Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation
OVERVIEW: The Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation supports contemporary visual art by providing grants to partially fund catalogues and other publications that document exhibitions by emerging or under-recognized artists.
IP TAKE: This once relatively transparent funder has revamped its website removing a lot of information and access for grantseekers. Most notably, all application guidelines and procedures have been excised. New grantseekers will now have to work a little harder here to get on this funder’s radar.
PROFILE: The Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation seeks to foster “the production and appreciation of the contemporary arts, particularly the visual arts.” Its grantmaking particularly prioritizes support for what it calls “special projects,” which it defines as projects that “offer the public insights into the range of contemporary art being created by all populations in all media.” Examples of these include exhibitions of contemporary art; publications, e.g., exhibition catalogues, periodicals, brochures and publications related to the organization and its programs; acquisitions of contemporary art for the organization’s permanent collection; visiting artist programs; filmmaking projects; and special events associated with contemporary art programs.
The projects which the foundation supports must be relevant to the local community and prominently feature under-recognized mid-career or emerging artists. Grants also seek to highlight the collections of grantees organizations and “provide exposure of contemporary art where it may not otherwise be seen.”
Grants from the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation generally fall in the $5,000 to $15,000 range, although many have reached $25,000 of late.
The Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation has funded catalogs for Jessica Rath at the University Art Museum (Cal State University Long Beach); Diana Al-Hadid at the Weatherspoon Art Museum (University of North Carolina Greensboro), Luis Gispert for a traveling exhibition organized by Independent Curators International, Maximilian Goldfarb at the Lost Coast Culture Machine in Ft. Bragg, CA; and Gaylen Hansen at the Museum of Art at Washington State University (St. Louis, MO). The foundation has also supported publications for work presented at Suyama Space in Seattle, WA; Athica in Athens, GA; and Plains Art Museum in Fargo, ND, among others.
It has also given to The Hermitage Museum and Gardens, Smithsonian Institute, Virginia Center for Creative Arts, and the Contemporary Art Museum in St. Louis.
PEOPLE:
Search for staff contact info and bios in PeopleFinder (paid subscribers only).
LINKS: