2012 Suitcase Export Fund Opens December 3
The Bradley Family Foundation, in collaboration with the Greater Milwaukee Foundation (GMF), announces the tenth funding cycle of the GMF’s Mary L. Nohl Fund Suitcase Export Fund for Individual Artists. Created to help visual artists with the cost of exhibiting their work outside the four-county area (Milwaukee, Waukesha, Ozaukee, Washington), the Fund is designed to provide greater visibility for individual artists and their work as well as for greater Milwaukee. To date, the Fund has supported a diverse group of 154 individual artists and six artist collectives exhibiting throughout North America, and in Europe, Africa, the former Soviet Union and Asia. The awardees have received a total of $92,700 in grants and work in a variety of media, from film to ceramics. They include well-established artists as well as those at the start of their careers. A special effort has been made to support Nohl Fellows as they exhibit work made during their fellowship year. (For a list of 2011 awardees, see below.)
Two significant developments in 2012 include an increase in the amount of funding available to exporting artists and the introduction of an online application process. A total of $15,000 will be available in this funding cycle, which will greatly increase the number of local artists who will receive support as they take their work out into the world. For the first time, artists will be able to complete the entire application process online.
Artist Mary L. Nohl of Fox Point, Wisconsin, died in December 2001 at the age of 87. Her $9.6 million bequest to the Greater Milwaukee Foundation is one of the largest gifts the Foundation has received from a single donor in its 97-year history. The Fund, by supporting local visual arts and arts education programs, keeps Nohl’s passion for the visual arts alive in the community.
The tenth cycle (December 2012-November 2013) has been divided into two parts to ensure that funds remain available to applicants throughout the year. Awards will be disbursed in response to demand until the funds for each part of the cycle are exhausted. The Suitcase Export Fund will first open on December 3, 2012. Requests will be considered periodically and funds disbursed until a total of $7,500 has been expended. The Fund will reopen on June 3, 2013, when another $7,500 will become available. The application and guidelines will be available at lyndensculpturegarden.org/nohl (click on “Suitcase Export Fund”); for those without computer access, applications will be available from Polly Morris at pmorris@lyndensculpturegarden.org or 414-446-8794.
The Suitcase Export Fund is open to practicing artists residing within the four-county area who want to export their work beyond that area for public display. Priority is given to artists with exhibitions outside of Wisconsin. The Fund provides support in three areas: transportation of the work (packing/shipping/insurance); transportation of the artist; and promotion in those cases where the artist is required to provide their own promotion. The maximum grant available to an individual is $1,000. Funding is only provided for upcoming opportunities (exhibitions or screenings commencing between December 2012 and May 2013 in the first half of the cycle; similar opportunities commencing between June 2013 and November 2013 in the second half of the cycle).
Artists have responded very favorably to the Suitcase Export Fund and its simple application process. The Fund contributes to the creative health of the region by supporting local artists at all career stages, from the emerging to the established; alleviating some of the financial burden faced by artists who want to exhibit their work at a distance; and by getting the work of Milwaukee artists out into the world. The support provided for artist transportation has enabled artists to be on site to install work--important to most artists and indispensable to those working in the areas of installation and site-specific art. The opportunity to attend openings, where artists can meet with collectors and distributors and make critical connections with gallery owners, is consistently cited as a significant benefit. The Fund also creates opportunities to expose work in new regions and to new audiences, to meet other artists and see their work, to sell work, and to plan new projects. Although the Fund does not directly support residencies or ancillary activities, awardees have taken full advantage of opportunities to make new work, deliver gallery talks, and participate in symposia at their exhibition sites. In 2011, artists stretched their travel grants by arranging simultaneous exhibitions at other venues, or by participating in residency programs. While the opportunity to make connections—with artists, curators, collectors and others in their field—was important, for many the sense of validation and affirmation that came from interacting with new audiences was the most powerful benefit of the program.
ABOUT THE 2011 AWARDEES
In its ninth cycle, the Fund provided assistance with shipping, travel and promotion to twenty-two artists. These artists—four of them past Nohl Fellows—work in a range of media. Their exhibitions took their work to Albuquerque, Colorado Springs, Daytona Beach, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Raleigh, San Diego and Santa Fe, and to China, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
Blanche Brown had three pieces selected for Faces of Color, an exhibition of works by contemporary artists at Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Florida. It was Brown’s first exhibition in Florida, and she was particularly pleased to be showing her work in an educational setting.
James Charles and Jessica Kaminski travelled to Los Angeles for Replacing Home at the Jaus Gallery. Charles showed work that addressed the traces of function within the built environment, and Kaminski contributed photographs and a conceptual garment she made in collaboration with exhibition curator Jennifer Johung.
Paula Christensen and Susan Kamholz were both juried into the Parallax Art Fair New York, where they exhibited paintings and met collectors and fellow artists from around the world.
Brent Coughenour toured the East Coast to perform Mysterium Cosmographicum, a piece he completed as part of his 2010 Nohl Fellowship. Stops included Raleigh, North Carolina and the Paradigm Lecture Series at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Interacting with live audiences gave Coughenour a deeper understanding of the work.
Paul Druecke spent a week in Los Angeles where he presented Near Here, his 2010 Nohl Fellowship project, at the Habeas Lounge. As a participant in the MKE<->LAX residency program, he researched locations for a Los Angeles iteration of Near Here, and was invited to exhibit in House Beautiful, a group exhibition in San Gabriel.
Waldek Dynerman created an interactive installation of fifteen small sculptures and a live video projection for his solo exhibition at Test Gallery in Warsaw, Poland. He enjoyed being part of Warsaw’s “very invigorating young art scene.”
Anthony Ferraro participated in the American Black Film Festival’s first “Webisode Challenge” in Miami with his web series Gettin’ Grown TV. GGTV screened before an audience of 400 actors, producers, writers, directors, studio executives, programming directors and sponsors, and was picked up by a film festival in Alabama. Ferraro identified writers and directors for future episodes of the series: “Each contact made confirmed the significance of our work.”
Nicholas Frank had a solo exhibition in the miniature John Riepenhoff Experience at Pepin Moore in Los Angeles. Frank explored a new facet of his video-based work, and an MKE<->LAX residency gave him time to follow up with contacts and renew connections with Los Angeles artists and curators.
One of Ashley Janke’s black and white etchings was shown in Where My Cones At?, an exhibition curated by Ryan Travis Christian at Double Break in San Diego. Janke extended her stay on the West Coast with an MKE<->LAX residency, and set up a gallery exchange with a new venue in San Diego.
Gregory Klassen brought eight of his recent paintings to Zurich, Switzerland, for a two-person exhibition at Galerie Rosenberg.
Kay Knight participated in International Painting NYC, a group show at the Jeffrey Leder Gallery in Long Island City, New York. Knight attended the opening and her painting was included in the exhibition catalogue.
Colleen Ludwig received funding to transport Shiver, an immersive, interactive environment, to the Albuquerque Museum of Art & History. Shiver was juried into Machine Wilderness, the 2012 International Symposium on Electronic Art conference exhibition.
C. Matthew Luther created work for Harnessing the Nordic Wind, an exhibition in Harlosa, Sweden during a residency sponsored by Arna Fagelriket (the avian kingdom). Luther met Swedish artists and craft workers, sold work, and laid the groundwork for future exhibitions in Sweden and Denmark. “The experience as a whole was inspirational,” he notes.
Nicole Ridgway, her collaborators Stephanie Springgay and Nathaniel Stern, and local volunteers installed Market Seam—an ephemeral, site-conditioned, publicly performed architectural structure—at the Kirkgate Market in Leeds, England. The work referenced the city’s social and material histories; inspired dialogue during Performance Studies International at the University of Leeds, of which it was a part; and led to the possibility of future installations in Sydney, Toronto and Zurich as well as reciprocal visits to Milwaukee by artists who experienced the work.
The new G44 Gallery in Colorado Springs selected Greg J. Schoeneck for its first exhibition. Schoeneck’s solo show included a dozen new oil paintings.
Richard Taylor transported nine sculptures to New York for his third solo exhibition at OK Harris. He met artists and collectors, and enjoyed giving informal tours of his show.
Bilhenry Walker shipped sculptures to Artisan Direct for inclusion in Artexpo New York. As a result, Walker has developed a lasting relationship with Artisan Direct.
Shane Walsh and his paintings travelled to Seattle for a group exhibition at the Francine Seders Gallery.
Jason S. Yi created an installation onsite for an international exhibition at the Inside-Out Art Museum in Beijing, China. The exhibition, which coincided with the Beijing Biennial, examines East Asian cultural influences and inaugurated the museum’s new space.
Jim Zwadlo received support for his first solo show outside Wisconsin, at Beals & Abbate Fine Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Zwadlo sold work, established contact with several galleries around the country, and had one of his paintings featured on the cover of American Art Collector.
The Greater Milwaukee Foundation is a family of more than 1,100 individual charitable funds, each created by donors to serve the local charitable causes of their choice. Grants from these funds serve people throughout Milwaukee, Waukesha, Ozaukee and Washington counties. Started in 1915, the Foundation is one of the oldest and largest community foundations in the world.
For further information about the Greater Milwaukee Foundation’s Mary L. Nohl Fund Fellowships for Individual Artists program and Suitcase Export Fund, please visit http://lyndensculpturegarden.org/nohl.
