Some of the key tenets of jazz – collaboration, innovation, and improvisation – inform the unique programming at Ars Nova Workshop in Philadelphia. The organization was founded in 2000 to bring critical awareness to the work of influential but under-recognized jazz musicians. Ars Nova presents traditional concerts and documentary film screenings throughout the year. It also seeks innovative ways to recontextualize a musician’s body of work and offer a more expansive view of his or her career. In 2019, the organization will partner with Anthony Elms, Chief Curator of the ICA Philadelphia and John Corbett of Corbett vs. Dempsey Gallery in Chicago, to present the first comprehensive look at the life and work of free jazz pioneer and self-taught visual artist, Milford Graves.
Milford Graves
“It is an honor to be part of The Warhol Foundation’s mission to support the visual arts coupled with its commitment to specifically support the voices of women, POC, Native Americans, and LGBTQ. It is simply thrilling to be part of an organization where we get to see these values writ large and implement real change in real life ways in the visual arts community that still so needs to move forward in terms of social justice, equality, and diversity. We put our money where our mouth is. How many institutions actually do that?”
Deborah Kass, Artist