Great good news is afoot today as we announce the 14 artists and artist groups who have been chosen as recipients of the inaugural Velocity Fund awards. Many congratulations to all! (Details in the list below.)
All the projects sound great – be sure to click over and look at them. A special shout out to Artblog favorites, Yvonne Lung (2011 post, 2009 post) and Dave Kyu (posts), Mark Strandquist and Courtney Bowles (2015 post), and Tim Belknap (2012 podcast https://www.theartblog.org/2012/01/new-podcast-tim-belknap-on-teaching-kids-about-space-as-astronaut-tim/ ) and Taji Ra’oof Nahl (2017 podcast https://www.theartblog.org/2017/09/taji-raoof-nahl-talks-history-music-spirituality-and-compassion/ ). We’re excited to see the 14 projects come to life this year (each project has a 12-month completion period).
On a personal note, the new Velocity Fund open call to artists in Philadelphia is a wonder and a blessing upon the community, funneling dollars to makers at a time when little to no public funding exists for them. But, any competition begets those who get the prize and those whose turn has not yet come. To the rest of the 120 applicants who got the pink slip telling them their project would not be funded, we say, don’t give up. Try again. Raise your idea up again next year. Raise it elsewhere. Artblog was founded by two women artists who know the disappointment of rejection. We say, keep on making, caring, and trying. It’s the only way.
Below is the release from Temple Contemporary
Velocity Fund awards inaugural grants to 14 Philadelphia-based art projects
The Velocity Fund, a new program created by Temple Contemporary at the Tyler School of Art to directly support visual artists living in the city of Philadelphia, has announced its inaugural grant winners. Fourteen new art projects conceived by Philadelphia artists—most of them proposing to work collaboratively—were selected from more than 120 applicants to receive awards of up to $5,000.
The 2018 Velocity Fund grantees
- Aislinn Pentecost-Farren* and Corey Chao – Quarantine Play
- Amy Hicks*, Talia Greene, Michael Konrad, Maggie Mills, Jed Morfit, Ephraim Russell and Marianna Williams (GrizzyGrizzly) – Speak Speak Blog and Publication
- Andrea Ngan*, Michelle Delgado, Elizabeth Weinstein and Bennett Kuhn (Creative Resilience Collective) –
- Brooke O’Harra* and Sharon Hayes – Time Passes
- Davelle Barnes* – The Black Veterans Art Conference
- Karina Puente* and Yolanda Wisher – #SisterlyHistory
- Mark Strandquist* and Courtney Bowles – The Reentry Think Tank
- Martha O’Connell* (Amber Art & Design) – Strawberry Mansion Up Close
- Maya Olympia Bush*, Zoe Berg, Lauren Fueyo, Anne Lukins, Jino Rahimi, Kristine Rumman, Netta Sadovsky, and Taylor Sweeney (Strategic Communications) – Strategic Communications Group
- Rasheedah Phillips* and Camae Ayewa (Black Quantum Futurism) – Black Womxn Temporal Portal
- Sarah Mueller* (cinéSPEAK) – The cinéSPEAK Youth Crew
- Steve Burns*, Alexa Smith, Warren Longmire, Kai Davis, Kareem Groomes and Miriam Harris (APIARY Magazine) – APIARY X
- Timothy Belknap* and Taji Ra’oof Nahl, a.k.a. TR7 – Drape and Cladding
- Yvonne Lung* and Dave Kyu – Dish – the Mealkit
* Lead organizer of the project
Funding
Established with the support of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, The Velocity Fund is one of 12 Regional Regranting programs launched by the foundation to fund “under-the-radar artistic activity” by partnering with leading cultural institutions in cities across the nation where the level of self-organized artistic activity is the highest. The Velocity Fund is the first Warhol Foundation-supported regional re-granting program in Pennsylvania, and only the second on the East Coast between Maine and Florida.
Project Reviewers and Hard Decisions about Excellent Projects
Applications were reviewed by a distinguished panel of arts administrators and curators: Courtney Fink, co-founder and executive director of Common Field; Margot Norton, curator at the New Museum in New York City; and Philadelphia-based independent curator Blake Bradford.
“The decision-making process was a difficult one for our panelists, with so many fantastic and and diverse projects vying for a limited number of grants,” said Robert Blackson, director of Temple Contemporary. “The quantity of applications and the quality of the artists seeking funding proved that Philadelphia has an extraordinarily rich and vibrant artistic community. It also demonstrated the urgent need for direct funding for artists—especially at a time when federal funding for artists has declined sharply. I can’t wait to see what these artists create.”
Blackson noted that the grantees represent the types of artists that the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts’ Regional Regranting programs most seek to reach: professional visual artists working in informal, non-incorporated collectives on projects with the broadest possible range of public outcomes, including websites, books, performances, screenings and more.
Meet the awardees
The public is invited to celebrate the inaugural class of Velocity Fund grantees at a ceremony on September 11 at 6 p.m. at Temple Contemporary in the Tyler School of Art at Temple University’s Main Campus (2001 N. 13th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19118).
