December 11, 2012

SPACES Receives $170,000 in Grants from NEA, Warhol and Rauschenberg Foundations

For Immediate Release

Download PDF Press Release: http://www.spacesgallery.org/files/pr/2012/121211-spaces-warhol-rauschenberg-pr.pdf

Cleveland, OH, December 11, 2012—SPACES proudly announces that two of the leading foundations supporting contemporary art in the Unites States—the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts—have awarded SPACES grants totaling $150,000 for use in programming during 2013 and 2014. The National Endowment for the Arts has also recommended SPACES for a $20,000 grant to support the SPACES World Artists Program.

The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation announced the recipients of its Artistic Innovation and Collaboration (AIC) grants, a program that advances the values promoted by artist and activist Robert Rauschenberg during his lifetime and career. These grants propel the Foundation's philanthropic mission of cultivating, promoting, encouraging, and supporting the production and exhibition of art.

SPACES will receive $50,000 for a multi-stage 2014 project called Tag, in which artists build off of one another's creations, separately, over time. This piece tests the definition of collaboration and involves the audience through web streaming of its evolution. Artists Reed Anderson, Kevin Jerome Everson, Jess Hirsch, and Thu Tran will create work in adjacent galleries, then switch four times. The entire exploration will happen twice.

The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation invited 80 arts organizations across the country to apply for the second AIC grant cycle. After a competitive application process, nine grants totaling $855,000 will be awarded to a diverse group of creative projects.

Other Artistic Innovation and Collaboration Program grantees in 2013 include Center for Women & Their Work (Austin, TX); Freewaves (Los Angeles, CA); LAND (Los Angeles, CA); MOCA Detroit (Detroit, MI); Real Art Ways (Hartford, CT); School 33 Art Center (Baltimore, MD); Site Santa Fe (Santa Fe, NM); and Storefront for Art & Architecture (New York, NY).

The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts continues its programmatic support of SPACES in the form of $100,000 to be paid out over two years. SPACES is part of the original Warhol Initiative—an invitational program designed to bolster the organizational capacity of small and mid-sized, artist-centered organizations across the country. Historically under-funded, these groups serve as vital breeding grounds for artistic experimentation, professional development and community engagement with art. The Initiative has provided 64 participants with cash grants, professional consulting services, and triennial conferences that bring the groups' leaders together for networking, workshops and training sessions with each other and non-profit management consultants.

National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Chairman Rocco Landesman announced that SPACES is one of 832 non-profit organizations nationwide to receive an NEA Art Works grant. SPACES is recommended for a $20,000 grant to support To support the SPACES World Artists Program (SWAP), a residency opportunity for national and international artists to realize new projects.

"SPACES is extremely honored to be recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts and these foundations that are carrying forward the legacy of two great artists," states Christopher Lynn, executive director of SPACES. "These organizations truly understand the importance of venues like SPACES that strive to keep experimentation alive and support artists in meaningful ways."