The Trellis Art Fund, which launched in Februrary with a $15.8 million endowment and the goal of supporting individual artists through unrestricted grants, has revealed its first cohort of grantees. Each of a dozen artists will receive an unrestricted grant of $100,000, which will be issued in $50,000 payments over two years. Of note, two grants are reserved for artists who are parents or guardians of children under twelve. The recipients were chosen by an anonymous jury from a shortlist arrived at through a process in which applicants were nominated by a group of curators, historians, artists, and arts professionals and then invited to apply.
“There is nothing simple or straightforward about the process of elimination and selection,” said Trellis Advisory Board Member Arlene Shechet, speaking on behalf of the jury, “but we are immensely pleased and grateful that, in this inaugural year for Trellis, twelve astoundingly dedicated and talented artists will receive substantial, no strings attached, funds towards realizing their dreams and sharing their visions.”
The New York nonprofit noted that the 157 initial applicants ranged in age from thirty to eighty-nine. Eighty-one percent were of color and thirty-seven percent identified as LGBTQIA+. Though most lived and worked in the New York and Los Angeles areas, candidates were spread out across twenty-five states and Puerto Rico. The grantees will additionally receive access to professional resources that will aid them in their creative endeavors over time, and will be invited to participate in a retreat Trellis is hosting this fall in New York with the aim of building community, at which they can participate in workshops, share their work, and meet one another.
A full list of 2024 grantees is below.
Candida Alvarez, Chicago
American Artist, New York
Ja’Tovia Gary, Dallas
Every Ocean Hughes, New York
Autumn Knight, New York
Young Joon Kwak, Los Angeles
Lorraine O’Grady, New York
Paul Pfeiffer, New York
Ronny Quevedo, New York*
Alison Saar, Los Angeles
Shizu Saldamando, Los Angeles*
Jorge González Santos, San Juan, PR
*Trellis Art Fund Artist-Parent Grantee
