FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Feb. 1, 2024
MEDIA CONTACT: Brian Passey | [email protected] | 480-874-4626
SMoCA announces prestigious grant, artist awards
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA) has received an $80,000 grant from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts for exhibition support over two years.
SMoCA is one of 50 arts organizations and museums across the United States and Mexico to receive support from the foundation as fall 2023 grant recipients. SMoCA is also a past recipient of support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts with funding going to recent exhibitions like “Beverly McIver: Full Circle,” “Brad Kahlhamer: Swap Meet” and “Voice-Over: Zineb Sedira.”
“We are grateful for the national recognition of our work,” said Jennifer McCabe, director and chief curator at SMoCA. “The grant from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts allows us to dream a little bigger and support artists in more meaningful ways.”
The Warhol Foundation grant will support “Carolina Aranibar-Fernández: Oleaje,” a new SMoCA exhibition opening Saturday, Feb. 10. Attendees of SMoCA’s 25th Birthday Celebration on Friday, Feb. 9, will be able to view “Oleaje” one day early.
In accordance with Andy Warhol’s will, the mission of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts is the advancement of the visual arts. The foundation manages a dynamic grants program while also preserving Warhol’s legacy through creative and responsible licensing policies and extensive scholarly research for ongoing catalogue raisonné projects.
To date, the foundation has given nearly $300 million in cash grants to more than 1,000 arts organizations across the country and abroad and has donated 52,786 works of art to 322 institutions worldwide.
“Artist-centered institutions large and small foster creative courage, empowering artists to bring their visions to fruition in public,” said Rachel Bers, program director for The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. “Through its grants, the foundation contributes to the resilience of both artists and institutions as they engage the challenges and opportunities of our cultural moment.”
In addition to the foundation grant, three artists associated with SMoCA — Cristóbal Martinez, Gabriela Muñoz and M. Jenea Sanchez — recently received fellowships from United States Artists. The Arizona-based creatives are among 50 artists and collectives to receive unrestricted $50,000 awards. The fellows are awarded through a peer-led selection process.
Martinez currently serves as chair of SMoCA’s Advisory Council, and his work was part of a 2016 exhibition at the museum titled “southwestNET: Postcommodity.” Muñoz and Sanchez, both of the Fronterizx Collective, were instrumental in SMoCA’s 2021 exhibition “Division of Labor: Women Shifting a Transnational Gaze,” and their work can be found in the SMoCA Collection.
“The fellowship awards to three artists we worked with is thrilling,” McCabe said. “We are incredibly proud that our Arizona-based artists are being recognized for their important contributions to the field.”
United States Artists described its 2024 fellows as “dedicated to their communities and committed to building upon shared legacies through cultural stewardship, multifaceted storytelling and continued artistic innovation.” The organization said the fellows are selected based on their “groundbreaking artistic visions, unique perspectives within their fields and evident potential for the award to make a significant impact in their practices and lives.”
“With this year’s cohort of USA Fellows, we are thrilled to support a group of artists who, in their diverse approaches and contexts, offer invaluable modes of healing, expression and collaboration,” said Judilee Reed, president and CEO of United States Artists. “Together, they invite us to join them in imagining endless possibilities for ourselves and our communities.”
Another artist with ties to SMoCA was also recently chosen to represent Arizona in an exhibition opening in April at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC. Saskia Jordá was among the artists featured in SMoCA’s 2019 exhibition “Counter-Landscapes: Performative Actions from the 1970s – Now.” Jordá’s work that will be featured in the DC exhibition was first exhibited at SMoCA.
SMoCA — named “Best Art Museum” by the Phoenix New Times in the 2023 Best of Phoenix awards — is located at 7374 E. Second St., Scottsdale, Arizona 85251. It is open Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Visit SMoCA.org for information.
Admission is $10–$12 for non-members; $7–$9 for students, seniors (65+) and veterans; and free for Scottsdale Arts ONE Members, healthcare workers, first responders, and patrons 18 and younger. Admission to the museum is pay-what-you-wish every Thursday and every second Saturday of the month. Save time and money by booking online at SMoCA.org.
Scottsdale Arts would like to thank the following SMoCA sponsors and partners: City of Scottsdale; Billie Jo Herberger; The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; Arizona Commission on the Arts; Walter and Karla Goldschmidt Foundation; Virginia M. Ullman Foundation; Andaz Scottsdale Resort & Bungalows; Mountain Shadows Resort; Hotel Adeline; Hotel Valley Ho; Joan Prior and John Armstrong; Adam and Iris Singer; Yares Art, New York; Airpark Signs & Graphics; Christy and Charles Jerz; Nancy and Robert Kravetz Philanthropic Fund; Louise Roman and Will Bruder; Peggy Sharp; and Pazo Fine Art.