Through the Warhol Foundation Initiative, Aurora Picture Show, DiverseWorks and Project Row Houses have come together to support art at its source by providing direct grants to artists. The Idea Fund provides cash awards to Houston-based, artist-generated or artist-centered projects that exemplify the unconventional, interventionist, conceptual, entrepreneurial, participatory, or guerrilla artistic practices that occur outside of the traditional frameworks of support.

The following 10 artists/ artist groups will receive up to $4,000 to create and showcase their new projects in the coming year: Kevin Curry, Mary Margaret Hansen, Kara Hearn, J. Hill, Ayanna Jolivet Mccloud, Cody Ledvina and Brian Rod, Benjamin Mason, Zach Moser, Kelly Pike in collaboration with Sasha Dela and Kara Hearn, and Ariane Roesch in collaboration with Sasha Dela.

Of the more than 120 applications presented to The Idea Fund in December of 2008, these 10 projects were selected by Idea Fund panelists (Diane Barber – DiverseWorks; Long Chu – Writers in the Schools; Ashley Clemmer-Hoffman – Project Row Houses; Mary LeClere – Glassell School of Art, MFAH; Mary Magsamen – Aurora Picture Show) as projects that most exemplify unconventional artistic practices falling outside the traditional frameworks of support, one of the main requirements put forth by the Andy Warhol Foundation Initiative and the collaborating organizations.  Project applications ranged from an exhibition or exhibition series; a public art project; a one-time event or performance; the ongoing work of a collective, collaborative, or artist space; an online project or publication; an artist residency; or a series of screenings; and more.

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official press release in .pdf