News

June 30, 2020

University Art Museum Awarded $100,000 Grant from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts

The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts has awarded the University Art Museum a $100,000 grant over two years to support its exhibitions, public programs and publications. The highly coveted Andy Warhol Foundation grants focus on serving the needs of artists by funding the institutions that support them. In total, 47 arts organizations nationwide will receive $4 million in support of scholarly exhibitions, publications and visual arts programming, including artist residencies and new commissions.

The Warhol Foundation funding will help the University Art Museum expand its mission of directly supporting artists in the research, production and presentation of projects that reflect the diverse perspectives and experiences of UAlbany students.

“The University Art Museum in Albany is an important venue for contemporary art upstate,” said Rachel Bers, program director of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts. “Its exhibitions and public programs explore timely aspects of contemporary culture, and its focus on amplifying the voices of lesser known artists and practices aligns well with the Warhol Foundation’s core values.”

“It couldn’t mean more to the museum, amidst so much uncertainty in the cultural sector across the country, that the Warhol Foundation looked at our program and decided to fund us,” said Museum Director and Chief Curator Corinna Ripps Schaming. “With the Foundation’s support and validation of our efforts, we can confidently move forward in originating future exhibitions and directly supporting new work by both young and established artists.”

The next exhibition, planned for the Fall 2021 semester, Well/Being: An Exhibition on Healing and Repair, explores topics of kinship, reparations, disability justice, chronic illness, convalescence, sleep deprivation, the emotional costs of caregiving and various incarnations of love.
This is the second Warhol Foundation grant that the University Art Museum has received; in December 2008, the Museum received a $60,000 grant over two years to support exhibitions and related publications. William Hedberg, senior vice provost for academic affairs, said getting a second grant is a “wonderful reaffirmation” of the museum’s quality and its impact on University life.

“The Museum is an important asset of UAlbany’s academic program. Under Corinna’s leadership the Museum team has developed strong collaborations with University faculty and with a regional network of arts presenting organizations at other academic institutions,” Hedberg said. “Together they have conceived and offered intellectually stimulating and timely exhibitions with complementary speaker presentations, workshops and special events, which together enrich and support the curriculum and contribute substantially and significantly to the University’s strategic goals.”