Press RoomPhoenix Art Museum receives $300,000 grant from Ford Foundation for first mid-career survey of contemporary artist Teresita Fernández
Phoenix Art Museum receives $300,000 grant from Ford Foundation for first mid-career survey of contemporary artist Teresita Fernández
Feb, 11, 2019
Exhibitions and Special InstallationsModern and Contemporary ArtLatin American ArtMajor Gifts
Phoenix Art Museum receives $300,000 grant from Ford Foundation for first mid-career survey of contemporary artist Teresita Fernández
The gift helps fund the first major traveling exhibition of works by the 2005 MacArthur Foundation Fellow, co-organized with Pérez Art Museum Miami
PHOENIX (February 11, 2019) – Phoenix Art Museum has been named the recipient of a
$300,000 grant from the Ford Foundation that provides core support for the upcoming
exhibition Teresita
Fernández: Elemental, scheduled
to open in 2020. Co-organized with Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) and the first
mid-career survey of the 2005 MacArthur Foundation Fellow, the retrospective will
bring approximately 60 works, including large-scale sculptures, installations, drawings,
and wall works, by one of the nation’s leading contemporary artists and one of
the most prominent Latinx artists in the United States to Arizona, continuing the
Museum’s initiative to diversify its exhibitions and showcase works by artists
from underrepresented communities. The grant is the second awarded to Phoenix
Art Museum by the Ford Foundation since 2017 in support of increasing diversity
across the Museum.
“We
are grateful to the Ford Foundation for this generous and substantial gift,” said
Amada Cruz, the Sybil Harrington Director and CEO of Phoenix Art Museum, who
will co-curate the grant-supported retrospective with Franklin Sirmans, the
Director of Pérez Art Museum Miami; Gilbert Vicario, the Selig Family Chief
Curator of Phoenix Art Museum; and María
Elena Ortiz, Assistant Curator of Pérez Art Museum Miami. “The funds will enable
the Museum to present a wide selection of evocative installations, sculptures,
and mixed-media works by Teresita Fernández, considered one of the most
innovative artists of her generation, and strengthen our efforts to continue
diversifying our exhibition schedule.”
The
Ford Foundation grant provides major support for Teresita Fernández: Elemental, the first collaboration between
Phoenix Art Museum and Pérez Art Museum Miami and the first major retrospective
on the work of the 2005 MacArthur Foundation Fellow, renowned for her experiential
sculptures and prominent public installations that have appeared in such spaces
as Harvard College, Madison Square Park, and Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle.
Spanning the mid-1990s to the present, the mid-career survey offers Arizona
audiences the opportunity to experience the artist’s large-scale sculptures,
installations, and mixed-media wall works that merge formal and conceptual
aspects of her practice through the use of natural materials and the historic
genre of landscape to reinterpret relationships between nature, history, and identity.
Premiering
at Pérez Art Museum Miami from October 17 through February 16, 2020 before it
is presented at Phoenix Art Museum from March 21 through May 24, 2020 (dates
subject to change), the exhibition, which is also made possible through the
generosity of The Diane & Bruce Halle Foundation, aligns with the Museum’s
ongoing commitment to increase diversity among its exhibitions, education
programs, collections, and staff to better reflect and engage its surrounding
community. Since 2018, Teresita
Fernández: Elemental will be the sixth major exhibition at Phoenix Art Museum
dedicated to the work of a woman artist, the fifth to focus on a living woman
artist, and the second to survey the work of a woman artist of color.
The
major gift is the second awarded in just over a year to Phoenix Art Museum by the
Ford Foundation to support the Museum’s ongoing diversity efforts. In December 2017,
the Museum was named one of 20 museums nationwide to receive funding from the Diversifying Art Museum Leadership Initiative (DAMLI), a partnership between the Walton Family Foundation and the
Ford Foundation in support of efforts to diversify leadership staff in art
museums. Fiscally sponsored by Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, DAMLI
supports innovative strategies and programs at museums across the country, with
the goals of hiring professionals from underrepresented populations and
offering fellowships, mentorships, and other career-development options for diverse
professionals. The funds awarded to Phoenix Art Museum currently support a
curatorial fellowship with a focus on Latinx art, paid internships for
undergraduate and graduate students, and the Museum’s Teen Art Council
initiative.
Phoenix Art Museum
has provided access to visual arts and educational programs in Arizona for
nearly 60 years and is the largest art museum in the southwestern United
States. Critically acclaimed national and international exhibitions are shown
alongside the Museum’s permanent collection of more than 19,000 works of
American, Asian, European, Latin American, modern and contemporary art, and fashion
design. The Museum also presents festivals, a comprehensive film program, live
performances, and educational programs designed to enlighten, entertain, and
stimulate visitors of all ages. Visitors also enjoy vibrant photography
exhibitions through the Museum’s landmark partnership with the Center for
Creative Photography, University of Arizona. To learn more about Phoenix Art Museum,
visit phxart.org, or call
602.257.1880.
About the Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is an independent, nonprofit grant-making
organization. For more than 80 years, it has worked with courageous people on
the frontlines of social change worldwide, guided by its mission to strengthen
democratic values, reduce poverty and injustice, promote international
cooperation, and advance human achievement. With headquarters in New York, the
foundation has offices in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.
