The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation announces recipients of the 2013 Artistic innovation and collaboration grants

“This is our second year offering grants rooted in the characteristics of Bob’s legacy—fearlessness, innovative practice, cross-disciplinary exploration, and collaboration among artists. Our goal is to fund areas where others may not be by removing the hurdles of measurement and delivery and to focus on the investigation of new territory and a philanthropic DNA which speaks to Rauschenberg’s own practice.” said Christy MacLear, Executive Director of the Foundation.

The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation invited 80 arts organizations across the country to apply for the second AIC grant cycle. After a competitive application process, nine grants totaling $855,000 will be awarded to a diverse group of creative projects.

List of Artistic Innovation and Collaboration Program grantees in 2013:

1. Center for Women & Their Work (Austin, TX)

Thirst, an installation in honor of the 500 million trees lost in the recent Texas drought. A collaboration between Beili Liu, Norma Yancy, Emily Little, Christine Ten Eyck, and Cassie Bergstrom, Thirst memorializes loss and makes visible the devastating impact of a changing climate. Located on Lady Bird Johnson Lake, the physical and spiritual heart of Austin , Thirst manifests the urgency and severity of the water crisis.

2. Freewaves (Los Angeles, CA)

Freewaves will expand its Los Angeles county-wide pilot called OUT THE WINDOW that brought collaborative video projects to the inside of city buses. Targeted at a deserving population, these artistic explorations will center on the themes of empowerment, justice, human rights, environment and health. Videos, partners and process are available at out-the-window.org. Artists include: Mel Chin, Yoshua Okon, John Jota Leanos, Ann Kaneko, Poli Marichal & Fernando Castroman, Lisa Marr & Paolo Davanzo.

3. Los Angeles Nomadic Division LAND (Los Angeles, CA)

A cross-country billboard project conceived and initiated by artist Zoe Crosher in collaboration with artists including Eve Fowler, Bobbi Woods, and Mario Ybarra Jr. The billboards will be thematically linked and activated through various events and social media outlets for dialogue and interaction among varied audiences.

4. Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit MOCAD (Detroit, MI)

This organization is underwriting the community connection and collaborative artist-led programming surrounding Mike Kelley's Mobile Homestead installation at the museum. As a sculpture and as a platform, Mobile Homestead fits the Museum's vision to develop education and public engagement programs that are truly progressive.

5. Real Art Ways (Hartford, CT)

Support for a Reaction Bubble where collaboration extends from the artists to audience involvement. Artist duo LoVid, as well as Matthew Towers and Deborah Goffe, will build off of each other’s explorations in electronics, ceramics, and dance to create immersive environments and experiences. This project is designed to be toured in other cities.

6. School 33 Art Center (Baltimore, MD)

This organization is using art to engage the community as well as revitalize and break down the walls of its own building. The grant will fund four collaborative projects within a two-year cycle to permanently transform unused spaces in the renovated 1890 school house into viable sites for ongoing artistic activity and community outreach. Artists include Kathryn Bell, Linda DePalma, Brendan J. Hughes, Melissa Webb, Jonathan Latiano, and Jennifer Strunge.

7. Site Santa Fe (Santa Fe, NM)

Supporting an exhibition titled Unsuspected Possibilities, featuring artists Sarah Oppenheimer, Marie Watt, and Leonardo Drew. The artists will create new installations that are not only site-specific, but also responsive to each other. Pushing the boundaries of their practices, these artists will work together to create a group exhibition conceived from the start as a phenomenological unit and will extend the collaboration to local external partners. This experimental situation will challenge curatorial conventions, in keeping with SITE's tradition of producing new commissions and exploring new directions in exhibition design and curatorial methods.

8. SPACES (Cleveland, OH)

A multi-stage project called Tag, in which artists build off of one another’s creations, separately, over time. This piece tests the definition of collaboration and involves the audience through online streaming of its evolution. Artists Reed Anderson, Kevin Jerome Everson, Jess Hirsch, and Thu Tran will create work in adjacent galleries, then switch four times. The entire exploration will have to iterations.

9. Storefront for Art & Architecture (New York, NY)

Funding for three collaborative projects over three years that pair artists and architects at this small breakout organization: Jimenez Lai and Grayson Cox will design and construct a multifunctional table that will move around New York and the globe to host lectures, dinners and workshops; Jana Winderen and Marc Fornes will create an urban sound hall installation for the presentation of unheard oceanographic sounds; Skylar Tibbits and Lucy McRae will collaborate to create experimental wearable architectural prototypes based on how bodies move, breath and interact in the contemporary city.

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About the Artistic Innovation and Collaboration Program (AIC)

The goal of the Artistic Innovation and Collaboration Program is to provide support for innovative projects in which a visual artist collaborates with one or more artists in any discipline to make a new work, mount a multi-stage artistic exploration, or advance a new artistic form, all in the spirit of Robert Rauschenberg. Grantees are small and mid-sized cultural organizations with a strong track record of creative risk taking, experimentation, and identifying emergent talent, for whom the Foundation’s grant will be significant in enabling them to achieve their artistic goals and leverage other resources.

Grants are generally in the range of $25,000 to $150,000 and can be given over a period of one to three years. It is our hope that these creative initiatives will open the doors to new ideas that people may not understand now but that will become increasingly relevant in the future.

Proposals to the AIC program are made on an invitational basis, based on nominations by distinguished leaders in the field. Cultural organizations with annual budgets under $5 million that wish to be considered may send a brief statement (not more than one page) describing their overall artistic program or track record they believe to be in keeping with the goals of the AIC grants. Submissions should be addressed to: grants@rauschenbergfoundation.org.