Major support provided to newly commissioned projects by Tacita Dean, Zanele Muholi, and Yinka Shonibare MBE
VIA Art Fund has awarded grants totaling 570,000 USD in 2017 in support of new projects by artists and non-profit organizations in contemporary art. Grant recipients for Artistic Production this fall include Tacita Dean, Yinka Shonibare MBE, and Zanele Muholi. VIA has also confirmed the accessioning of two of its previously supported projects to US public collections, John Akomfrah’s Precarity into the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, and JJ PEET’s THE VACANT AMERICAN into the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.
VIA Program Director Tali Cherizli said, “We are proud to provide essential funding to an exceptional group of projects this year by some of the most thought-provoking artists working today. In our current cultural climate, it is a true privilege to be a resource and to nurture artistic practices that take risks on both a local scale and a global platform. In my first year as Program Director, I have also been fortunate to work closely with VIA’s extraordinary patrons, each of whom demonstrates unwavering commitment to our mission of supporting new works by artists that exemplify thought leadership and provide an opportunity for public engagement.”
Two significant grants of 100,000 USD were given in support of newly commissioned projects this past fall: Tacita Dean’s new 35 mm two-screen film installation Antigone and Yinka Shonibare MBE’s The American Library, a room-sized installation containing 6,000 batik covered books at the Cleveland Public Library as part of the inaugural FRONT International to launch in summer 2018. Also this fall, artist Zanele Muholi’s was awarded a grant in support of her first major project in the US, The Women’s Mobile Museum; in collaboration with ten female participants, the project will create over 100 portraits, a transportable gallery, and culminate in an exhibition at the Philadelphia Photo Arts Center in 2019.
In its most recent semiannual Incubator grant round, VIA awarded 15,000 USD grants for general operating support to three non-profit arts organizations: International Studio & Curatorial Program, New York, LAXART, Los Angeles, and The Renaissance Society, Chicago. These artists and organizations join VIA’s eight spring Artistic Production and Incubator grant recipients announced in June 2017.
Complete List of VIA Art Fund 2017 Grantees
Artistic Production Grantees
Dia Art Foundation, exhibition Charlotte Posenenske: A Retrospective, and accession of produced works into the Dia Art Foundation permanent collection
Tacita Dean, for the development of the film installation Antigone
documenta 14, Whispering Campaign by William Pope.L, presented in Athens, Greece and Kassel, Germany
FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art, site-specific installation The American Library by Yinka Shonibare MBE
LAND (Los Angeles Nomadic Division), public outdoor installation by Jose Dávila for Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA
Philadelphia Photo Arts Center, The Women’s Mobile Museum by Zanele Muholi
Storm King Art Center, site-specific installation The Oracle of Lacuna by Heather Hart
Walker Art Center, public performance and exhibition of Daniel Buren’s Voile/Toile – Toile/Voile and accession of the work into the Walker Art Center’s permanent collection
Incubator Grantees
Antenna, New Orleans
Independent Curators International, New York
International Studio & Curatorial Program, New York
LAXART, Los Angeles
The Renaissance Society, Chicago
Triple Canopy, New York
Curatorial Fellowship 2018
Cathleen Chaffee, Chief Curator, Albright-Knox Art Gallery
Frontier Art Prize
Doug Aitken, 2017 Recipient
About VIA Art Fund
VIA Art Fund is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit philanthropic arts organization dedicated to supporting visionary initiatives in contemporary art. Comprised of a national coalition of individuals and private foundations, VIA supports Artistic Production, Thought Leadership and Public Engagement in the production, exhibition, public dissemination and institutional acquisition of ambitious, rigorous and challenging works of art. Since 2013 VIA has awarded over 2.4 million USD through 60 grants to artists, cultural institutions, publications, foundations, biennials and curators in the United States and worldwide, and has gifted 8 works of art to US museums. Learn more at viaartfund.org.
For press inquiries: press [at] viaartfund.org
*John Akomfrah, Precarity, 2017. Three channel HD color video installation, 7.1 sound, dimensions variable. © Smoking Dogs Films. Courtesy Lisson Gallery. Premiered at Prospect.4, VIA Artistic Production grant recipient. A gift to the permanent collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, made possible by funds from the Nasher Museum of Art Acquisition Fund and VIA Art Fund.
