FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact:
Rachel Bauch
Polskin Arts
Rachel.Bauch@finnpartners.com
323-841-4139
THE MIKE KELLEY FOUNDATION INAUGURATES ITS GRANTMAKING PROGRAM
Will Continue the Late Artist’s Philanthropy and Honor His Legacy Through
Grants Made to Los Angeles Organizations for Artists’ Projects
LOS ANGELES, CA, June 8, 2015 — The Mike Kelley
Foundation for the Arts announced today that it will accept
applications for its first formal funding initiative, the 2016
Artist Project Grants. Designed to benefit artists and arts
organizations alike, the grants will be made directly to
organizations for compelling, inventive and challenging
projects by visual artists or artists’ collectives working in any
medium.
To support adventurous programming at a variety of scales,
the Foundation welcomes applications for artist-centered
projects, particularly the creation of new works, and
innovative collaborations between artists and organizations of all sizes. Letters of Inquiry
for the initial round of grants will be accepted through August 5, 2015, as detailed on the
Foundation’s website. The Foundation expects to announce the first grants, totaling around
$250,000, in March 2016 for projects to be realized between April 2016 and December
2017.
“In his art and writings, Mike thought hard about the nature of giving and made grants to
smaller institutions in Los Angeles during the last years of his life,” said John C. Welchman,
Chair of the Foundation’s Board of Directors. “Mindful of his enormous influence on a
generation of L.A. artists, we will follow suit by focusing first on the L.A. arts community. In
the spirit of Mike's passion and candor we want to support work that may be difficult to
fund due to its content or complexity. Whereas some funders are risk-averse, we hope to be
risk-friendly.”
In the period since Mike Kelley’s death in 2012, the Foundation has settled the artist’s
estate and completed important projects initiated by Kelley himself, including a major
touring retrospective that originated in Amsterdam and travelled to Paris, New York and
Los Angeles, as well as the Mobile Homestead public artwork in Detroit. The Foundation
also continued to make the discretionary grants to arts organizations that Kelley had
supported since 2007. Following a period of research and consultation, the Foundation will
build on Kelley’s philanthropic activities and honor his achievements through increased
grantmaking and legacy initiatives. An organization-directed but artist-centered grant
program, sensitive to current needs and issues, will launch the Foundation’s program.
“The Foundation has developed a grant program that accommodates a wide range of
artistic and curatorial practices and is responsive to the ways in which LA-based
organizations, large and small, are working with artists,” explained Mary Clare Stevens,
Executive Director of the Foundation and former head of the artist’s studio.
“We hope that the hybrid nature of this grant will fill gaps in current funding
by incorporating an artist's fee into each grant and allowing for some organizational
overhead costs," Stevens added. "By recognizing that it is often a challenge for
organizations to compensate artists and to maintain operating expenses for these types of
projects, the Foundation hopes to sustain and enhance the capacity of both artists and
presenting organizations.”
Organizations are invited to review the Guidelines for eligibility details and Letters of
Inquiry instructions.
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About the Foundation
The Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts seeks to further Kelley’s philanthropic work
through grants for innovative projects that reflect his multifaceted artistic practice. The
Foundation also preserves the artist’s legacy more broadly and advances the
understanding of his life and creative achievements. The nonprofit Foundation was
established by the artist in 2007. For additional information about the Foundation, please
visit www.mikekelleyfoundation.org.
About the Artist
The work of artist Mike Kelley (1954-2012) embraced performance, installation, drawing,
painting, video, sound works and sculpture. Kelley began his career in the late 1970s with
solo performances, image/text works and gallery and site-specific installations. He came to
prominence in the 1980s with a series of sculptures composed of common craft materials.
The artist’s later work addressed architecture and filmic narratives using the theory of
repressed memory syndrome coupled with sustained biographic and pseudo-biographic
inquiry into his own aesthetic and social history. Regarded as one of the most influential
artists of our time, Kelley produced a body of deeply innovative work in dialogue with
American popular culture as well as both modernist and alternative traditions.
Photo: Cameron Wittig
© Walker Art Center, 2004
Courtesy Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts