Awards from the Andy Warhol Foundation encourage visual arts creativity and development.
The late Andy Warhol (1928 to 1987) lives on in the form of his vast body of art, and through the Andy Warhol Foundation. The foundation aims to advance the visual arts, as envisaged by Warhol. Its inception brought together a diversity of individuals, including artists, curators, administrators, educators and critics. Among the results was the foundation's grant-making program, supporting contemporary visual art. In particular, the grant process encourages under-recognized and experimental work.
Funding In General
The Foundation funds a range of recipients that support artists. Examples include museums, artists' organizations and cultural institutions. This funding is on a project basis, for scholarly exhibitions, curatorial research, visual arts programming, artist residencies and commissions and arts writing. Re-granting initiatives encourage the creation of new work.
The Warhol Initiative
As of 2010, Warhol Initiative cash grants of about $125,000 were available to artist-centered organizations throughout the U.S., as part of this invitational program. The program's purpose is to enhance the organizational capacity of under-funded groups that are vital sources of artistic experimentation. Funding also enables professional consulting services and networking conferences, workshops and training sessions.
Creative Capital
Creative Capital is an independent foundation within the Warhol organization. It provides direct grants to individual artists on a project basis. Established in 1999, Creative Capital was an initiative in response to the termination of the National Endowment for the Arts individual grants program. As of 2010, grants of up to $50,000 made to artists in all disciplines provide additional benefits such as advisory services and promotional assistance.
Curatorial Research Fellowships
Curatorial Research Fellowships provide money for scholarly research in the field of contemporary art. Curators affiliated with institutions must have the formal support of their directors to apply for these fellowships. The assumption is that a significant exhibition will result from the research, although this is not a requirement for applicants. Applications must include a three-page funding proposal letter that outlines the activity and the organization's mission, purpose and goals, a project budget, and a letter of support from the organization's director. As of 2010, the value of these fellowships was about $50,000.
Arts Writing Initiative
The foundation's Arts Writing Initiative offers funding for criticism and general writing about the visual arts. Grants available to writers support a range of projects from experimental writing to books to nonprofit arts publications. As of 2010, the Arts Writers Grant Program awarded grants of between $3,000 and $50,000 to writers whose work addressed contemporary visual art. Categories for these grants include articles, blogs, books, new and alternative media and short-form writing. The foundation's grants to art publications offer assistance to selected publications to increase financial stability and audiences, and to explore alternatives in forms of publishing, partnerships and distribution.
Regional Re-granting Program
The Andy Warhol Foundation partners with major cultural institutions across the U.S. to assist artistic endeavors considered exceptional, but informal and non-incorporated. As of 2010, grants of up to $4,000 prompted the creation and public presentation of new work.
