Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles awarded $80,000 for “Scratching at the Moon” curated by Anna Sew Hoy (shown).
“The spring 2023 grantees have demonstrated admirable dedication to nurturing experimental artistic practice, providing artists with platforms from which to participate in critical cultural conversations,” said foundation president Joel Wachs in a statement. “The foundation’s support empowers institutions and the artists they serve to revisit and question accepted histories, highlight overlooked and underrepresented voices, and promote innovation and creativity.”
A number of grantees are those whose programs elevate experimental artmaking, creative thinking, and community engagement. Also receiving awards were arts organizations helping the unhoused to harness their creativity; those connecting artists to mentors and offering them space to create; and those supporting the LGBTQIA+ arts community. As well, eighteen institutions mounting solo and group shows addressing timely topics received funding. The foundation additionally announced $190,000 in support of curatorial projects whose themes include a nomadic residency, language and feminism, and Asian American art.
Among the first-time grantees are Chattanooga, Tennessee’s contemporary art–focused Stove Works, which hosts exhibitions, holds professional development workshops, and maintains production labs and an artist residency program; Katonah, New York’s River Valley Arts Collective, which connects area farmers, tribal members, and skilled craftspeople with artists to teach them sustainable and ethical ways of working with materials native to the region; and Portland, Oregon’s Gather:Make:Shelter, which helps the city’s unhoused population to develop their artistic skills. Repeat grantees include New York’s Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, whose exhibition program reflects diverse LGBTQIA+ histories; Omaha’s Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, which through its Sound Art + Experimental Music program offers residencies to sound artists; and the New Orleans Film Society, which is shifting its programming to support Southern BIPOC, women, and LGBTQ+ artists working in emerging digital and new media forms.
