from the press release

New York, NY, February 15, 2024 – Today, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts (FCA) announced the recipients of its 2024 Grants to Artists awards—twenty-three individual artists recognized for their contemporary, experimental work in five different categories and selected to receive unrestricted $45,000 awards. This year two new annual awards were inaugurated: The Viola Farber Award, named in honor of the choreographer and early FCA Board member, and dedicated to supporting a NYC-based dancer; and The Alvin Lucier Award for Music endowed by composer and explorer of sonic phenomena Alvin Lucier, to be made to a composer, performer, or sound engineer.

“We are thrilled to celebrate the twenty-three artists who comprise this year’s Grants to Artists Award recipients” said Cecily Brown, Board Co-Chair of the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. “Ranging from early career artists to those whose work has long deserved more recognition, these artists have inspired us with their bold ideas, rigorous practices, and engagement with their communities.” She added, “The opportunity to inaugurate two new annual awards in memory of choreographer Viola Farber and composer Alvin Lucier this year is a tremendous gift, and very fitting given their own history of collaboration. We’re honored to carry forward their legacies to encourage countless artists.” Lucier was music director for Farber’s company for five years (1972-1977).

Launched in 1993, the Grants to Artists awards are unrestricted, by-nomination grants that provide recipients with the financial means to engage in any artistic endeavors they wish to pursue. In addition to the financial support, the awards provide grantees with meaningful peer recognition and encouragement. Each year, the Foundation conducts national outreach to invite artists and arts professionals to nominate one exceptional individual, collective, or performing group whom they feel deserves and will benefit from an unrestricted $45,000 award. FCA staff conduct research to inform the deliberations of a selection committee that includes FCA’s Board members along with guest panelists working in the five disciplines FCA supports. Nominated artists are not asked to apply, and artists are informed only when they have been awarded the grant.

The recipients were selected by members of the Board of Directors of the Foundation for Contemporary Arts including Cecily Brown, Anne Collier, Anthony B. Creamer III, Jasper Johns, Jennie C. Jones, Julian Lethbridge, Dean Moss, Emily Wei Rales, Matana Roberts, James Welling, and John Yau. The participating Directors of FCA were joined in the grant selection process by poet and essayist Marcella Durand (2021 FCA C.D. Wright Awardee), composer and performer James Fei (2014 FCA Grantee); curator and writer Ruth Estévez, choreographer and performer Iréne Hultman Monti (1995 FCA Grantee), choreographer and performer Rashaun Mitchell (2013 FCA Grantee), and poet, writer and recording artist Carl Hancock Rux.

Financial support for the Grants to Artists awards stems from a community of artists—artists for artists—joined by individuals and foundations that support FCA’s enduring mission.

For more information about the recipient of the Cy Twombly Award for Poetry, please see the page dedicated to poet A.J. Carruthers.

For further information:
Foundation for Contemporary Arts
foundationforcontemporaryarts.org