Rochester, NY, Tuesday, May 29, 2018— The Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester (MAG) is pleased to announce the awarding of a grant in the amount of $50K from the Ford Foundation as well as $40K from the National Endowment for the Arts. These grants have been awarded in support of two upcoming exhibitions taking place in Fall 2018 and Spring 2019 at MAG: Monet’s Waterloo Bridge: Vision and Process and artist Isaac Julien’s installation for MAG’s “Reflections on Place” media art series, entitled ROCHESTER/PICTURES.
“We are very grateful to the Ford Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts for these two grants,” said Mary W. and Donald R. Clark Director Jonathan P. Binstock, “as they demonstrate the importance of the scholarship being done at MAG for regional, national and international audiences.” Dr. Binstock continued, “The focused Monet exhibition is advancing research of a late series by one of art history’s most celebrated artists. With the Isaac Julien project, we are helping a leading light of contemporary media art take his work to the next level. Together the two grants represent an important mark of distinction of the breadth and quality of MAG’s curatorial program.”
The National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Jane Chu has approved more than $80 million in grants as part of the NEA’s second major funding announcement for fiscal year 2018. Included in this announcement is an Art Works grant of $40K to MAG in support of the upcoming exhibition Monet’s Waterloo Bridge: Vision and Process running October 7, 2018, through January 6, 2019. The Art Works category is the NEA’s largest funding category and supports projects that focus on the creation of art that meets the highest standards of excellence, public engagement with diverse and excellent art, lifelong learning in the arts, and/or the strengthening of communities through the arts.
“The variety and quality of these projects speaks to the wealth of creativity and diversity in our country,” said NEA Chairman Jane Chu. “Through the work of organizations such as The Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York, NEA funding invests in local communities, helping people celebrate the arts wherever they are.”
Monet painted over 40 versions of Waterloo Bridge during three London sojourns between 1899 and 1901. He saw these paintings both individually and as an ensemble that, collectively, expressed his sense of the essential subject—the atmosphere and colors of the fog-bound landscape of London’s Thames River. MAG’s exhibition offers visitors the unique opportunity to experience several versions of the series concurrently; creating a special dialogue that allows a rare glimpse at Monet’s artistic vision as well as the process by which he struggled to achieve that vision.
Monet’s Waterloo Bridge: Vision and Process is also supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.
For more information on projects included in the NEA grant announcement, visit arts.gov/news.
Funding from the Ford Foundation will support the work of filmmaker and installation artist Isaac Julien and his forthcoming project, ROCHESTER/PICTURES. This will be the second installation of MAG’s “Reflections on Place” series. It will be freely inspired by the lives of Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony, two of the most illustrious residents of the City of Rochester, as well as other important activists in the abolitionist movement such as Anna Richardson, who bought Douglass’ freedom in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in 1846.
About the National Endowment for the Arts
Established by Congress in 1965, the NEA is the independent federal agency whose funding and support gives Americans the opportunity to participate in the arts, exercise their imaginations, and develop their creative capacities. Through partnerships with state arts agencies, local leaders, other federal agencies, and the philanthropic sector, the NEA supports arts learning, affirms and celebrates America’s rich and diverse cultural heritage, and extends its work to promote equal access to the arts in every community across America. For more information, visit www.arts.gov/.
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.
About MAG’s “Reflections on Place” series
Memorial Art Gallery has commissioned Javier Téllez (Valencia, Venezuela, b. 1969), Dara Birnbaum (U.S., b. 1946), and Isaac Julien (U.K., b. 1960) as part of a new media art series, “Reflections on Place,” inspired by the City of Rochester, New York. The three works are being individually presented starting with Javier Téllez in April 2018, and will enter MAG’s permanent collection at the end of the exhibitions.
About The Memorial Art Gallery
The Memorial Art Gallery showcases visual art from antiquity to the present day, including an outdoor public Centennial Sculpture Park. In addition to its permanent collection, MAG offers a year-round schedule of special exhibitions, lectures, concerts, tours, after-hours social events, and family activities.
Hours: Wednesday–Sunday 11 am to 5 pm, and until 9 pm on Thursdays and select Fridays. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays.
Admission: $15; senior citizens, $12; college students with ID and children 6–18, $6. Always free to members, University of Rochester faculty/staff and students, and children 5 and under. Half-price general admission Thursdays from 5–9 pm is made possible in part by Monroe County. For more information, call 585.276.8900 or visit mag.rochester.edu.
