Grants Awarded March 2022

The Terra Foundation awarded 35 grants in March, amounting to a total of over $2.3 million, to support projects that encourage collaborative practices between Chicago-based arts and cultural organizations, exhibitions on American art worldwide, and new strategic initiatives focused on expanding narratives of American art.

The grants listed support projects through our Exhibitions, Art Design Chicago Community-Engagement Research & Development, and former Chicago K–12 responsive grant programs, as well as the Terra Collection in Residence, a new initiative being developed in partnership with participating organizations.

Art Design Chicago Community-Engagement R&D grants—launched in 2022—are intended to help ADC partners develop community-centered engagement strategies for their ADC exhibitions, most of which will open in Chicago in 2024. Applicants drafted their grant proposals in conversation with one another through the ADC Engagement Learning Community, a platform for the cooperative generation of ideas, knowledge exchange, and collective problem-solving around equitable and inclusive community-engagement strategies. Participating Chicago museums and cultural centers will continue to refine and test these models of engagement in 2023 and 2024, working toward the goals of catalyzing mutually beneficial partnerships with communities and spurring organizational growth and change.

One such ADC Community-Engagement R&D grant was awarded to the Design Museum of Chicago (DMoC) to support relationship-building and community participation in the development of Chicago Types: Letterforms for Everyone, the museum’s 2024 exhibition that will examine the contributions of underrepresented artists and designers in Chicago’s history of typography. As part of its engagement efforts, DMoC staff plans to build relationships in communities where typographic history and its legacies has not been institutionally archived and/or reflected in scholarship. As a pilot initiative, DMoC plans to partner with community-based organizations to present a series of cross-generational workshops with teenagers and seniors in several neighborhoods on Chicago’s South and West Sides.

“The ADC Engagement R&D grant will allow us to work directly with community members throughout Chicago to develop community archive practices and learn from the stories and ephemera they share with us,” said Amira Hegazy, who joined DMoC as the Chicago Types Research Fellow and will continue to work on engagement planning for the exhibitions through the Engagement R&D grant, building relationships with community members and collaborating on how to best exhibit the materials unveiled through the neighborhood workshops. “We’re so excited to include our community partners and individuals in our discovery of Chicago letterforms and their rich histories.”

For all foundation grants awarded, and more information about the grants, please see the grants database.

DePaul Art Museum, to research and develop a community-informed program model, $50,000

National Museum of Mexican Art, “Nuestras Historias: Teaching the Story of America through Art,” $25,000

The foundation partners with organizations that are committed to inclusive and equitable practices and that engage research and learning models with the potential to offer new perspectives for the fields of American art.

Brooklyn Rail, New York, New York, virtual conversation series “The New Social Environment,” $250,000

Chisenhale Gallery, London, United Kingdom, one-year curatorial fellowship, $34,200

The Terra Foundation loans artworks from its collection for extended periods to academic museums in the United States and international museums with strong connections to universities. The foundation collaborates with partners to identify objects for loan that amplify institutions’ permanent collections and invite the presentation of new contexts, voices, and histories. The program helps museums expand the stories they can tell with their permanent collections and provides opportunities for interdisciplinary research and teaching with American art.

Ashmolean Museum of Art & Archaeology, Oxford, United Kingdom / Terra Foundation for American Art, $100,000

Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine / Terra Foundation for American Art, $75,000

Museum der Bildenden Künste Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany / Terra Foundation for American Art, $75,000