VIA Art Fund and Wagner Foundation have awarded grants totaling $200,000 to five U.S.-based visual arts organizations. The recipients of the 2023 VIA | Wagner Incubator Grant Fund are: 1708 Gallery (Richmond, VA), 516 ARTS (Albuquerque, NM), Indigo Arts Alliance (Portland, ME), All My Relations Arts (Minneapolis, MN), and PARTICIPANT INC (New York, NY).
Click here to read the press release.
Click here to learn more about the VIA | Wagner partnership and the Incubator Grant Fund.
Founded in 1978 by a group of artists at Virginia Commonwealth University, 1708 Gallery is one of the oldest artist-run galleries in the nation. Through exhibitions and public programs, 1708 Gallery seeks to empower artists’ ideas and voices so they can create work that impacts the local community. Rooted in the belief that artists are catalysts for new ways of thinking and connectors of different perspectives, 1708 Gallery provides artists with financial and institutional support, as well as professional development resources. 1708 Gallery is dedicated to facilitating opportunities for Richmond-based, national, and international artists to offer the local community diverse ideas from across the field of contemporary art.
For more information, please visit 1708 Gallery.
Founded in 2006, 516 ARTS is a non-collecting, free admission contemporary art museum in Downtown Albuquerque that celebrates thought-provoking art in the here and now. 516 ARTS has a mission to connect contemporary art and diverse audiences through exhibitions and public programs that feature a mix of local, national, and international artists. The only museum in Albuquerque devoted exclusively to contemporary art, 516 ARTS prioritizes risk-taking and creative experimentation with a focus on the intersection of Latinx and Indigenous histories in New Mexico and beyond.
Deeply engaged with the Albuquerque arts community, 516 ARTS is also invested in coalition-building among arts organizations throughout the region. In 2021, 516 launched Desierto Mountain Time, a constellation of contemporary arts organizations in the Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico drawn together by a shared interest in making meaningful connections between local and international communities. Core to 516 ARTS’s programming is the Indigenous Arts Program, which engages Indigenous artists and communities in New Mexico as part of a larger practice of diversity.
For more information, please visit 516 ARTS.
Founded in 2018, the Indigo Arts Alliance (IAA), located in Portland, Maine, is the only Black-led arts incubator in northern New England dedicated to the professional development and amplification of Black and Brown artists. Its rigorous program seeks to strengthen a multicultural democracy by cultivating art as an essential resource for healthy communities. With this mission in mind, IAA provides an affirming environment for the creation of artwork across disciplines; amplifies access for Black and Brown artistic expression; and promotes discourse through participatory events that bring artists into public dialogue, centering issues of social justice, culture, and community.
IAA’s program manifests primarily as an Artist-in-Residence program for BIPOC artists to spend time working in Maine. As part of the residency program, the artists are supported through mentorship and professional development initiatives and are introduced to Maine-based artists of color to create connections and dialogues that will carry on past the term of the residency through alumni networks.
For more information, please visit Indigo Arts Alliance.
Located on a stretch of Franklin Ave in Minneapolis that is referred to as the American Indian Cultural Corridor, All My Relations Arts (AMRA) is the arts program of the larger cultural and community development organization Native American Community Development Institute (NACDI). AMRA is one of the few Midwest hubs for contemporary Native art and a national platform for the elevation of contemporary Native artists, providing career-changing support for artists and arts professionals. AMRA’s mission is to honor and strengthen relationships between contemporary American Indian artists and audiences of all ethnic backgrounds. Through mentorships, residencies, and place making opportunities, AMRA is a significant space for advancing the careers of Native artists and arts professionals. The AMRA gallery provides a vital gathering space for creative community engagement, education, and outreach to neighbors and allies.
For more information, please visit AMRA.
Founded in 2001, PARTICIPANT INC is an alternative art space in downtown New York that collaborates closely with artists to develop, realize, and present ambitious projects within a context that recognizes the social and cultural value of artistic experimentation. PARTICIPANT INC is committed to interdisciplinarity and intergenerational exhibition-making, striving to address the changing context of alternative art and to respond responsibly to the diverse practices of artists. Over the past 20 years, PARTICIPANT INC has mounted many culturally significant exhibitions with a particular emphasis on the work of queer artists and a focus on experimentation, radicality, and risk-taking. In recent years, PARTICIPANT INC has taken on responsibility for stewardship of the estates of select artists with whom the organization has long-term and dedicated relationships.
For more information, please visit PARTICIPANT INC.
The VIA l Wagner Incubator Grant Fund aims to strengthen the capacity and programming of organizations across the country in order to ensure a robust and inclusive national arts ecosystem.