Announcing 2021 Artist2Artist Fellows

‍Art Matters Foundation is pleased to announce the pilot year of a new regranting program titled Artist2Artist, where our grant recipients — artists — act as grant-makers. Last year, Art Matters expanded its definition of artist by recognizing a broader category of culture workers, granting support to people organizing mutual aid, community engagement, and alternative support structures for artists. Building on this shift, Artist2Artist represents a new approach to giving by entrusting artists to activate Art Matters’ mission of assisting artists breaking ground aesthetically and socially. This evolving horizontal model of granting is created to affirm artists’ specialized knowledge of their communities.

The Board elected 13 alumni grantees to both receive an Artist2Artist Fellowship and to designate additional artists or culture workers in their extended networks as peer fellows; resulting in a total of 36 artists and culture workers being awarded as 2021 Artist2Artist Fellows. There were no applications, no panel and the Board held no veto power beyond familial conflicts of interest. These 13 alumni grantees were also selected based on their engagement with the following artist-generated themes:

Justice & Anti-Oppressive Practices (Disability; Gender/Sexuality; Race/Intersectionality)
Geographies (Labor/Migration; Trans-regionality/Transnationalism; Coalitions)
Cultures of Care (Medical, Spiritual, and Ecological Health)
Individual Interventions (Experimentation, Mutual Aid, Non-Productivity)
Reimagining Institutions (Alternative Support Structures)

These themes emerged in early 2021, after sourcing feedback from alumni grantees on artists’ most pressing issues and needs today. Our alumni identified that they needed more support for non-productivity, combating isolationism, coalition-building, and accessibility. As a result, the staff and Board made a decision to move away from institutional nominators and toward a process of peer-led affirmation. Art Matters Director Abbey Williams said, “Artist2Artist is a way of aligning ourselves with those already doing the valuable work to dismantle the philanthropic systems that do not truly empower artists. We want to help tear down what isn’t working and center artists' sovereignty to clear the way for them to build something new.”

We are grateful to the 2021 Artist2Artist Fellows for allowing us to be witnesses as they broaden and deepen their most supportive relationships. Some gave to long standing collaborative peers, others gave to artists they’ve long admired from afar. Artist2Artist Fellow, jackie sumell, shared with Staff that the process recognized:  “The networks that we form aren't always based on the merits experienced in the outward facing of our work, and some of the most beautiful and celebratory experiences are in the intimate ways that we love on and support each other.” In October, the foundation awarded 36 Artist2Artist Fellowships for a total of 195K in grants to individual artists and collective teams working in contemporary art, performance, and cultural organizing.

2021 also marks the third year of the Betty Parsons Foundation support for a portion of Art Matters grants. These named fellowships specifically support women/female-identified artists to honor the influential legacy of artist and gallerist Betty Parsons.

The 2021 Artist2Artist Fellows are listed alongside their self-identified location:

Solange Aguilar
Syuxtun, Chumash Territory - Santa Barbara, CA

Rheim Alkadhi
Works Internationally | 2010 Alumni Grantee

Indira Allegra
Chochenyo, Ohlone Territory - Oakland, CA

Qais Assali
Nashville, TN

Lyncia Begay
Dook'o'oo'słííd binaashniidí - Flagstaff, AZ

Klee Benally
Kinłani - Flagstaff, AZ | 2020 Alumni Grantee with Indigenous Action

Cassils
Tongva & Chumash Land - Los Angeles, CA | 2020 Alumni Grantee with #XMAP: In Plain Sight

Dail Chambers
Saint Louis, MO

Juan William Chávez
St. Louis, MO | 2011 Alumni Grantee

Mel Chin
Egypt, NC | 1990, 2007 Alumni Grantee

Sonya Clark
Amherst, MA | 2011 Alumni Grantee

Muse Dodd
New Orleans, LA

Lola Flash
New York, NY | 1990, 2011 Alumni Grantee

Randy Ford aka Aísha Noír
Seattle, WA

Lauren Halsey
Los Angeles, CA | 2018 Alumni Grantee | 2021 Betty Parsons Fellow

Clement Hanami
Monterey Park, CA | 1997 Alumni Grantee

Joselia Rebekah Hughes
Bronx, NY

Emily Jacir
Bethlehem, Palestine | 2007 Alumni Grantee

Daniel Alexander Jones
Los Angeles, CA | 2015 Alumni Grantee

traci kato-kiriyama
Tongva & Chumash Land - Los Angeles, CA

Carolyn Lazard
Lenape Territory - Philadelphia, PA & New York, NY | 2020 Alumni Grantee with an anonymous organization

John W. Love, Jr.
Catawba Land - Charlotte, NC

Renita Martin
Washington, DC

Michael Massenburg
Inglewood, CA  

Felicita Felli Maynard
New Orleans, LA  

Scott Oshima
Tongva & Chumash Land - Los Angeles, CA

Malcolm Peacock
New Orleans, LA

Sasha Phyars-Burgess
Lenni-Lenape Land - Bethlehem, PA

The Rocca Family (Ola El-Khalidi and Diala Khasawnih)
Amman, Jordan  

Rijin Sahakian
Northern California  

Sisters of Watts
Los Angeles, CA

jackie sumell
Bvlbancha - New Orleans, LA  

Stefano/Margaret Namulyanga
Poughkeepsie, NY  

Nastassja Swift
Richmond, VA

Molly Jae Vaughan
Coast Salish Territory - Seattle, WA | 2012 Alumni Grantee | 2021 Betty Parsons Fellow

Karina Esperanza Yanez
Los Angeles, CA