TIFFANY FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES RECIPIENTS OF 2017 BIENNIAL GRANTS
The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation is pleased to announce the recipients of its 2017 Biennial Grants. These unrestricted grants of $20,000 each have been awarded to 30 artists working in painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, video, craft, and new media (see list below). The purpose of the funds is to give artists the opportunity to produce new work and push the boundaries of their creativity. Recipients were chosen from a pool of 156 nominees proposed by national nominators—artists, critics, museum professionals, and Foundation trustees. A seven-member jury selected winners for their talent and individual artistic strength. In May 2018, the Foundation will publish a full-color catalogue documenting the work of grant recipients with images and biographies. This catalogue will also be made available on the Foundation’s website. As 2018 marks the Foundation’s centennial, plans for the celebration of this important anniversary will be forthcoming.
Established in 1918 by Louis Comfort Tiffany, son of Tiffany & Company founder Charles Louis Tiffany, the Foundation remains one of the largest single sources of unrestricted monetary grants to artists working in America today. The Foundation originally operated Laurelton Hall—Tiffany’s estate at Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island—as a summer residency for its fellows and craftspeople. Since 1980, the biennial competition has distributed nearly $10,000,000 in awards to 500 artists nationwide, extending the commitment of its founder “to help young artists of our country… and to assist them in establishing themselves in the art world.”
Award winner and Foundation Trustee Kerry James Marshall summarized his experience: “Few events are more exciting and encouraging than being nominated to compete for prizes you can't apply for. It is the kind of endorsement that gets the wind at your back, and since my 1993 Tiffany grant, it's been full speed ahead. It has also been an honor to join the Tiffany board and serve with famous artists I used to only read about. I was so fortunate to be an awardee. We are so lucky there is the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation.”
In honor of the Tiffany Foundation’s position as one of the earliest artist-endowed foundations in the United States, and the first created by an artist during his or her lifetime, in November 2017 the Aspen Institute Artist-Endowed Foundation Initiative/AEFI recognized the Tiffany Foundation with its Service Salute. The Initiative’s Project Director, Christine J. Vincent, acknowledged the Foundation’s:
“... commitment to assisting artists since its establishment in 1918—a record unsurpassed in philanthropy generally, let alone among artist-endowed foundations. Since the inception of its current program in 1980, the Tiffany Foundation has been a crucial source of support for dedicated artists whose work shows significant promise of further development, providing them with the financial resources required to produce new work and hone their creative abilities. By targeting support to artists at a critical point in their evolution, the Tiffany Foundation has contributed immeasurably to this country’s artistic vitality.”
The Foundation is directed by a Board of Trustees led by Angela Westwater, President.
RECIPIENTS OF THE LOUIS COMFORT TIFFANY FOUNDATION
2017 BIENNIAL GRANTS
Nina Chanel Abney, Jersey City, NJ
Niv Acosta, Brooklyn, NY
Kathy Butterly, New York, NY
Karon Davis, Ojai, CA
Abigail DeVille, Fort Lee, NJ
Rafa Esparza, Pasadena, CA
Raque Ford, Brooklyn, NY
Juliana Huxtable, Brooklyn, NY
Kahlil Joseph, Los Angeles, CA
Titus Kaphar, New Haven, CT
Ellen Lesperance, Portland, OR
Candice Lin, Altadena, CA
Tiona Nekkia McClodden, Philadelphia, PA
Zachary Meisner, Austin, TX
Ebony G. Patterson, Lexington, KY
Beverly Penn, Austin, TX
Sondra Perry, Perth Amboy, NJ
Peter Pincus, Penfield, NY
Sean Raspet, Los Angeles, CA
Wendy Red Star, Portland, OR
Cameron Rowland, Queens, NY
Jessica Sanders, Brooklyn, NY
Beatriz Santiago Muñoz, San Juan, PR
Regina Scully, New Orleans, LA
Kaneem Smith, Houston, TX
Matthew Solomon, Lake Huntington, NY
Jesse Stecklow, Los Angeles, CA
Martine Syms, Los Angeles, CA
Kazumi Tanaka, Beacon, NY
Tomas Vu-Daniel, New York, NY
BIENNIAL COMPETITION JURY
Phong Bui
Co-Founder and Artistic Director, The Brooklyn Rail
Ruth Estevez
Director and Curator, Gallery at REDCAT
Alison de Lima Greene
Isabel Brown Wilson Curator, Modern and Contemporary Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Chrissie Iles
Curator, Whitney Museum of American Art
Charles LeDray
Artist
Kerry James Marshall
Artist
Bruce W. Pepich
Executive Director and Curator of Collections, Racine Art Museum