The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts has announced its Fall 2023 grant recipients. 50 arts organizations and museums will receive over $4 million to support artists and nurture creative practice around the country. The grantees are located in 20 states across the US, with one international recipient in Mexico City.
“As socio-political tensions, cultural inequities, and environmental crises persist, it is imperative that arts organizations continue to cultivate the expressive capacities of artists,” says Joel Wachs, President, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, “By providing artists with financial, material and intellectual resources, as well as public platforms and engaged audiences, these organizations support the development of works that can offer new entry points to stalemated conversations. ”
30 mid-to-small-sized organizations receiving multi-year program support are recognized for their commitment to artists and their communities. Through exhibitions, residencies, commissions, publications, and other opportunities for experimentation and collaboration, they foster artistic growth and promote innovation across disciplines. Several grantees also actively safeguard freedom of artistic expression, providing support and safe haven to artists under threat for ideas expressed in their work.
Two new grantees offer opportunities for artists to bring historic materials and frames of reference to bear on contemporary artistic production. Afro Charities (Baltimore, MD) provides four artists annually with access to the AFRO American Newspaper archive which documents more than a century of history through Black perspectives. In addition to its residency and exhibition program, ALMA | LEWIS (Pittsburgh, PA) also houses The Black Archive, a publicly accessible collection of more than 750 books, journals, and other materials related to the Black experience.
Several grantees directly address the climate crisis through programs that support artists’ innovative environmental projects and calls to action. Epicenter (Green River, UT) brings artists, designers, architects, and creative thinkers to the small town of Green River for residencies and gatherings that seed new projects in and about its rural context; Buffalo Arts Studio’s (Buffalo, NY) upcoming yearlong program of exhibitions, workshops, and panels examines late-stage capitalism’s effect on waterways; and A Studio in the Woods (New Orleans, LA) hosts thematic residencies to support the production, development, and dissemination of contemporary art that considers sociopolitical issues and climate justice.
Organizations of all sizes across the country are attuned to shifts in the contemporary art world and evolve their programs to provide artists with the necessary tools, connections, and platforms to develop sustainable practices. NXTHVN (New Haven, CT) offers creative resources and support for artists, curators, and community members through paid year-long fellowships as well as apprenticeships for local high school students. Public Functionary (Minneapolis, MN) focuses on early-career support for artists who identify as Black, Indigenous, queer, trans and/or gender fluid, offering free access to stable studio space and professional development services.
Several new grantees focus on upholding and nurturing Native communities. Offering residencies, exhibitions, workshops on traditional Hawaiian practices as well as collaborative projects with organizations and artists across the archipelago, Pu’uhonua Society (Honolulu, HI) provides native Hawaiian artists with year-round opportunities and resources to develop and show their work. The Native American Community Development Institute’s (Minneapolis, MN) All My Relations Arts program produces exhibitions by Native American artists and offers professional guidance to advance their careers. Located on the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts (Pendleton, OR) invites contemporary artists from the Pacific Northwest to a residency with master printers to create new bodies of work and participate in exhibitions, public programs and traditional/indigenous art making workshops.
As one of a number of grant recipients that cultivate appreciation for experimental practices across disciplines, Aurora Picture Show (Houston, TX) presents non-traditional moving image art in its new custom-built space. Blank Forms (Brooklyn, NY) supports emerging and historically significant but under-recognized artists whose visual art practices are rooted in experimental music; Light Industry (Brooklyn, NY) champions work at the intersection of contemporary art and experimental film, cultivating conversation between the two worlds, and The Kitchen (New York, NY), still a dynamic institution at age 50, promotes innovative live performances, cutting-edge exhibitions, and interdisciplinary public programs.
Along with Aurora, many other Fall 2023 grantees have expanded their support for artists by establishing new, renovated, or expanded facilities and spaces. Partially motivated by the absence of support for practicing artists in its region, Big Car Collaborative (Indianapolis, IN) has transformed an old industrial building into the Tube Factory, a hub for creativity and community with exhibitions, residencies, events, and programming. Project for Empty Space (Newark, NJ) which focuses on supporting women, BIPOC, and queer artists, has just completed a building renovation that significantly expands its studio and gallery footprint in Newark and is set to open an outpost in New York City to increase the geographic reach of its culturally responsive programming. LAXART (Los Angeles, LA) will soon open the doors to its first permanent home, grounding its legacy of artist-centered programming in a future-facing facility. Finally, Locust Projects (Miami, FL) recently moved to a new space that has doubled the organization’s capacity to accommodate risk-taking and experimental work of local, national and international artists at all career stages.
“Artist-centered institutions large and small foster creative courage, empowering artists to bring their visions to fruition in public,” says Rachel Bers, Program Director, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, “Through its grants, the foundation contributes to the resilience of both artists and institutions as they engage the challenges and opportunities of our cultural moment.”
16 museums and university galleries will present exhibitions that tackle a range of contemporary issues and bring to light the work of artists whose careers have been overlooked or underrepresented. Hayward Oubre: Structural Integrity at the Birmingham Museum of Art will highlight the work of the artist and educator whose mentorship of younger artists helped fortify Black art communities across the southern United States. An exhibition organized by MIT List Center will present 30 years of video, performance, and installation work from the pioneering media artist Steina Vasulka; Raymond Saunders: Something About Something at the Orange County Museum of Art, will chart the artist’s experimental approach to composition and his activation of the emotional and motivational power of language; and the first comprehensive retrospective of David Medalla at UCLA’s Hammer Museum will spotlight lesser-known aspects of the artist’s career including his radical politics, multi-media art works, installations, and performances.
Additional grants will support the first major solo exhibitions by several artists. MoMA PS1 will present the work of Indian artist Sohrab Hura, showcasing more than 60 works from the last 20 years of the artist’s experimental engagement with photography; SFMoMA is organizing the first major museum retrospective of Suzanne Jackson in her five-decade career; and the Whitney Museum of American Art will mount Christine Sun Kim: Words Shape Reality focusing on works created from 2011 to the present that explore the complexities of the artist’s experience as a deaf person and the politics of sound.
Several group exhibitions revisit histories in order to recognize and repair the exclusion of untold, neglected, or overlooked collective experiences. Woven Being: Indigenous Art Histories of Chicagoland at the Block Museum at Northwestern University centers the perspectives of Indigenous artists currently based in the city and those from nations that were forcibly displaced. Minnesota Marine Art Museum’s A Nation Takes Place stages a dialogue between historic and contemporary understandings of the role the waterways played in formation of the United States and History-Making Machines at the Wallach Art Gallery at Columbia University explores rituals expressed through the body, histories passed down without spoken word, and traditions of storytelling in the work of Indigenous artists.
$200,000 will be distributed among four projects in nascent stages through the foundation’s curatorial research fellowships. Projects range from an examination of cultural initiatives that have arisen from the aftermath of the Arab Spring; an interdisciplinary undertaking to revitalize, preserve, and advocate for the historically significant Black Square cemetery in New Orleans; a look into the possibility of forging healthy, regenerative relationships with water in regions that have been colonized or shrunken by modernization; and the wide-ranging influence of an independent press on literature, theory, life, and art.
The complete list of Fall 2023 Grantees is as follows:
Fall 2023 Grant Recipients | Program Support Over 2 Years
Afro Charities, Baltimore, MD — $60,000
ALMA | LEWIS, Pittsburgh, PA – $80,000
apexart, New York, NY – $80,000
Antenna / Press Street, New Orleans, LA – $100,000
Art Omi, Ghent, NY – $80,000
Aurora Picture Show, Houston, TX – $100,000
Big Car, Indianapolis, IN – $100,000
Blank Forms, Brooklyn, NY – $80,000
Buffalo Arts Studio, Buffalo, NY – $70,000
California Institute of the Arts, REDCAT, Valencia, CA – $80,000
Coleman Center for the Arts, York, AL – $80,000
Creative Growth Art Center, Oakland, CA – $80,000
Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts, Pendleton, OR – $50,000
Epicenter, Green River, UT – $60,000
JOAN, Los Angeles, CA – $60,000
The Kitchen, New York, NY – $80,000
LAXART, Los Angeles, CA – $80,000
Light Industry, Brooklyn, NY – $60,000
Locust Project, Miami, FL – $80,000
National Coalition Against Censorship, New York, NY – $150,000
(Arts Advocacy Project)
Native American Community Development Institute, Minneapolis, MN – $60,000
(All My Relations Arts)
NXTHVN, New Haven, CT – $80,000
Project for Empty Space, Newark, NJ – $100,000
Public Functionary, Minneapolis, MN – $80,000
Pu’uhonua Society, Honolulu, HI – $100,000
Residency Unlimited, Brooklyn, NY – $80,000
SculptureCenter, Long Island City, NY – $80,000
Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY – $90,000
A Studio in the Woods, New Orleans, LA – $80,000
The Union for Contemporary Art, Omaha, NE – $100,000
Fall 2023 Grant Recipients | Exhibition Support
Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL
Hayward Oubre: Structural Integrity– $80,000
Block Museum of Art/Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
Woven Being: Indigenous Art Histories of Chicagoland – $100,000
Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Houston, TX
Support for three exhibitions – $100,000
Hawai’i Contemporary, Honolulu, HI
Support for the Triennial – $100,000
List Visual Arts Center/Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
Steina – $75,000
Minnesota Marine Art Museum, Winona, MN
A Nation Takes Place – $60,000
MoMA PS1, Long Island City, NY
Sohrab Hura – $75,000
The Museum of Contemporary Photography/Columbia College, Chicago, IL
Prospetto a Mare and Shore|Lines – $80,000
Orange County Museum of Art, Costa Mesa, CA
Raymond Saunders: Flowers from a Black Garden – $80,000
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
Suzanne Jackson –$100,000
San José Museum of Art, San Jose, CA
Kambui Olujimi: North Star – $70,000
Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Scottsdale, AZ
Exhibition program support (over 2 years) – $80,000
UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
David Medalla: A Conversation with the Cosmos – $100,000
The Miriam & Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University, New York, NY
History-Making Machines: Anti-colonial Museums by Artists –$65,000
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Christine Sun Kim: All Day All Night – $100,000
Winterthur Museum, Winterthur, DE
Transformations: Contemporary Artists at Winterthur – $80,000
Fall 2023 Grant Recipients | Curatorial Research Fellowships
Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, CA
Naz Cuguoglu – $50,000
Louisiana Museum of African American History, New Orleans, LA
Monique Moss – $50,000
Ruta del Castor, Mexico City, Mexico
Sofia Bastidas Vivar – $50,000
Semiotext(e), Los Angeles, CA
Stefan Kalmar and Tristan Bera – $50,000
