Our Grants to Organizations program provides funding to innovative archival projects, community groups, and nonprofits that take creative approaches to increasing access to artists’ papers and archives related to modern and contemporary art, with a focus on initiatives that support marginalized communities.
Grant amounts range from $10,000 to $80,000 for projects taking place within a calendar year. The next round of grants will be awarded in Fall 2025.
The Society of American Archivists defines archives as the records created or received by a person, family, or organization and preserved because of their continuing value. The papers of artists and the records of community groups, galleries and collectives tend to contain items like letters, emails, notebooks, photo documentation, meeting minutes and other primary sources, in both analog and digital formats. We have funded many projects that help organizations catalogue and digitize archives like these.
However, our definition of archives is not limited to a focus on material collections. We know that not everyone has benefited from past collecting and preservation practices, and many marginalized communities have had to develop other ways of documenting their histories. This is why, for these grants, the term archive can encompass many forms of documentation and knowledge-creation, such as oral histories and other kinds of story-telling. Similarly, programs that focus on archival education increase access to the archival record by sharing knowledge and tools that preserve and activate archives. The list of past grantees below gives a good sense of the breadth of archival projects we have supported.
Applicants prepare two- to three-page narrative overviews of their proposed projects along with a simple budget, as well as images that document the organization’s larger mission. Grantees are chosen by a selection committee composed of members of our Advisory Board.
Applications for the next round of grants will be due in September 2025. If you are interested in applying, please contact info@hauserwirthinstitute.org. Our Executive Director will meet with you to discuss how this program might benefit your organization and to answer your questions.
Los Angeles Contemporary Archive will use this grant to support their Archive Night School (ANS), a new after-work education program that focuses on the practical and theoretical concerns of working with archives as an artist.
This award will fund two travel grants in YVR's Bill McLennan Masterpiece Study Program, which supports BC and Yukon First Nations artists in studying collections of Indigenous art and artifacts from their own cultures that are held in the care of museums across Canada, the US and Europe.
The two organizations are partnering to host "Assembling Art Archives: Workshops for South Asia," a 10-month online program on archiving that will offer specialized training for archivists and arts professionals working with modern and contemporary South Asian art archives.
The Visual AIDS Archive Project and Artist Registry in New York, NY collects, preserves, and provides access to the personal papers, audiovisual materials, publications, and ephemera created, dealing with, or collected by artists living with HIV or those who have passed.