten tour videos for virtual delivery, that are fully transcribed in closed-captioning for accessibility and in consideration of diverse learning needs. Five of the tours will be supplemented by hands-on art projects, with fully digitized step-by-step instructions presented by a local teaching artist. By virtually sharing its rich collection in support of grade-level curricula, the Rockwell Museum not only exposes students to the arts at a time when on-site school tours are not possible, but also creates an evergreen resource for many subsequent academic years.
American Stories: Celebrating Jersey City
January 2022
Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
Drawn from a new acquisition of several thousand works from the former Jersey City Museum, this exhibition focuses on New Jersey, its industrial development, and its history as a port of entry to many immigrant groups throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Thematic sections are devoted to landscape views, industry and urbanization, the post-industrial city, and contemporary expressions. American Stories is a commitment to providing a broader and more diverse picture of American art and the art of New Jersey, with contributions from traditionally underrepresented artists of color, women artists, and artists of Latinx heritage. The content of the exhibition supports a wide range of related educational and public programs, including family arts workshops and school programs, exploring themes of segregation and immigration.
