VIA Art Fund is pleased to announce its 2019 grant recipients. Ranging from USD 20,000 to USD 100,000, grants totaling over USD 1,000,000 were awarded across four grantmaking categories: Artistic Production, VIA | Wagner Incubator Grant Fund, VIA Curatorial Fellowship, and the Frontier Art Prize.
Bridgitt Evans, President and Co-Founder of VIA Art Fund, commented: “What began as a single grant program in 2013 has evolved into a multi-tiered funding platform surpassing the USD 1,000,000 mark in grantmaking in 2019 alone. VIA originated as a collective of passionate philanthropists. Increasingly, it is also recognized as a trusted partner to national foundations seeking to amplify their impact on the visual arts by supporting artists, arts organizations, and curators who engage broad publics. From major commissions on the international stage to artist residencies in rural communities, our 2019 grantees demonstrate exceptional levels of artistic production and thought leadership at every level of the arts ecosystem.”
In 2019, VIA awarded nine Artistic Production grants totaling USD 845,000. Projects supported included Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s interactive light and sound installation, Border Tuner/ Sintonizador Fronterizo, at the US-Mexico border; Lynn Hershman Leeson’s interactive video installation, Shadow Stalker, to be presented at The Fine Art Museums of San Francisco and the 13th Gwangju Biennale; Kahlil Joseph’s alternative news platform, BLKNWS, commissioned for the 58th Venice Biennale; and Sarah Sze’s sculpture, Fallen Sky, to be presented and permanently installed at Storm King Art Center.
In addition to funding the production of new work, VIA also gifted or partially gifted four VIA-supported artworks or bodies of work to public collections.
Launched in 2019, the USD 1,000,000 VIA | Wagner Incubator Grant Fund announced its first year of grantees. Five geographically diverse, small-scale visual arts nonprofit organizations received USD 40,000 each for general operating support.
Finally, Agnieszka Kurant was awarded the USD 100,000 2019 Frontier Art Prize, while curator Lumi Tan was selected as the recipient of the 2020 VIA Curatorial Fellowship in support of her work at The Kitchen.
2019 Artistic Production Grantees
El Paso Community Foundation for Rafael Lozano-Hemmer | Border Tuner/ Sintonizador Fronterizo
Hammer Museum for a new commission for Made in L.A. 2020: a version
Lynn Hershman Leeson | Shadow Stalker
Istanbul Biennial for Glenn Ligon | James Baldwin: From Another Place
Kahlil Joseph | BLKNWS
Performa for Paul Pfeiffer | Amazing Grace/RGB
Antenna for Dread Scott and John Akomfrah | Slave Rebellion Reenactment
Socrates Sculpture Park for Jeffrey Gibson | Because Once You Enter My House, It Becomes Our House
Storm King Art Center for Sarah Sze | Fallen Sky
2019 Works Accessioned into Public Collections
Charlotte Posenenske | Fourteen works from Series B, C, D, and DW - Dia Art Foundation
Isaac Julien | Lessons of the Hour - Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester in partnership with the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Zanele Muholi, et al. | Women’s Mobile Museum - Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Tavares Strachan | The Encyclopaedia of Invisibility - Carnegie Museum of Art
2019 VIA | Wagner Foundation Incubator Grant Fund Grantees
Burnaway, Atlanta, GA
Coleman Center for the Arts, York, AL
Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis, MN
Public Space One - Center for Afrofuturist Studies, Iowa City, IA
SPACE, Portland, ME
2019 Frontier Art Prize
Agnieszka Kurant
2020 VIA Curatorial Fellow
Lumi Tan, Curator, The Kitchen, New York City
About VIA Art Fund
VIA Art Fund is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit public charity founded by an international coalition of individuals and private foundations who believe in the central role art plays in society. VIA’s activities support innovative, ambitious and rigorous works of art and endeavors with far-reaching public impact realized in various forms including institutional production and acquisition, exhibitions, public installations, curatorial research, publications and symposia. Funding artists, curators and arts organizations around the world, VIA Art Fund awards grants in three categories—Artistic Production Grants, Incubator Grants and an annual Curatorial Fellowship grant—that exemplify VIA’s core values of Artistic Production, Thought Leadership, and Public Engagement.
For press inquiries: press@viaartfund.org
