The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts has announced the recipients of its Spring 2022 grants. A total of $3.9 million will be awarded to 50 organizations from 18 states and the District of Columbia to support visual arts programs, exhibitions, and curatorial research projects that contribute to artistic flourishing around the country. As social, political, and economic uncertainties unleashed by the turbulent events of recent years continue unabated, institutions and organizations are finding innovative and resourceful ways to respond to the needs of artists and their communities.
The Spring 2022 grantees, including 19 first-time recipients, feature organizations notable for their creative and collaborative approach to working with artists. The Foundation will continue to acknowledge the financial challenges faced by arts institutions large and small by permitting up to 50% of each grant to be used for administrative expenses, a pandemic-era allowance that contributes to long-term recovery and stability in the field, which ultimately benefits artists.
“Artist-centered organizations are tasked with finding new, forward-thinking ways to present artists’ perspectives to regional, national and international audiences,” states Joel Wachs, President “The Foundation’s support for these organizations helps to open pathways for artists to make meaningful contributions to conversations about the pressing issues of our time.”
In the past few years, arts organizations of all sizes have been taking a critical look at the oppressive power dynamics that structure daily living and are fine-tuning their programs to better support artists engaging with questions of racial inequity, indigenous land rights, environmental sustainability, and accessibility. Many institutions have forged partnerships both inside and outside the art world to share resources, expand their communities and activate new publics for their work. New grantee Franconia Sculpture Park (Franconia, MN) for example, is organizing a multi-state biennial of newly commissioned land art projects representing the collective work of more than twenty-five different non-profit organizations, tribal groups, and government agencies while Public Art Saint Paul (Saint Paul, MN – also a new grantee) will present the Saint Paul-Minneapolis Triennial Art Festival, a multi-site exhibition supporting Minnesota-based artists through new commissions of both public and gallery-based artwork. Black Cube (Englewood, CO) is a nomadic visual arts organization that works directly with emerging and mid-career artists to facilitate ambitious new works in the public realm with upcoming projects and artist-led public programs in Mexico City, Colorado, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Death Valley. In addition to its two residency programs situated in unique locations – Storm King Art Center and Governor’s Island – Shandaken Projects’ (New York, NY) public art initiative 14×48 presents artists with the opportunity to have their artwork featured on commercial billboards throughout New York City.
Several new grantees are caretakers of inspiring archives that influence their programing and highlight the contemporary relevance of past artistic voices. The programs of Alice Austen House (Staten Island, NY) engage directly with the legacy of Austen who was an early street photographer and an openly queer woman at the turn of the twentieth century; its commissions, research opportunities, publications, and exhibitions focus on contemporary artists whose work has been marginalized or overlooked. The Rosine Association—established in 1847 to help “females who have wandered from the path of virtue”— is the inspiration for Swarthmore College’s Rosine 2.0 that will activate the Association’s historical materials to set forth its mission to heal and empower women in the 21st century through collaboratively conceived and executed public artworks. Black Mountain College Museum and Arts Center supports artists whose work builds on the progressive values Black Mountain College is known for through exhibitions that stage conversations between the work of legacy artists and contemporary practitioners as well as through programs such as the Active Archive Residency.
Other Spring 2022 grantees employ curatorial models that incorporate diverse perspectives such as Alabama Contemporary Art Center (Mobile, AL), Atlanta Contemporary (Atlanta GA), and Bidoun Projects (Brooklyn, NY). The importance of providing artists support to develop new work at all stages of their careers is recognized by grantees such as Charlotte St. Foundation (Kansas City, MO), Hallwalls (Buffalo, NY), Chicago Artists Coalition (Chicago, IL) and new grantee Buffalo Institute for Contemporary Art (Buffalo, NY).
Film, media, and performative arts are supported in this grant round at Anthology Film Archives (New York, NY) which, in addition to restoring classic avant-garde films, will present a program that reflects the diversity of contemporary filmmaking culture, and new grantee Cucalorus Film Foundation (Wilmington, NC) which produces a variety of festivals, programs, and workshops that encourage experimentation within a context of community care. Another first-time recipient Indexical (Santa Cruz, CA) is dedicated to the intersection of experimental music and contemporary artistic practices with a focus on lesser-known and historic figures. Additionally, The Lab (San Francisco, CA) and Human Resources (Los Angeles, CA) continue to support artists who challenge traditions through experimental and performative work.
“The Spring 2022 grantees are notable for their resilience, ingenuity, and dedication to supporting artists at every stage of their careers,” says Rachel Bers, Program Director, “As the culture shifts, they work side by side with artists to find ways to critically and creatively engage the forces that shape our world.”
As one of its core values, the foundation brings to light the work of underrepresented practitioners with exhibition support for first-time or major museum exhibitions. The first major solo exhibition of Montréal-based multi-disciplinary artist Hajra Waheed will be presented at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, (St. Louis, MO); a comprehensive retrospective of pioneering feminist artist Amalia Mesa-Bains will be mounted at UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (Berkeley, CA), and the National Museum of the American Indian (New York, NY) will present Shelley Niro: 500 Year Itch exploring the career of Niro, a member of the Turtle Clan of the Kanien’kehaka (Mohawk) Nation, whose work deals with gender, cultural appropriation, and loss.
Other solo-exhibition support includes the Cincinnati Art Museum’s (Cincinatti, OH) presentation of Shazia Sikander: Collective Behavior which will feature work from the artists entire career and include a newly commissioned collaborative performance piece, and Theaster Gates’ Young Lords and Their Traces at the New Museum (New York, NY), which will be the first museum survey of the artist’s work.
Several group exhibitions will also receive foundation funding: Sharing Honors and Burdens: Renwick Invitational 2023 at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington, D.C.) will focus exclusively on the work of contemporary Native American artists; Spirit in the Land at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University (Durham, NC) proposes that the fight against climate change is also a fight for marginalized communities around the world; and Cranbrook Art Museum’s (Bloomfield Hills, MI) A Modernist Regime: The Cuban Contemporary Lens, will invite contemporary artists to respond to the first museum exhibition focused on midcentury Cuban design.
This grant cycle also recognizes a notable number of curators with $356,000 in curatorial research fellowships towards projects that address the cultural impact of immigrant artists from Africa in the US, the influence of alternative spiritual practices on twentieth century artists across the Americas, an expansion of the canon of bio-art, the politics of health, disability and care, and other timely themes.
The full list of Spring 2022 Grantees is as follows:
Spring 2022 Grant Recipients | Program Support Over 2 Years:
Alabama Contemporary Art Center, Mobile, AL — $100,000
Anthology Film Archives, New York, NY — $75,000
Arts of Life, Chicago, IL — $60,000
Atlanta Contemporary, Atlanta, GA — $100,000
Alice Austen House, Staten Island, NY — $80,000
Bidoun Projects, Brooklyn, NY — $60,000
Black Cube, Englewood, CO — $60,000
The Buffalo Institute for Contemporary Art, Buffalo, NY — $60,000
The Center for Land Use Interpretation, Culver City, CA — $80,000
Center for Women & Their Work, Austin, TX — $100,000
Charlotte Street Foundation, Kansas City, MO — $100,000
Chicago Artists Coalition, Chicago, IL — $80,000
The Contemporary Dayton, Dayton, OH — $80,000
Crisp-Ellert Museum/Flagler College, Saint Augustine, FL — $60,000
Cucalorus Film Foundation, Wilmington, NC — $80,000
Franconia Sculpture Park, Franconia, MN — $100,000
Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo, NY — $100,000
Human Resources, Los Angeles, CA — $65,000
Indexical, Santa Cruz, CA — $60,000
The Lab, San Francisco, CA — $100,000
Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana (MACLA), San Jose, CA —$100,000
M12, Broomfield, CO — $60,000
Museum of Contemporary Art, Tucson, AZ — $100,000
PARTICIPANT INC., New York, NY — $100,000
Performance Space New York, New York, NY — $100,000
Public Art Saint Paul, Saint Paul, MN — $100,000
Rosine 2.0 at Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA — $100,000
San Francisco State University Fine Arts Gallery, San Francisco, CA — $80,000
Shandaken Projects, New York, NY — $75,000
Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Salt Lake City, UT — $100,000
Spring 2022 Grant Recipients | Exhibition Support:
Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD
The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century – $100,000
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive/University of California, Berkeley, CA
Amalia Mesa-Bains: Archaeology of Memory – $100,000
Black Mountain College Museum and Arts Center, Asheville, NC
Exhibition program support (over 2 years) – $60,000
Cincinatti Art Museum, Cincinatti, OH
Shazia Sakinder: Collective Behavior – $100,000
Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, St. Louis, MO
Hajra Waheed exhibition – $75,000
Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI
A Modernist Regime: Cuban Mid-Century Design – $75,000
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
Lee Mingwei: Rituals of Care – $100,000
Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC
Spirit in the Land – $100,000
National Museum of the American Indian, New Yok, NY
Shelley Niro: 500 Year Itch – $100,000
New Museum, New York, NY
Theaster Gates “Young Lords and Their Traces” – $100,000
Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA
Into the Brightness: Artists from Creative Growth, Creativity Explored, & NIAD – $75,000
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC
Sharing Honors and Burdens: Renwich Invitational 2023 – $100,000
Spring 2022 Grant Recipients | Curatorial Research Fellowship:
The Africa Center, New York, NY
Uzodinma Iweala, M.D. – $50,000
Allied Media Projects, Detroit, MI
Taraneh Fazeli – $50,000
Congo Square Preservation Society, New Orleans, LA
Carol Bebelle – $50,000
Equitable Vitrines, Los Angeles, CA
Matt Connolly – $50,000
Fathomers, West Hollywood, CA
Annie Fischer, Antajuan Scott, and Stacy Switzer – $50,000
New Orleans African American Museum, New Orleans, LA
Gia Hamilton – $50,000
Pérez Art Museum Miami, Miami, FL
Susan Aberth and Gilbert Vicario – $50,000
Robert Wilson Arts Foundation, New York, NY
Scott Rollins – $6,000
