The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts

Mission

In accordance with Andy Warhol’s will, the mission of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts is the advancement of the visual arts. The Foundation manages an innovative and flexible grants program while also preserving Warhol’s legacy through creative and responsible licensing policies and extensive scholarly research for ongoing catalogue raisonné projects. To date, the Foundation has given nearly $280 million in cash grants to more than 1,000 arts organizations in 49 states and abroad and has donated 52,786 works of art to 322 institutions worldwide.

“Serving on the Warhol Foundation Board is an amazing opportunity to fund arts organizations throughout the U.S., the work is monumental, meaningful and an incredible learning experience for me as an artist.”

Catherine Opie, Artist

We believe freedom of artistic expression is fundamental to an open and enlightened democracy and are committed to promoting and defending it. 

The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts

“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

We value risk-taking; we stand behind work that is challenging in nature, and encourage others to do the same. 

The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts

“Our grantees range from small arts organizations with one staff member to major museums, yet they all provide essential resources for artists as well as innovative platforms for critical cultural dialogue. Creative risk-taking is at the heart of this country’s most meaningful social, political, and cultural developments, therefore we are proud to stand behind artist-centered organizations that support experimental practice.”

Joel Wachs, President

We acknowledge our culture’s systemic marginalization of artists because of race, gender, religion, age, ability, sexual orientation, and/or immigration status among other factors. We actively seek to highlight the work of under-represented practitioners and support efforts to address entrenched inequities. 

The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts

“I’m very proud to be affiliated with the Warhol Foundation which has done so much to ensure the continuity of visual art in the fabric of our society. I have no doubt Andy is smiling from somewhere up above.”

Jon Lee, Former Board Member, Founder and Former Principal, Lee Capital Holdings

Visual art and artists are at the center of our work. We believe in the intrinsic value of experimental artistic practice and promote artistic participation in cultural conversations at the highest level. 

The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts

“Few arts funders have the independence and clarity of purpose to defend the rights of artists and arts organizations to freely express difficult, uncomfortable, even radical ideas as courageously and consistently as the Andy Warhol Foundation.”

John Taft, Vice Chairman, Baird

The Foundation encourages a deeper understanding and appreciation of Warhol’s artistic and cultural influence by providing access to Warhol’s work and encouraging new Warhol scholarship, most notably, through the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, which was formed through the donation of thousands of artworks and archival materials from the Foundation; the Andy Warhol Photographic Legacy Project; and through the Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonné, an immense ongoing scholarly project funded by the Foundation.

1964

Philip Johnson commissioned Warhol to make a large-scale work for the exterior for his pavilion for the New York World’s Fair, along with other artists. Warhol’s provocative response, a multiple portrait of ‘Most Wanted Men’ was installed a few days before the opening but was deems too inflammatory and contrary to the upbeat image of the World’s Fair and the work was taken down.

The Foundation is dedicated to supporting the creation of new work by experimental visual artists. Funding reaches artists through flexible grants awarded to the organizations and institutions that support them. Driven by the belief that visual art is an essential form of communication, and that innovative creative expression is a crucial component to an open and enlightened democracy, the Foundation funds projects and organizations that challenge art historical and social conventions, address systemic inequities, and push art in new directions, whether through content, concept, aesthetics, process, techniques, or materials.

“Our granting program recognizes the equal importance of small, community-oriented spaces, major museums, and everything in between. Together, and with the foundation’s support, they work to collectively amplify the voices and visions of artists, which deepens and diversifies the national cultural discourse.”

Joel Wachs, President

Our grants are designed to respond to the needs of artists, and to foster creative innovation across the full spectrum of visual artistic activity, from public-facing grassroots collectives, to major exhibitions at high-profile institutions. We actively support work by underrepresented practitioners and strive to recognize organizations that address our culture’s systematic marginalization of artists based on race, gender, age, ability, sexual orientation, immigration status, and income level.

All grantmaking activities are funded by an endowment created from Warhol’s assets, as well as through revenue generated from a licensing and sales program. The Foundation upholds Warhol’s unprecedented generosity toward his fellow and future artists as an inspiration and example to artists working today who might have the means to make a comparable philanthropic impact.

Core Values

  • Visual art and artists are at the center of our work. We believe in the intrinsic value of experimental artistic practice and promote artistic participation in cultural conversations at the highest level.
  • We value risk-taking; we stand behind work that is challenging in nature, and encourage others to do the same.
  • We acknowledge our culture’s systemic marginalization of artists because of race, gender, religion, age, ability, sexual orientation, and/or immigration status among other factors. We actively seek to highlight the work of under-represented practitioners and support efforts to address entrenched inequities.

  • We believe freedom of artistic expression is fundamental to an open and enlightened democracy and are committed to promoting and defending it.

  • Andy Warhol was an avant-garde artist and a philanthropic visionary; his life, work, and directive to establish a Foundation for “the advancement of the visual arts” are a testament to that. We honor his cultural influence in our core values and all of the Foundation’s activities.

 

See Also

1976

Warhol acquires the first of several compact 35 mm cameras, and over the next 11 years shot approximately 130,000 black-and-white images, claiming that “having a few rolls of film to develop gives me a good reason to get up in the morning.”