VIA Art Fund has awarded over $1 million in grants to individual artists and creatives and small-scale visual arts organizations in 2019. Ranging from $20,000 to $100,000, the grants were distributed through its four grantmaking programs: Artistic Production, the VIA | Wagner Incubator Grant Fund, the VIA Curatorial Fellowship, and the Frontier Art Prize.

“What began as a single grant program in 2013 has evolved into a multi-tiered funding platform surpassing the $1,000,000 mark in grantmaking in 2019 alone,” said Bridgitt Evans, president and cofounder of VIA Art Fund. “VIA originated as a collective of passionate philanthropists. Increasingly, it is also recognized as a trusted partner to national foundations seeking to amplify their impact on the visual arts by supporting artists, arts organizations, and curators who engage broad publics.”

Nine artists received Artistic Production grants totaling $845,000—projects supported include an interactive light and sound installation by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, an alternative news platform by Kahlil Joseph, and a sculpture by Sarah Sze that will be permanently installed at Storm King Art Center in New York—and five small-scale visual arts nonprofit organizations were selected for the VIA | Wagner Incubator Grant Fund. Launched last year, the program provides $40,000 grants for general operating support.

In addition, Agnieszka Kurant was awarded the 2019 Frontier Art Prize, which comes with $100,000, and curator Lumi Tan was selected as the recipient of the 2020 VIA Curatorial Fellowship in support of her work at the Kitchen. “From major commissions on the international stage to artist residencies in rural communities, our 2019 grantees demonstrate exceptional levels of artistic production and thought leadership at every level of the arts ecosystem,” Evans said.

The full list of grantees is as follows:

2019 Artistic Production Grantees

El Paso Community Foundation for Rafael Lozano-Hemmer | Border Tuner/ Sintonizador Fronterizo

Hammer Museum for a new commission for Made in L.A. 2020: a version

Lynn Hershman Leeson | Shadow Stalker

Istanbul Biennial for Glenn Ligon | James Baldwin: From Another Place

Kahlil Joseph | BLKNWS

Performa for Paul Pfeiffer | Amazing Grace/RGB

Antenna for Dread Scott and John Akomfrah | Slave Rebellion Reenactment

Socrates Sculpture Park for Jeffrey Gibson | Because Once You Enter My House, It Becomes Our House

Storm King Art Center for Sarah Sze | Fallen Sky

2019 Works Accessioned into Public Collections

Charlotte Posenenske | Fourteen works from Series B, C, D, and DW - Dia Art Foundation

Isaac Julien | Lessons of the Hour - Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester in partnership with the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

Zanele Muholi, et al. | Women’s Mobile Museum - Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

Tavares Strachan | The Encyclopaedia of Invisibility - Carnegie Museum of Art

2019 VIA | Wagner Foundation Incubator Grant Fund Grantees

Burnaway, Atlanta, GA

Coleman Center for the Arts, York, AL

Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis, MN

Public Space One - Center for Afrofuturist Studies, Iowa City, IA

SPACE, Portland, ME

2019 Frontier Art Prize

Agnieszka Kurant

2020 VIA Curatorial Fellow

Lumi Tan, Curator, the Kitchen, New York City