PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact:
Mary Magsamen, Curator, Aurora Picture Show
magsamen@aurorapictureshow.org / 713.868.2101
The Idea Fund Announces Round 9 Info Sessions and Jurors
Application Deadline: Monday, November 7, 2016
Direct Grants to Artists
(Houston, TX, September 14, 2016) – The Idea Fund, a re-granting program administered by a partnership of DiverseWorks, Aurora Picture Show, and Project Row Houses and funded by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, announces its ninth round of funding for artist-generated or artist-centered projects that exemplify unconventional, interventionist, conceptual, entrepreneurial, participatory, or guerrilla artistic practices. The Idea Fund supports individual artists, curators, collectives, collaboratives or partnerships in the greater Houston area. Grants are competitive and awarded by a panel of arts professionals and artists. Up to twelve Idea Fund grants will be distributed.
Application deadline: Monday, November 7, 2016, at midnight
Online application portal and information at https://diverseworks.submittable.com/submit
Funding levels: Spark ($1,000), Catalyst ($4,000), and Stimulus ($7,000)
Geographic eligibility: The lead artist must reside in one of the following counties: Harris, Galveston, Brazoria, Fort Bend, Waller, Chambers, Liberty, or Montgomery.
INFORMATION SESSIONS:
Monday, September 19, 2pm
University of Houston, Clear Lake
Bayou Building, Room 1333
2700 Bay Area Blvd, Houston, TX 77058
http://prtl.uhcl.edu/
Tuesday, September 20, 11:30 – 12:30pm
Houston Community College, Southeast
Art Department, Angela Morales Building, Room 316
6815 Rustic St., Houston, TX 77087
http://southeast.hccs.edu/
Tuesday, October 25, 6:30 – 8pm
Aurora Picture Show
With budget workshop hosted by Christine West, Cultural Programs Manager at Houston First
2442 Bartlett St., Houston, TX 77098
http://aurorapictureshow.org
Thursday, October 27, 6:30 – 8 pm
Galveston Artist Residency
2521 Mechanic St, Galveston, TX 77550
http://www.galvestonartistresidency.org/
THE IDEA FUND ROUND 9 JURORS:
Lu Zhang, Deputy Director at The Contemporary, Baltimore
Lu Zhang is the Deputy Director of The Contemporary, a nomadic non-collecting museum in Baltimore. She received her MFA in Painting at the Frank Mohr Institute in the Netherlands and her BFA in General Fine Arts at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). In addition to her role at The Contemporary, Lu teaches at MICA, serves on the Programming Advisory Committee at Maryland Art Place, and is the artist-in-residence at The George Peabody Library. Lu has exhibited her drawings and installations in the United States and abroad including shows at C. Grimaldis Gallery in Baltimore, Randall Scott Gallery in Washington DC, The Center for Art and Culture in France, and several exhibitions in the Netherlands. Lu has received an Individual Artist Award from the Maryland State Arts Council and The Trawick Prize Young Artist Award. In 2014, she became an inaugural recipient of the Rubys Artist Project Grant in Literary and Visual Arts.
Julia Bryan-Wilson, Ph.D., Associate Professor at Department of History of Art at University of California, Berkeley
Julia Bryan-Wilson is associate professor of contemporary art at the University of California, Berkeley and a frequent contributor to Artforum. She is the author Art Workers: Radical Practice in the Vietnam War Era(2009), and, with Glenn Adamson, Art in the Making: Artists and their Materials from the Studio to Crowdsourcing (2016). Her book Fray: Art and Textile Politics will be published in 2017 by the University of Chicago Press.
Dennis Nance, Curator at Galveston Arts Center, Artist and 2015 Idea Fund Recipient
Dennis Nance is the newly appointed curator at Galveston Arts Center and a native Houstonian artist with extensive experience working with artists and exhibitions. He recently got into sewing and makes clothing and costumes for both everyday wear and special occasions. Nance received a 2015 Idea Fund award for his project Cast of Characters, a series of costumes and garments based on holiday celebrations. He wore the suits at public engagements and surprise moments, documenting his costumes and outings for a gallery presentation and a calendar. Nance received his B.A. from Austin College with a concentration in Fine Arts and French.
ABOUT THE IDEA FUND:
The Idea Fund is the second re-granting initiative of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, following the pilot program, Alternative Exposure, administrated by Southern Exposure in San Francisco, CA. It is structured to provide artists with quick access to substantial financial support for projects that might not otherwise have access to funding.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Mary Magsamen, Aurora Picture Show Curator
magsamen@aurorapictureshow.org / 713.868.2101
Web: www.TheIdeaFund.org
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheIdeaFund/
Twitter: @theideafund
Instagram: @theideafund
