FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Margaret Sundell, Director, Creative Capital / Andy Warhol
Foundation Arts Writers' Grant Program 212.598.0140
ANDY WARHOL FOUNDATION FOR THE VISUAL ARTS ANNOUNCES MAJOR NEW ARTS
WRITING INITIATIVE
NEW YORK, NY (May 2, 2006) –– The Andy Warhol Foundation
for the Visual Arts is pleased to announce the launch of the Andy Warhol
Arts Writing Initiative, a three-year, three million dollar program
to support independent, progressive arts publications and individual
arts writers. The Initiative amplifies the Foundation’s longstanding
support of critical writing about the arts by focusing attention on
critical writing as an essential component of a thriving visual culture.
Designed to encourage and reward accessible, intellectually rigorous
writing about art, the program aims to strengthen the field as a whole
and to highlight its significance in the cultural landscape.
The Arts Writing Initiative is the result of extensive research conducted
by the Warhol Foundation into the current needs and challenges facing
arts writers. The Foundation convened several gatherings of critics,
art historians, editors, reporters, and journalism educators to determine
which issues practitioners in the field deemed most crucial to address
in the immediate future. The new program was designed directly in response
to the information they provided and the insights they shared.
Following are some of the main concerns raised by participants:
With the demise of NEA grants for critics and the
recent closure of the National Arts Journalism Program at Columbia
University, traditional mechanisms of support, organization and advocacy
for arts writing are scarce to non-existent. At the same time, the
art world is increasingly large, complex and international in scope
and demands flexibility, quick turn-around and extensive travel from
writers. There is virtually no training system for arts writers and
there are few residencies or journalism fellowships that recognize
their work. Little is done to advance the visibility and prestige
of the profession, though it is clearly a necessary component of a
visually literate culture.
Cultural discourse on art is most often conducted through journals,
newspapers and other art periodicals. However, many of these publications—especially
small, regional and special interest journals—lack money, stability,
management-expertise and the tools for proper self-promotion. Their
survival is uncertain in a competitive marketplace dominated by larger
commercial rivals, and if independent publications are to remain a
vital platform for alternative voices, they must stabilize their business
practices and increase their audiences.
Severely inadequate compensation for writers and the instability of
published outlets for their work create an inhospitable environment
for arts writers and threaten the viability of the profession. Yet
thanks at least in part to on-line media, new voices are entering
the dialogue on art all the time. With the explosion of exhibitions,
festivals, biennials, and experimental art events around the country
and the world, it is an exciting time to be a critic. However, in
order for writers to do their best work and for its impact to be felt
broadly in the culture, the infrastructure of the field must be reinforced
and the importance of writers’ work recognized and rewarded.
The Andy Warhol Arts Writing Initiative takes a two-pronged
approach to this task: one aimed at improving the viability of independent,
progressive art publications through capacity-building grants and one
aimed at sustaining the work of individual arts writers through project-based
grants.
The grants to individual writers will be made for projects that range
from books and essays to experiments in new media and will be administered
by Creative Capital using their model of project-based grants augmented
by individually tailored technical assistance and professional development.
Art historians, critics, journalists, curators or experts from other
disciplines who focus on the visual arts and culture are eligible to
apply. The aim of the grants is to recognize talent, promote critical
discourse that is both rigorous and accessible, foster innovation in
arts writing and nurture connections between art and the public. We
hope that the grants will function as both an honor and an opportunity
for writers to explore challenging, risk-taking work.
Grants to independent, non-profit publications will be administered
directly by the Warhol Foundation. Capacity-building grants to publications,
including those representing unique regional, national or minority points
of view, will allow them to stabilize business practices, increase audiences,
and explore new forms of publishing, new partnerships and distribution
channels. The Arts Writing Initiative hopes to encourage journals to
take on creative risks and to showcase ambitious, intellectually committed
writing.
Towards the end of the third year, the Foundation will organize an international
convening of Arts Writing Initiative grantees and other professionals
in the field to evaluate the program and to explore possibilities for
its expansion. The Warhol Foundation is committed to keeping arts writing
a dynamic and evolving part of the visual arts and hopes that the Arts
Writing Initiative can serve as a model to others concerned about the
future of the field.
About Creative Capital
Founded in January 1999, Creative Capital Foundation is a national nonprofit
organization that supports individual artists pursuing innovative approaches
to form and content in the visual and performing arts, film/video, emerging
fields, and innovative literature. To date, the organization has awarded
more than $5 million to 242 artist projects and has provided those artists
with a range of advisory and skills-building services. Support of Creative
Capital is currently provided by The Nathan Cummings Foundation, Doris
Duke Charitable Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The William & Flora
Hewlett Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, The Emily Hall Tremaine
Foundation, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and more
than 60 other foundations and individuals. A complete list of grantees,
profiles of funded projects, and grant cycle information can be found
online at the foundation’s website at http://www.creative-capital.org.
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Creative Capital Foundation
65 Bleecker Street, 7th floor
New York, NY 10012
http://creative-capital.org
212 598 9900
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