Starting in the summer of 2012, twenty artists were selected by curatorial fellow Kalia Brooks. These artists committed to studio visits with Kalia, which were videotaped by A Blade of Grass. A Blade of Grass created and presented online dossiers for each artist that consist of images, clear descriptions of the artists’ work, links to websites and excerpts of the artists’ own words. These materials generated an online discussion that engaged the artists as well as the general public. This open discourse shaped the criteria for determining grantees and aspects of the form of the grant.
This discussion necessarily engaged our prospective grantees, who gave us a great deal of feedback about the form of the grant and how A Blade of Grass could be most relevant to their work. Based on artist feedback, A Blade of Grass resolved to:
Change the allocation for Artist Files to:
- $15,000 in honoraria to all Artist Files Artists
- $30,000 for either one or three grants to individual artists
- $7,000 for a publication
Rename all prospective grantees A Blade of Grass Fellows and engage in a more active relationship with Fellows:
- This relationship is understood by the artists to be experimental and limited by A Blade of Grass’ capacity.
- Provide feedback to all Fellows about the outcome of the grant.
In December, criteria were developed by the Executive Director and Curatorial Fellow that reflected the public discourse about socially engaged art that was generated by Artist Files. These criteria were reviewed by our Advisory Committee, who then chose a distribution preference and three grantees via web-ballot and subsequent email vote.
In January 2013, we announced our three grantees: Nobutaka Aozaki, Housing is a Human Right and Kambui Olujimi.
