NEW YORK, NY.- The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts announced its Fall 2025 grant recipients. The close of this grant round marked another challenging year for visual arts organizations as federal funding cuts and general economic strain continued to destabilize the cultural field. The Foundation recognizes the extraordinary efforts of organizations that continue to support artistic risk and creative development in the face of wide-ranging uncertainty; over $4million will be distributed to a diverse and dynamic group of 57 organizations, including 20 first-time grantees, whose innovative, experimental programs reflect a commitment to artistic agency and freedom of expression.
The recipients represent the grant program’s wide geographic reach and include institutions and organizations located in 17 states in the United States as well as in Lebanon and Ukraine. They range from grassroots community centered spaces to storied cultural institutions that amplify artists’ voices and facilitate the realization of their visions.
"The recent reduction in government funding for the visual arts, along with a cultural infrastructure destabilized by widespread political and economic uncertainty, have substantially weakened support for the entire arts ecosystem," said Joel Wachs, President of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. “The intense pressure this places on artists and the organizations that sustain their work reinforces the Foundation’s commitment to support and uplift the vital work they do.”
39 small to mid-sized arts organizations have been recognized for supporting artists through exhibitions, residencies, commissions, publications, and opportunities for cultural exchange. Ashkal Alwan (Lebanon) is a standard bearer for commitment to cultural production and critical inquiry in the face of massive political and economic upheaval. NGO Museum of Contemporary Art (Ukraine) also digs deeply into its role as an artistic producer, defender and chronicler of contemporary art history as its country endures the convulsions of war. In the U.S., the Arts and Culture Advocacy Project at the National Coalition Against Censorship is increasing its efforts to defend artistic freedom of expression by fighting the rising tide of censorship at the individual and institutional level.
As federal funding for the arts continues to contract, several new grantees are stepping up to support vulnerable communities. In Seattle, WA, Path with Art provides free, trauma-informed, community- based arts programs for more than 2,000 individuals annually, serving artists impacted by homelessness, addiction recovery, incarceration, and social isolation. Likewise, Harvester Arts (Wichita, KS), has broadened its schedule of exhibitions, public initiatives, performances, and events following the Kansas State Legislature’s proposal to further remove state arts funding. Amid the growing impact of Medicaid cuts, Access Gallery (Denver, CO) is dedicated to empowering artists with disabilities by fostering their inclusion in the wider art community and expanding their access to professional opportunities.
Two new grantees underscore the importance of publishing initiatives to provide a democratic platform for critical engagement with artists’ work. At a time when venues for arts journalism are in steep decline, Contemporary Art Review Los Angeles (Culver City, CA) is a notable newcomer, fostering emerging writers, editors, and photographers through an open-submission process, and providing editorial guidance and stipends to support their growth. Meanwhile, EXILE Projects (Miami, FL) champions artist books as civic tools for dialogue and creative risk, offering robust resources for independent publishing projects.
Other first-time grantees, deeply rooted in their local contexts, respond to the unique environmental and cultural conditions of their communities. Galveston Artist Residency (Galveston, TX), established after Hurricane Ike in 2008, provides long term residencies that offer artists stability and support off the Gulf Coast of Texas. In Seattle, WA, Mini Mart City Park, housed in a remediated and repurposed gas station, connects artists with environmental justice movements and frontline communities in the Duwamish Valley, encouraging projects that engage with the area’s distinct ecological and cultural landscape.
Many grantee organizations help artists realize new work, receive critical attention, and advance their practices with space, time and other resources. New grantee Hamiltonian Artists (Washington, DC) as well as Root Division (San Francisco, CA) provide subsidized studio spaces to help alleviate rent pressures. Additionally, new grantees such as Brew House Arts (Pittsburgh, PA), Tinworks (Bozeman, MT), Pioneer Works (Brooklyn, NY), and 99 Canal (New York, NY), along with organizations like Visual Studies Workshop (Rochester, NY), Project Row Houses (Houston, TX), Squeaky Wheel Film and Media Art Center (Buffalo, NY), Tri-Star Arts (Knoxville, TN), and the Feminist Center for Creative Work (Glendale, CA), offer artist residencies that foster experimentation and the development of new work— often providing further support through exhibitions and public programs.
“Arts organizations of all sizes, operating under increasingly precarious conditions, are finding ways to not only stay true to their missions but to increase the critical, curatorial and community resources they offer to artists,” said Rachel Bers, Program Director of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, “We commend their cultivation of artistic experimentation and appreciate the platforms they provide for artists’ perspectives to be seen, heard, and engaged as they (and we all) forge a path through difficult times.”
Sixteen museums, university galleries, and cultural institutions—several receiving support for the first time—will present solo exhibitions highlighting the innovative practices of underrepresented and overlooked artists. The Addison Gallery of American Art (Andover, MA) will feature a retrospective of Ching Ho Cheng, whose conceptually driven practice explored metaphysical and cross-cultural themes up to his untimely death from AIDS-related complications. At Bard College’s Center for Curatorial Studies (Annandale-on-Hudson, NY), the first solo exhibition of Navajo Diné weaver Marilou Schultz will reveal how Indigenous weaving principles underpin microchip manufacturing. Contemporary Art Museum at the University of South Florida (Tampa, FL) will debut Puerto Rican American artist Gisela Colón’s first East Coast solo exhibition. Her work combines cutting-edge materials—optical-grade acrylics and carbon fiber—with natural elements from Latin America and the Caribbean. The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston (Boston, MA) will present a sculptural installation of totem-like figures at a queer wedding in a solo exhibition by artist and LGBTQ activist Leilah Babirye, while MIT’s List Visual Arts Center (Cambridge, MA) will stage the first major U.S. museum exhibition of Hao Jingban, featuring immersive video installations that examine collective political action during the 2022 Paper White Protests in China.
Several grantees will receive support for group exhibitions that revisit pivotal cultural moments and their lasting impact. ART/WORK, presented by City Lore: The New York Center for Urban Folk Culture (New York, NY), sheds light on the overlooked history of the Federal Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA), which created more than 2,000 paid opportunities for arts and culture workers nationwide between 1974 and 1982. The Americas Society (New York, NY) will present Telenovela, featuring 52 works that examine the historical and contemporary influence of Latin American soap operas, exploring how these serialized dramas continue to shape cultural identity, foster connection, and create shared experiences across the diaspora. To commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Space Race, Competing Cosmologies, organized by the Wende Museum (Culver City, CA), considers how artists from the 1950s to the present have responded to groundbreaking scientific discoveries about the cosmos.
Additionally, two Curatorial Research Fellowships will support scholarly research for contemporary art projects in early stages of development. Research will be conducted on the African American photographers Maurice W. Strider and William S. Dotson, whose work has never been exhibited in an art museum despite their innovative approaches to image-making. The under-recognized Puerto Rican artist, Carlos Raquel Rivera, will be the subject of a study into his distinct prints and paintings that navigate identity, colonialism, and resistance, and contribute to the evolving histories of the Caribbean, Latin American, and American art.
