Andy Warhol
The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts has honored Light Work with a $100,000 multi-year programming grant. Distributed over the next two years, these funds will support Light Work’s renowned residency and exhibition programs, offering support and visibility to emerging and under-recognized artists working in photography and image-based media.
This is the second Warhol Foundation grant that the 46-year-old arts institution has received, following the first in 2015.
The highly coveted Andy Warhol Foundation grants focus on serving the needs of artists by funding the institutions that support them. In total, 42 organizations nationwide will receive more than $3.6 million in support of scholarly exhibitions, publications and visual arts programming, including artist residencies and new commissions.
“We’re extremely grateful to the Warhol Foundation for their recognition of Light Work as one of the leading arts organizations in the country,” says Light Work Director Shane Lavalette. “With their ongoing funding of our programs, we will continue to focus on our mission of providing direct support to artists.”
One testament to Light Work’s artist-centered mission comes from award-winning photographer, author, curator and former artist-in-residence Debra Willis, who reflects on the benchmark importance of the organization in her early career. “During my month-long residency at Light Work I discovered what many artists had already known—Light Work is a place where photographers are embraced, supported and treasured,” Willis says. “Whenever photographers talk to me about their work and the place where they feel most comfortable, Light Work is evoked as a spiritual-like place where photographers can be totally involved in their work.”
About the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts
In accordance with Warhol’s will, The Andy Warhol Foundation’s mission is the advancement of the visual arts. The foundation’s primary focus in making grants is to support the creation, presentation and documentation of contemporary visual art, particularly work that is experimental, underrecognized or challenging in nature, emphasizing that the foundation “believes that arts and culture are a fundamental part of an open, enlightened society.”
The foundation manages an innovative and flexible grants program while also preserving Warhol’s legacy through creative and responsible licensing policies and extensive scholarly research for ongoing catalogues raisonnés projects. To date, the foundation has given more than $200 million in cash grants to more than 1,000 arts organizations in 49 states and abroad and has donated 52,786 works of art to 322 institutions worldwide. For more information, see warholfoundation.org. For more on the selected organizations and projects receiving funding, visit the Awarded Grants page.
About Light Work
Light Work is an artist-run alternative arts organization for the benefit and support of other artists. Working in collaboration with Community Darkrooms at Syracuse University, Light Work supports emerging and underrecognized artists, giving them the opportunity to create new work and include that work in the ongoing dialogue about contemporary art. Light Work has been fortunate to work with some of the most important artists of our time in the early stages of their careers, and they in turn have gone on to illuminate the work of others who deserve wider recognition. Follow Light Work on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. For general information, visit www.lightwork.org, call 315.443.1300 or email info@lightwork.org.
