Helen Frankenthaler Foundation Awards $3.3 Million in Climate Grants

TheHelen Frankenthaler Foundationon July 30 announced the sixty-nine recipients of its 2024Frankenthaler Climate Initiative(FCI) grants, which total $3.3 million. Established in 2021 and awarded annually since, the grants aid US organizations in making their facilities energy-efficient and environmentally sustainable. This year’s cohort of grantees include the inaugural recipients of the newly created Catalyst Grant, which provides organizations in the fledgling stages of addressing climate change with up to $15,000 for short-term projects. Also distributed were Scoping Grants of up to $25,000, earmarked for outside assessments aimed at identifying clean-energy needs and solutions; Technical Assistance Grants of up to $50,000, which fund complex projects; and Implementation Grants of up to $100,000, which support large-scale infrastructure changes.

Among the recipients are the Seattle Art Museum, which will upgrade its building management system to save energy; the California College of the Arts, which aims to achieve net-zero operations through solar energy; MacDowell, which will renovate its artist studios with the intent of running a carbon-neutral campus by 2045; the Center for Photography at Woodstock, which will repurpose a onetime cigar factory as an all-electric building; and the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, which will use the funds to discover ways to reduce the carbon footprint of its 125-year-old home.

“Over the last four years, FCI grantees have developed and implemented groundbreaking climate focused initiatives, inspiring a surge in applications and more ambitious projects,” said Elizabeth Smith, the Frankenthaler Foundation’s executive director, in a statement. “Extending the Foundation’s full range of grantmaking activities, FCI upholds Helen Frankenthaler’s legacy and cultivates a future where our peer organizations in the visual arts lead the way in creating a more sustainable world.”

A full list of recipients is below.

Catalyst Grants

Akron Art Museum, Ohio

Art in Residence, Lancaster, CA

Carolee Schneemann Foundation, New Paltz, NY

Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis

DATMA, New Bedford, MA

Des Moines Art Center

Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, ME

Housatonic Museum of Art, Bridgeport, CT

KANEKO, Omaha

Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, Santurce

The Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society, Chicago

New Mexico Highlands University, Las Vegas

Pennsylvania College of Technology, Williamsport

Racing Magpie, Rapid City, SD

Rivers Institute for Contemporary Art & Thought, New Orleans

Steven Myron Holl Foundation / ‘T’ Space, Rhinebeck, NY

Swiss Institute, New York

Taft Museum of Art, Cincinnati

Thomas Cole National Historic Site, Catskill, NY

Scoping Grants

Bakehouse, Miami

Blank Forms, Brooklyn, NY

Center for Photography at Woodstock, Kingston, NY

Colorado Springs Fine Arts CenterFrist Art Museum, Nashville

Giorno Poetry Systems, New YorkMassachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams

MoMA PS1, Long Island City, NY

New Britain Museum of American Art, Connecticut

Storefront for Art and Architecture, New York

Tides Institute and Museum of Art, Eastport, ME

Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Philadelphia

University of Illinois, Chicago, College of Architecture, Design, and the Arts

Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, NY

Technical Assistance Grants

Arlington Museum of Art, Texas

The Chinati Foundation, Marfa, TX

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (de Young Museum)

Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture, San Francisco

Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN

The Kitchen, NY

MICA, Baltimore

Millay Arts, Austerliz, NY

Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico, San Juan

Museum of the White Mountains at Plymouth State University, New Hampshire

Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI

School of the Art Institute of Chicago

SPACE, Portland, ME

Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis

Implementation Grants

California College of the Arts, San Francisco

Ellis-Beauregard Foundation, Rockland, ME

Flint Institute of Arts, Michigan

George Eastman Museum, Rochester, NY

Hi-Desert Artists, Yucca Valley, CA

KinoSaito, Verplanck, NY

Lake Placid Center for the Arts, New York

The Long Island Museum, Stony Brook, NY

MacDowell, Petersborough, NH

Mancos Common Press, Colorado

Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design

National Nordic Museum, Seattle

Nevada Museum of Art, Reno

New Museum, New York

The New School, New York

North Carolina Glass Center, Asheville

Piqua Arts Council, OhioSeattle Art Museum

WaterFire Providence, Rhode Island

The Watermill Center, Water Mill, NY

Westbeth, New York

Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA