2022 Visual Arts Project Grant Awards Distributed
October 10, 2022 Milwaukee, WI
The Open Fund in collaboration with The Poor Farm and with support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Regional Re-granting Program is pleased to announce twelve Visual Arts Projects have been awarded $5,000 each in this funding cycle.
“Milwaukee County's art scene stands apart in its commitment to experimental, collaborative, and ambitious original work. The awardees of the 2022 Open Fund grants confirm this to be true in their visionary and deeply engaging proposals.” commented juror Nat Pyper.
Open Fund Press Release
Visual Arts Project Grant 2022 Awards Distributed
October 10, 2022 Milwaukee, WI
The Open Fund in collaboration with The Poor Farm and with support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Regional Re-granting Program is pleased to announce twelve Visual Arts Projects have been awarded $5,000 each in this funding cycle.
“Milwaukee County's art scene stands apart in its commitment to experimental, collaborative, and ambitious original work. The awardees of the 2022 Open Fund grants confirm this to be true in their visionary and deeply engaging proposals.” commented juror Nat Pyper.
Our 2022 Jurors
Pao Houa Her is a visual artist living in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. She works across multiple genres and technologies of photography to address Hmong identity and related notions of desire and belonging within the Hmong American community. Pao holds a BFA in Photography from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, MN, and an MFA in Photography from Yale University, CT. She is the recipient of many prestigious fellowships and grants, and has exhibited extensively in Minnesota, as well as across the United States, and more recently, in Southeast Asia. Her work is included in this year’s Whitney Biennial 2022.
Daniela Lieja Quintanar is a Los Angeles-based curator and arts researcher. She is the Chief Curator and Director of Programming at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE). Her curatorial practice takes inspiration from everyday spaces of political struggle and collective forms of knowledge production. Her research focuses on gestures of collective solidarity and organizing within the Americas. In 2018, she received the Andy Warhol Foundation Curatorial Research Grant for the exhibition Intergalactix:against isolation/contra el aislamiento (2021), which featured collaborative work across Central América, Mexico and their diasporas in the US. Lieja Quintanar has served as part of the curatorial team of the MexiCali Biennial 2018-19, and participated as the Project Coordinator and Contributing Curatorial Advisor for Below the Underground: Renegade Art and Action in the 1990s Mexico at the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena, Getty PST:LA/LA initiative. In 2016, she was Project Coordinator of La Sombra by Teresa Margolles for the Public Art Biennial CURRENT: LA Water. Some of her recent exhibitions include Unraveling Collective Forms(2019), CAVERNOUS: Young Joon Kwak & Mutant Salon (2018) and Emory Douglas: Bold Visual Language (2018 co-curated with Essence Harden) at LACE.
Nat Pyper is an alphabet artist. In their work and writing, they use language as a sieve and they push the body through it. Their visual work has shown at Chuquimarca Projects, Gene Siskel Film Center, and RUSCHWOMAN in Chicago, Vox Populi in Philadelphia, and Printed Matter in New York City. Their written work has been published by Are.na, Draw Down Books, Drawstring Magazine, GenderFail, Inga Books, Martian Press, Queer.Archive.Work, and the Walker Art Center. They received their MFA from the Yale School of Art. They are currently a 2021-22 HATCH Artist Resident at the Chicago Artists Coalition.
The pool of applications are a testament to the strong presence of collaborative, public-facing, artist-run-projects that flourish in our region. Collectively the 25 artists receiving support will initiate further artistic collaboration and partnerships as projects come to fruition. The following projects received the 2022 Visual Arts Project Award.
Moody is a bi-monthly handmade zine publication featuring artist contributions by queer and/or BIPOC creatives run by Melissa Mursch-Rodriguez. _underscore is a space run by artists Michael Lagerman and Grace Mitchell that emphasizes risk-taking in time-based, installation, performance, and visual art by Queer, BIPOC, and other underrepresented communities. Microlights Cinema is a micro-cinema based in Milwaukee that specializes in programming experimental film and video art run by artists Ben Balcom and Jesse McLean.
Yours Truly community art space and gallery run by Taylor Bucki, Joe Clark, and Brittany Mahlberg. Molly Hassler's In My Chest will host free sewing workshops and binder drives in Milwaukee County for trans masculine people. OK Mmmm! (Open Kitchen, Milwaukee-masa-mole-mill) is a project by Rudy Medina, Alyx Christensen, and Alan Medina that explores hyperlocal food possibilities aiming to challenge food access and homogenous food norms in city settings. The Grilled Cheese Grant (GCG) is an annual community fundraising event and emerging artist grant run by Alyssa Sue Anderson, Rachel Hausmann Schall, and Joe Acri that provides financial support for undergraduate seniors at The Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) and The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) who are working towards completing their senior exhibition projects in the areas of Fine Arts and/or Design. Usable Space is a series of summer exhibits at a repurposed factory garage in Milwaukee’s Harbor District in the form of small group or two person shows, solo exhibitions, film screenings, and a variety of performances such as live music and stand up comedy run by artist Keith Nelson. Live AV is an invitational project by Kim Miller and Peter Barrickman pairs unique artist videos with unique artists soundtracks, bringing them together to be performed live. Kitchen Minute invites people to share their kitchen stories via brief videos developed in the informality of their own kitchens with support from the artist team: Paul Druecke, Eduardo Zavala, Melisa Limanowski, and Joshua Rutherford. Full Moon Karaoke is a monthly karaoke night hosted by artist Sara Caron on the night of the full moon featuring local karaoke performers and performance art as well as costumes and sets designed by artists. Studio Seiche is an environment-driven workshop crafting cups and pitchers using local, hand-harvested wild clay in forms shaped by Lake Michigan’s shores, culminating in a free exhibition and a zine hosted by Sarah Eli Lu and Nora Leccese.
Juror Pao Her said “All the submissions from The Open Fund grant were very strong... I’m excited about the projects and I am looking forward to seeing them realized in Milwaukee.” Daniela Lieja added "It was an honor to be a juror for the Open Fund. I learned about Wisconsin's powerful art communities. While reading the applications, the collective spirit, the lively creative forms, and the non-institutional approaches fascinate me.”
The Open Fund looks forward to watching this year's awarded projects develop and materialize. The work by the recipients celebrates a diverse range of cultural initiatives and the communities and audiences it impacts.
