Wherewithal Grants are a funding source for artists in the DC-area. Generously funded by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts as part of its Regional Regranting Program and managed by Washington Project for the Arts, these grants are intended to support a wide range of experimental and multidisciplinary practices, particularly those that emphasize collaboration and discourse. Since launching in 2019, Wherewithal Grants has supported 146 visual artists with a total of $340,000 in grants.
We are pleased to announce the 10 grant recipients for the 2024 funding cycle of Wherewithal Grants. Six artists have been awarded with research grants of $5,000 each, and four artists have been awarded with project & presentation grants of $7,500 each, for a total disbursement of $60,000 this cycle.
2024 Wherewithal Research grantees are: Adrienne Gaither, Jessica Valoris, Krista Schlyer, Madyha J. Leghari, Sanam Emami, and Taylor Johnson.
2024 Wherewithal Project Presentation grantees are: Anthony Le, Fid Thompson, Mēlani N. Douglass, and nwaọ.
Over the next year, these artists will organize projects and conduct research around fascinating and timely topics such as: poetic inquiry; the inheritance of language; failure; pollution in the Anacostia River; local histories of enslaved resistance and fugitive practice; and the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War. Throughout the yearlong grant cycle grantees will produce their work independently and in dialogue with one another, convening regularly as a cohort facilitated by Nathalie von Veh, WPA Storyteller and Wherewithal Grant Manager.
An independent panel of four artists and curators reviewed 139 applications and recommended the final ten for funding. The adjudication panel for this funding cycle consisted of Kalaija Mallery, Curator, Executive Director, The Luminary (St. Louis, MO); Anisa Olufemi, Curator, Hamiltonian Artists (Washington, DC); Mojdeh Rezaeipour, Artist (Washington, DC); and Robert Weisenberger, Curator, Clark Art Institute (Williamstown, MA). Proposals were evaluated based on the criteria of Artistic Impact, Context/Audience, Collaboration, Feasibility, and Budget.
The application portal will open in September 2024.
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