Foundation for Contemporary Arts Launches Creative Research Grants Program
The Foundation for Contemporary Arts (FCA) has announced the establishment of its new Creative Research Grants program for artists, which will distribute $300,000 among thirty experimental artists and collectives annually for the next five years. Supported by a $9 million bequest from pathbreaking Los Angeles gallerist Margo Leavin, the grants, of $10,000 each, are awarded in recognition of the role creative research plays in artistic practice.
“It’s thrilling to be able to extend our support to this vital, exploratory stage of the artistic process, addressing a recurring gap in resources at a crucial time for artists across the country” said FCA executive director Kay Takeda in a statement. “The range of ideas and projects proposed by the artists receiving Creative Research Grants is remarkable—we’re excited to support their creative ambitions as they push their work and practices into new territories.”
Applications were reviewed by a panel of ten experimental artists, each with expertise in one or more of the disciplines FCA supports: dance, music/sound, performance art/theater, poetry, and visual arts. Recipients were then selected by a two-phase review process, in which the submissions were evaluated based on the strength and relevance of the proposal in relation to the artist’s practice, work samples, and goals, and the potential impact of the grant on the artist’s development.
Among the inaugural cohort are Max Adrian, a Columbus, Ohio–based textile artist whose work considers experiences of consumer culture through a lens of queerness and desire; Los Angeles–based poet and filmmaker Shireen Alihaji, who will explore Persian household objects and traditions as sites of cultural restoration; New York experimental guitarist Reg Bloor, who will create and record new music featuring rarely heard music intervals of the harmonic series; and Brooklyn-based interdisciplinary artist Kameron Neal, who will trace the evolution of the song “Wagon Wheel” from its Black blues origins to its rebirth as a country anthem for a film project. Visual artist and performer Julie Tolentino, of Joshua Tree, California, will use the funding to research underwater movement and touch practices through engagement with freediving and aquatic bodywork communities in Okinawa, Japan, and the Taal Volcano in the Philippines; while Philadelphia-based performance artist Donna Oblongata will undertake R&D for the final portion of a solo-show trilogy of participatory dark comedies investigating the contradictions in our cultural relationships to water through the persona of Kurt Cobain; and New York dance artist Ogemdi Ude will interview Nigerian artists as part of her exploration of pre-colonial Nigerian queer histories.
