To support the development and pilot phase of the Burroughs Residency over three years, a new residency opportunity in Chicago for local and international artists that is highly tailored to the residents’ research needs and interests as well as to the interests of local cultural organizations that interact with the artists. A portion of the grant supports the organization’s operations and programmatic activity as well.
The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago seeks support for the publication The Hamza Walker Book of Essays, recognizing the curator’s significant contributions to the contemporary art field and ensuring his place in the art historical record. His essays explore complex art and its relevance to life and current events locally and globally. The first book dedicated to Walker’s writings, this volume collects essays that span two decades of his tenure at the Renaissance Society, where he served as Director of Education and Associate Curator.
To support Andrea Carlson: Shimmer on Horizons, the first solo exhibition in a Chicago museum of work by Andrea Carlson, co-founder of the Center for Native Futures. Carlson’s art challenges colonial representations of Indigenous territories by incorporating references to her family, Ojibwe history, and symbols of Indigenous sovereignty. The exhibition includes video works, paintings, sculptures, and prints created over the past five years, with didactics presented in English, Spanish, and the Ojibwe language, Anishinaabemowin.
Conceived by Gilane Tawadros, Detour to the Imaginary is a three-day residential convening bringing together 12 artists, curators, writers, and philosophers in conversation to explore the role of the contemporary art institution in the twentyfirst century in providing critical spaces and platforms for different perspectives. Held on the Terra Foundation for American Art’s Giverny properties in October 2024, this convening focuses on how public institutions can respond and contribute to public discourse on global changes through public programming and identifies the topics of greatest urgency: censorship and freedom of speech; the politics of immigration and race; cultural activism and resistance; the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements; the ethics of patronage; and the climate crisis.
On the occasion of the 15th Biennale des Arts de Dakar, themed “The Wake,” public programs delve into global questions of environment, race, and healing, exploring themes such as artistic approaches to ecological repair and the role of memory across the Black Atlantic. Talks, performances, film screenings, tours, workshops, and dialogues featuring American artists and scholars link diasporas across the Atlantic and in the Caribbean, envisioned as a connected archipelago.
To support a convening hosted by KANAL—Centre Pompidou in Brussels, Belgium, and the AFIELD Forum, bringing together American and international artists, including Lynda Goode Bryant and Andrea Yarbrough, as well as curators, policymakers, students, and the public interested in leveraging art for societal transformation. The convening, open to the public and promoted by KANAL and AFIELD, aims to attract policymakers, scholars, curators, gallerists, writers, art historians, practitioners, and students, with the central location of Brussels and the reputations of AFIELD and KANAL expected to draw attendees from across Europe.
The Marronage; Meaning Wild Confluence series brings together global artists, scholars, and activists for year-long gatherings exploring wetlands’ cultural significance, emphasizing their historical role as refuge spaces, and reimagining indigeneity as a commitment to environmental stewardship, culminating in a convening program. The Rivers Institute plans to establish an online platform for sharing materials, reaching around 1,200 individuals via newsletters and Instagram, and to collaborate with Montez Radio Press to transform Confluence artists’ work into a radio series, aiming to foster broader audience engagement and promote innovative discourse across various mediums and geographical areas.
To support Affrilachian Art Summit, the first gathering solely dedicated to exploring the contributions of Black visual artists in Appalachia, addressing barriers and fostering discussions on solutions for emerging Affrilachian artists. Organized by the Affrilachian Artist Project, the Black Appalachian Coalition, and the curator Marie T. Cochran, the three-day hybrid event features symposia, workshops, and networking opportunities aimed at both established and emerging Black artists in the region. The event proceedings are preserved and disseminated through an archive library (more than 100,000 viewers annually), an open-access resource guide, and virtual streaming options for select sessions to accommodate remote participation.
To support Reimagining Viral Futures through the Visual AIDS Archive: The Sensory Aesthetics of Ronald Lockett and Robert Farber, a two-day intensive studio convening and public symposium centered around the work of two artists lost to the AIDS crisis: Robert Farber (1948–1995) and Ronald Lockett (1965–1998). The event brings together a diverse group of activists, artists, curators, and theorists, who engage with Farber’s and Lockett’s work and elaborate on themes of beauty, ruination, fugitivity, and the gothic. Materials from the convening and symposium, along with access to a special issue of Social Text, are made available online on the Visual AIDS website.
To support Shifts and Strands: Rethinking the Possibilities and Potentials of Textiles, an online international symposium that highlights artists, scholars, scientists, and caretakers exploring textile materials, cultures, and histories, aiming to promote equity, antiracism, and accessibility in the textile field. Through case studies, curatorial projects, and research centering Indigenous American textiles, the program seeks to advance decolonial, abolitionist, antiracist, and equitable frameworks in textile studies and practices. The virtual platform hosting the Textile Society of America’s (TSA) 2024 Symposium offers recorded proceedings accessible for 90 days after the event; the Symposium Proceedings, slated to be published six months later through a partnership with the University of Nebraska—Lincoln, will be freely available online, alongside promotion through TSA’s website, newsletters, social media, and further dissemination through a curated special issue in the Journal of Textile Design Research and Practice, ensuring lasting accessibility and global reach.
To support Energies: A Symposium, a two-day interdisciplinary event to accompany the group exhibition Energies (working title) at the Swiss Institute (SI) and nearby partner organizations. The symposium focuses on the historical and contemporary dimensions of energy, including discussions on community, ecology, social issues, and geopolitics, inspired by the story of a rooftop windmill installed during the 1973 oil crisis at 519 E 11th St. in New York. By looking at the ways art and energy intersect, this symposium, bringing together artists, academics, architects, activists, and broader audiences, examines colonial legacies, ancestral technologies, nonhuman communities, extractivism, geopolitics, Indigeneity, agriculture, and urban politics. The symposium will be live-streamed. The edited final cut will be featured on the SI website, and a climate-friendly publication will be produced and distributed globally.
To support In Relation: Photography’s Communities, a three-day hybrid convening at the Center for Creative Photography (CCP) at the University of Arizona in Tucson, exploring the role of photography in addressing issues of visibility, belonging, and representation, especially within Latinx and diasporic communities, with a focus on fostering connections and dialogue among participants. The symposium draws inspiration from the fall 2024 exhibitions at the CCP. The symposium is disseminated through the live–streaming and the recording of select content, accessible for three months on the Photography Network’s website member portal and advertised via social media platforms with thousands of followers and the PN listserv, as well as through partnerships with the Center for Creative Photography (CCP) and other local institutions.
