Member Spotlight on The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts

For the months of November and December, GIA's photo banner features Common Field, a project supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts ("Warhol Foundation"). The Warhol Foundation was established in 1987 out of a provision in artist Andy Warhol's will that the majority of his estate be used to create a foundation dedicated to the advancement of the visual arts.

For the entirety of its nearly 30-year history, the Warhol Foundation has supported the creation and presentation of experimental visual art through grants to artist-centered organizations around the country. These organizations offer artists residencies, exhibitions, and publications, as well as opportunities to make new work, experiment with audiences and collaborators, and receive critical feedback. They are crucial spaces for non-commercial artistic practice to evolve and flourish in the United States.

For the past several years the foundation has supported a group of leaders from this community as they have designed and launched Common Field, a national visual arts organizing network for shared learning and exchange. Now with over 500 members nationwide including both 501(c)(3) and non-501(c)(3) alternative art spaces, publications, digital exhibition venues, festivals, residencies, collectives, collaboratives, and individual organizers, Common Field is gaining visibility and traction. It is developing into a robust platform for critical discussions around pressing issues in the field of artist-run and artist centered organizing.

This past October, Common Field held its second annual convening in Miami, Florida, which addressed topics of local as well as national concern such as gentrification and sustaining neighborhoods, creating new institutional models and hybrids, compensating artistic labor, and artmaking under accelerated capitalism. Special workshops were held on power, privilege and justice in arts organizations as well as handling controversy and working with difficult subject matter. The four-day event convened artists and thought leaders from South Florida and across the country to exchange ideas, models, resources, and connections.

Common Field is just one of the many projects, organizations, and initiatives the Warhol Foundation supports. From its arts writing initiative to regional re-granting program to curatorial fellowships, the foundation uses its resources to advance the visual arts, particularly "work that is experimental, under-recognized, or challenging in nature." In so doing, it aims to ensure Andy Warhol's ongoing legacy as an inspiration to new generations of artists, curators, filmmakers, designers, and cultural innovators.

The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts has been a GIA member since 1997.

Learn more about the foundation and its programs and initiatives.

Photo in post: Maria Molteni (Artist Organizer @ NCAA + Midway Artist Studios / Boston) reviews the Common Field Convening program, designed by Dimensions Variable. Photo credit: Southern Land Films/ Alex Markow.

You can also visit the photo gallery on our Photo Credits page.