The Joan Mitchell Foundation announced today the twenty-five recipients of this year’s Painters and Sculptors Grants, which provide $625,000 in unrestricted funds to artists annually. In addition to receiving $25,000 in financial support, each grant recipient is eligible to apply for residencies at the Joan Mitchell Center in New Orleans. Among the 2019 grantees are Lauren Halsey, Baseera Khan, Daniel Lind-Ramos, Kate Newby, and Young Min Moon.

“The Painters & Sculptors Grants are a cornerstone of our work at the foundation,” said Christa Blatchford, the foundation’s CEO. “The program fills what we see as an ongoing gap in arts philanthropy—the scarcity of direct support to artists for them to continue their practices, to try new things, and to take risks. While the art market is strong, and public sentiment about ‘art’ remains enthusiastic, the opportunities for financial support for artists themselves continue to be limited. We know, from talking to and working with artists for more than two decades, that providing unrestricted funding is necessary and essential.”

Since the grant program launched over twenty-six years ago, the foundation has supported more than five hundred artists at varying stages of their careers. To be eligible for a grant, artists must be nominated by fellow artists and arts professionals selected from throughout the United States. The nominated artists are then invited to submit applications. Grant recipients are chosen through a multiphase jurying process and are typically individuals who have contributed to important artistic and cultural discourse and who deserve greater recognition on a national level.

The 2019 grant recipients are:

Anila Quayyum Agha, Indianapolis, Indiana

Morehshin Allahyari, Brooklyn, New York

Candida Alvarez, Chicago, Illinois

Frida Baranek, Coral Gables, Florida

Debra Baxter, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Keren Benbenisty, New York, New York

Paul Stephen Benjamin, Atlanta, Georgia

Juan William Chávez, Saint Louis, Missouri

Jamal Cyrus, Houston, Texas

Patricia Fernández Carcedo, Los Angeles, California

Lauren Halsey, Los Angeles, California

Andrea Heimer, Ferndale, Washington

Suzanne Jackson, Savannah, Georgia

Baseera Khan, Brooklyn, New York

Arghavan Khosravi, Natick, Massachusetts

Candice Lin, Altadena, California

Daniel Lind-Ramos, Loíza, Puerto Rico

Cannupa Hanska Luger, Glorieta, New Mexico

Gabriel Martinez, Houston, Texas

Wardell Milan, New York, New York

Young Min Moon, Amherst, Massachusetts

Kate Newby, Brooklyn, New York

Shikeith, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Salman Toor, New York, New York

Lien Truong, Chapel Hill, North Carolina