Trellis Art Fund Announces New $20,000 Stepping Stone Grants
158Jan. 16, 2025
TheTrellis Art Fund, a New York–based nonprofit that launched in February 2024 with a $15.8 million endowment and the aim of supporting individual artists through unrestricted grants, has revealed a novel annual $420,000 initiative, the Stepping Stone grants. Twenty-one artists will each receive an unrestricted award of $20,000: The fund’s original $100,000 grants, presented annually to a dozen artists, have been renamed the Milestone grants. Trellis officials inaugurated the new grants after realizing, during the application and jury process for the Milestone grants, issued this past summer, how many artists were in need of financial assistance.
“In finalizing our initial round of grants in July selected from a marvelously talented pool of nominated artists, we realized that there was a need to do more,” said Corina Larkin, executive director of Trellis, in a statement. “Our hope is that the Stepping Stone grants will provide these artists with new opportunities—however they define them—and enable them to work in new ways.”
Both grants are meant to spur artists to continue their careers. The Stepping Stone grantees will remain involved with Trellis for a year, while the Milestone grantees receive funding and professional development assistance over the span of two years, during which they are also invited to participate in a retreat. Trellis reserves some of its grants for caregivers, which it earlier defined as those parenting a child under the age of twelve. The fund has expanded its definition of the term to include those who are caregivers to children, seniors, and other family members in need.
A full list of 2024 Stepping Stone grantees—who range in age from thirty-four to seventy-three, and who represent ten US states and fifteen cities—is below.
Rogelio Báez Vega(b. 1974) | Santurce, PR
Teresa Baker(b. 1985) | Los Angeles
Suzanne Bocanegra (b. 1957) | New York
Jamal Cyrus (b. 1973) | Houston
Sofía Córdova (b. 1985) | Puerto Rico and Oakland, CA
Sonya Clark (b. 1967) | Amherst, MA
Liz Deschenes (b. 1966) | New York
Jeremy Frey (b. 1978) | Passamaquoddy Indian Township Reservation, ME
Muriel Hasbun (b. 1961) | Silver Spring, MD
Scott Hocking (b. 1975) | Detroit
Heesoo Kwon (b. 1990) | San Francisco
B. Ingrid Olson (b. 1987) | Chicago
Sheila Pepe (b. 1959) | New York
Mary Lum (b. 1951) | North Adams, MA
Guadalupe Rosales (b. 1980) | Los Angeles
Rayyane Tabet (b. 1983) | San Francisco
Javier Tellez (b. 1969) | New York
Jose Villalobos (b. 1988) | San Antonio, TX
Paula Wilson (b. 1975) | Carrizozo, NM
Yu-Wen Wu (b. 1958) | Boston
Takako Yamaguchi (b. 1952)| Santa Monica, CA