The Idea Fund, a re-granting program administered by DiverseWorks, Aurora Picture Show, and Project Row Houses, and funded by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, is thrilled to announce the selection of 12 projects by Houston-based artists to receive grants of $5,000 each for The Idea Fund’s 2025 Round 18 grant cycle.

The Idea Fund Round 18 grant recipients are as follows: Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton, Chap Edmonson and Mark Francis, Dr. Lindsay Gary, LaKeisha Rochelle Randle, Lualo Studio (Rea Sampilo, Trisha Morales, Christian Toledo, and Jenah Maravilla,) Cat Martinez and Blya Krouba, IPOCA Collective (Intersex People of Color Artist Collective), Stacey Allen/Nia’s Daughter Movement Collective, Open MFA (Sol Diaz-Peña, Ryan Hollaway, Hillaree Hamblin, Lorena Mitchell, Cynthia Jamileth Giron, Andrea Garcia, and Amanda Powers), Taller Latino, Rising Tide Project, Nick Vaughan and Jake Margolin.

Round 18 Grantees & Projects

Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton – The Call Me Mother Film Suite
Mouton will create and develop the short film series, The Call Me Mother Film Suite, which seeks to highlight the Black maternal health crisis. The project will combine documentary-style film, digital storytelling, and spoken word poetry to advocate and educate audiences on the experiences of Black womxn who are navigating or approaching motherhood.

 

Edmonson and Francis – MEDITATE MEDITATE MEDITATE
MEDITATE MEDITATE MEDITATE is a multi-sensory exhibition inviting the Houston public to participate in a conversation that often goes unheard—a dialogue around the diverse forms of subconscious meditation within the Black community, whether through running, reading the Bible, being near water, or simply resting. With support from The Idea Fund grant, artists Chap Edmonson and Mark Francis will create a series of new works for the exhibition developed through collaborations with the community.

 

Dr. Lindsay Gary – Our Elders Are Our Libraries
Our Elders Are Our Libraries is an oral history and publication project based on the African proverb, “Every time an elder dies, a library is burnt,” by Dr. Lindsay Gary. With support from The Idea Fund, Gary will conduct oral history interviews with local African American elders who’ve greatly contributed to the fabric of Black Houston. The research will culminate in a book publication, a documentary short film, and a public presentation that will demonstrate the essential role elders play in our communities. By documenting and sharing their knowledge and wisdom, the project will help close the growing intergenerational knowledge gap that exists in the Black community due to the impact of colonialism.

 

LaKeisha Rochelle Randle – The I AM__: The Pride of Sunnyside Young Artist Collective
The I AM__: The Pride of Sunnyside YAC is an arts-focused initiative aimed at engaging youth with older generations in the Sunnyside community. Randle will host workshops at her family-owned restaurant, The Shack Houston, which will create opportunities for students to research and partner with elders in the community to realize a series of artistic creations including an oral history preservation project, mural installations, multidisciplinary performances to be shared with and uplift the community. The I AM__: The Pride of Sunnyside YAC celebrates Sunnyside’s history, fosters unity, and offers an artistic space for expression, pride, and healing. This project aims to remind each community member and the city of Houston of the PRIDE that still resides in SUNNYSIDE.

 

Lualo Studio – Finding Seedkin
Finding Seedkin is a project by Lualo Studio (co-founded by Rea Sampilo, Trisha Morales, Christian Toledo, & Jenah Maravilla), who will host a beginner-friendly art-making workshop series inviting local artists, farmers, and community members to reflect on their relationships to the land and share knowledge and foodways in order to deepen connections across ethnic and cultural lines.

 

 

Blya Krouba and Cat Martinez – Roots in Frame
Roots in Frame is an immersive exhibition conceived by Blya Krouba and Cat Martinez that explores the West African origins of shotgun houses and their evolution in the American South. Krouba and Martinez will collaborate on a new life-sized sculpture that will examine narratives of voluntary and forced migration to showcase how these histories shape community and identity through architecture.

 

IPOCA Collective (Intersex People of Color Artists Collective) – Rusty X
IPOCA will develop Rusty X, a 10-minute multimedia stage play telling the true life story of intersex activist and local Houston musician and poet Mo Cortez. Told through a series of 4 vignettes using performance, live music, video, and sound effects, the play centers on important and pivotal life moments with different family members dealing with themes of mental health, incarceration, Child Protective Services, non-consensual genital surgeries on intersex children, and family secrets.

 

Stacey Allen/Nia’s Daughter Movement Collective – D is for Dance
D is for Dance is an interactive one-woman show based on the children’s book D is for Dance: Dancing through the Diaspora written by Stacey Allen and illustrated by Brynne Henry. Through dance, storytelling, and visual art, this performance will bring the vibrant world of dance and culture to schools and community spaces while promoting culturally relevant curriculum, literacy, and advocacy.

 

Open MFA (Sol Diaz-Peña, Ryan Hollaway, Hillaree Hamblin, Lorena Mitchell, Cynthia Jamileth Giron, Andrea Garcia, and Amanda Powers) – Absurd Classroom Symposium
Open MFA will host the Absurd Classroom Symposium, a multi-day, cross-institutional educational event that offers participants the chance to earn an Alternative Certificate in Studio Art through a hands-on, communal learning experience.

 

 

Taller Latino
Located in Houston’s historic Second Ward, Taller Latino is an art experimentation space for Latinx artists seeking to refine or consolidate an aspect of their practice alongside peers in a workshop context. A cohort of artists will engage in a series of critiques, skill-sharing workshops, and peer-to-peer learning that promotes artistic professionalization for Latinx creatives at this crucial juncture for their access to the art world at large.

 

 

 

Rising Tide Project
Rising Tide Project is seeking to rebuild and develop the Atelier and Gift Shop, a community-centric hybrid print shop and studio/art space with a retail element. Grant funding will help complete their build-out, purchase needed equipment, and fund workshops and a series of projects and exhibitions scheduled for 2025.

 

 

 

Nick Vaughan and Jake Margolin – Game Plan: Town Meeting 1978-2028
Game Plan: Town Meeting 1978-2028 will be a self-published artist/poet document of a two-day symposium scheduled at Art League Houston in June that explores the legacy of Town Meeting 1, a seminal 1978 convening of 4,000 queer Houstonians at the Astro Arena which birthed myriad pivotal queer organizations. Vaughan and Margolin seek to develop a self-published chatbook composed of work from commissioned poets/reporters, queer Houston artists, archival documents, and output from symposium participants. The Game Plan will serve as a handbook, road map, and manifesto for Houston’s queer artist/activist community for the next three years of organizing and imagination culminating in the Town Meeting’s 2028 50th anniversary.