2004 Arts Grants Underscore Commitment to Innovation,
Diversity, Community and Focus on Contemporary Work
NEW YORK, Sept. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Altria Group, Inc., the parent company
of Kraft Foods, Philip Morris International and Philip Morris USA, has
announced more than $3 million in grants to visual arts and cultural
organizations in the United States this year, ranging from large, well-
established institutions to smaller emerging organizations and alternative
spaces.
As part of Altria Group's commitment to the arts, the company awarded 20
grants to visual arts institutions totaling $1 million from a competitive pool
of nearly 200 proposals. Altria Group also awarded over $1 million to sponsor
such exhibitions as the 2004 Whitney Biennial; Return of the Buddha: The
Qingzhou Discoveries at the Freer Sackler Gallery in Washington, D.C.; Dan
Flavin: A Retrospective, at the National Gallery of Art; and Tropicalia: A
Parallel Modernity in Brazil, at the Bronx Museum of the Arts. In addition,
Altria awarded grants totaling nearly $1 million in unrestricted, general
operating support to 61 arts and cultural organizations.
This funding supports the company's commitment to promoting diversity,
innovation and experimentation in the arts; fostering community development;
and advancing scholarship and new areas of exploration in contemporary art.
"For nearly 50 years, the Altria family of companies has been committed to
improving the quality of life in communities around the world through
investment in the arts," said Jennifer Goodale, Vice President, Contributions
at Altria Corporate Services, Inc. "We support the arts because we believe
that the arts enrich the mind and spirit; foster innovation, creativity and
excellence; and challenge us to explore new ideas and perspectives--critical
concepts in today's business environment."
In recent years, Altria modified its arts program to enable the company to
better respond to needs in the field and to support institutions that
implement groundbreaking programs. Altria Group now provides two-year
operating grants to organizations in the performing arts and visual arts in
alternating years through a Request for Proposals application process that is
available online.
In addition, to gain input from respected voices in the museum community,
Altria Group now convenes a panel of curators with growing reputations in the
field to advise the company on the grants that are submitted through the
competitive proposal process. This year's panel included:
* Nicholas Baume, Chief Curator of the Institute of Contemporary Art,
Boston
* Laurie Ann Farrell, Curator at the Museum of African Art in New York
* Dominic Molon, Associate Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art,
Chicago
* Lydia Yee, Curator at the Bronx Museum of the Arts
"Altria's modified grant process underscores the company's commitment to
supporting new developments in the arts and addressing critical issues," said
Nicholas Baume, Chief Curator of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston.
"As both a past grantee and member of this year's review panel, I have seen
firsthand Altria's depth of knowledge of the arts and strong interest in
making an impact with its support."
Focus on Innovation, Creativity, Diversity and Contemporary Art
Since its early support of the pioneering exhibition Pop and Op: An
Exhibition of 65 Graphic Works in 1965, Altria Group has been recognized for
its commitment to innovative and experimental contemporary artists and art
movements, and to diversity in the field. Since 1958, Altria Group has
awarded more than $210 million to arts organizations across the United States
and around the world.
Current Altria Group projects in the visual arts include major exhibitions
of contemporary artists with acclaimed bodies of works that have not been
recently shown or received major retrospectives. They include:
* Lee Bontecou: A Retrospective (Museum of Modern Art, New York City,
July 30 -September 27, 2004), the first in-depth retrospective of this
influential American artist, who was one of the few female artists of
the 1960s to gain international acclaim. In addition to seminal works
from the 1960s and 1970s, the exhibition features later work on view
for the first time. The exhibition is co-organized by the UCLA Hammer
Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. As national tour
sponsor, Altria Group also supported the Los Angeles and Chicago
presentations.
* Robert Smithson (Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, September 12
- December 13, 2004), the first comprehensive American retrospective of
Robert Smithson's (1938-73) complex and highly influential career. Best
known as the creator of Spiral Jetty (1970), a 1,500-foot-long and 15-
foot-wide rock coil that stretches into Utah's Great Salt Lake,
American artist Smithson has long been acknowledged as one of the
pioneers of earth art. The exhibition is organized by the Museum of
Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and will tour to the Dallas Museum of
Art, January 14 - April 3, 2005, as well as to the Whitney Museum of
American Art, Summer 2005.
* Dan Flavin: A Retrospective (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.,
October 3, 2004 - January 9, 2005), the first comprehensive
retrospective of one of the most innovative artists of the late 20th
century who is known for his work in fluorescent light. Altria Group is
supporting the national tour of the exhibition, which is organized by
Dia Art Foundation in association with the National Gallery of Art and
includes the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, February 25 - June 25,
2005; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, July 1 - October 30, 2005;
Dia Art Foundation, and international touring sites.
"Altria is a recognized leader in supporting projects that build awareness
of innovative artists among a wide spectrum of audiences, so it was natural
for us to approach the company when we began planning the first major
retrospective of the work of Dan Flavin," said Michael Govan, Director of Dia
Art Foundation. "Altria has had a wonderful partnership with Dia since 1989.
In 2002, they supported our exhibition Robert Whitman: Playback."
Altria Group also supports exhibitions that advance new artistic
developments and scholarship in the field. Recent grants include:
* Visual Music: 1905-2005 (Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles,
February 13 - May 22, 2005), will focus on the influence of music on
the development of abstract and mixed-media visual art forms from the
early 20th century to the present. The exhibition is co-organized by
the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and the Hirshhorn Museum
and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., where it will be on view June
23 - September 11, 2005.
* Groundworks: Environmental Collaboration in Contemporary Art (Regina
Gouger Miller Gallery at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh,
January 14 - March 13, 2005), will explore the role of the contemporary
artist in addressing critical questions about nature, culture, and
planning in a postindustrial era. The exhibition features
installations and documentation of earthworks and ecological projects,
as well as site-specific works utilizing the three rivers and 53
streams of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, to help develop a model for
artists and communities to address the cultural understanding of living
rivers and water quality.
* Five Architects: Barney, Gang, Hadid, Sejima, Snow (Chicago
Architecture Foundation, June 2005), is one of the first exhibitions to
raise public recognition for the work of women architects, who continue
to face considerable challenges in the field. It features recent and
current Midwestern projects by Carol Ross Barney, Jeanne Gang, Zaha
Hadid, Kazuyo Sejima, and Julie Snow.
Altria Group's support of the arts also reflects its longstanding
commitment to supporting diversity in the field, evidenced by its funding of
the first surveys of African-American, Latino, and Native American art. Recent
grants include:
* Huang Yong Ping: A Retrospective (Walker Art Center, Minneapolis,
October 2005), the first historical, in-depth survey of a
quintessential artist of the 21st century - a Chinese artist working
and living in Paris, whose work negotiates East and West, as well as
traditional and avant-garde practice.
* Family Legacies: The Art of Betye, Lezley, and Alison Saar (Ackland
Art Museum at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, December
18, 2005 through March 26, 2006), the first exhibition to study and
present together the work of three nationally recognized artists within
the context of the family's distinct contributions to art history.
"Family Legacies" will explore the transmission of traditions,
materials, and subject matter within an exceptional family (mother and
two daughters) of artists of mixed race.
* El Museo's 4th Biennial: The (S) Files: The Selected Files (El Museo
del Barrio, May - September, 2005), presents an overview of new
innovative art produced by "emerging" Latino and Latin American artists
currently living and working in New York City. Altria Group has
supported this biennial since its inception in 1999.
"Altria has been a longtime supporter of El Museo del Barrio. In addition
to its early support of our biennial exhibition, the company has demonstrated
its commitment to building a wider appreciation of Latino and Latin American
art and culture though its funding over the past two decades of such
exhibitions as MoMA at El Museo: Latin American and Caribbean Art from the
Museum of Modern Art; Here and There/Aqui y Alla: Six Artists from San Juan;
and Art of the Other Mexico: Sources and Meanings," said Julian Zugazagoitia,
director of El Museo del Barrio.
Commitment to Community
In 2004, Altria awarded nearly $1 million in two-year, unrestricted grants
for general operating support to 61 museums and cultural centers, primarily in
the New York metropolitan area, where Altria Group is headquartered, and in
Washington, D.C. Grants were awarded to a range of institutions from those of
international scope and scale, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the
Museum of Modern Art, to smaller, community-based institutions such as Art in
General and Exit Art.
"In these challenging economic times, general operating support is
critical for the survival of many cultural organizations," said Jeanette
Ingberman, Founder and Director, Exit Art. "Altria has demonstrated an
unprecedented, unparalleled and long-standing commitment to supporting
institutions that bolster the arts in our communities and enable us to keep
our doors open to the public."
As part of its commitment to the New York community and to build audiences
for the arts, Altria Group funds the Whitney Museum of American Art, located
at Altria Group's midtown Manhattan office, which celebrated its 20th
anniversary last year. The company is also supporting a project of the
National Center for Disability Services that is working with the Queens Museum
of Art, South Street Seaport and the Nassau County Museum of Art to help
people with disabilities access the arts.
In addition, Altria Group is the lead sponsor of the Romare Bearden
Homecoming Celebration, a seven-month, citywide arts festival launching this
September that celebrates the life and art of African-American artist Romare
Bearden. The Celebration involves a range of New York cultural organizations,
including the Apollo Theater, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Bronx Museum of the
Arts, Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning, Jazz at Lincoln Center, The
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, The Studio Museum in
Harlem, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
About the Altria Family of Companies
Altria Group is the parent company of Kraft Foods, Philip Morris
International and Philip Morris USA. For more than 50 years, Altria Group has
supported programs and charitable organizations through its corporate
contributions efforts. In the last 10 years alone, the Altria family of
companies has provided more than $1 billion in charitable assistance to
communities around the world, including more than $130 million to arts
organizations across the United States. Annually, across the enterprise the
company provides some $12 million to the arts by supporting the visual and
performing arts, arts and education and arts advocacy programs. In addition
to the arts, the Altria family of companies also supports organizations and
programs that fight hunger, help victims of domestic violence and disasters,
and improve the environment for future generations.
For more information about the Altria family of companies' program and
philanthropy, visit http://www.altria.com/media.
A list of arts and cultural organizations that received 2004 grants is
attached.
2004 Arts Grants
Organization Exhibition City, State Amount
Ackland Art Museum Family Legacies: The Art of Chapel Hill, $70,000
at University of Betye, Lezley, and Alison NC
North Carolina at Saar
Chapel Hill
American Folk Art Examining Martin Ramirez: A New York, NY $75,000
Museum Self-Taught Mexican
Artist (working title)
Art in General In this Place New York, NY $20,000
Blaffer Gallery, the Jessica Stockholder: Kissing Houston, TX $75,000
Art Museum of the the Wall, Works 1988 - 2004
University of Houston
Bronx Museum of the Tropicalia: A Parallel Bronx, NY $150,000
Arts Modernity in Brazil
Bruce Museum of Arts American Impressionism: Greenwich, CT $50,000
and Science The Beauty of Work
Chicago Architecture Five Architects: Barney, Chicago, IL $30,000
Foundation Gang, Hadid, Sejima, Snow
China Institute in Transformations: Chinese New York, NY $50,000
America Culture at the Crossroads
Des Moines Art Center Christian Jankowski Des Moines, IA $40,000
Dia Art Foundation Dan Flavin: A Retrospective New York, NY $300,000
El Museo del Barrio El Museo's 4th Bienal: New York, NY $35,000
The (S) Files:
The Selected Files
Exit Art The Drop New York, NY $25,000
Freer Gallery of Art Return of the Buddha: Washington, $125,000
and Arthur M. The Qingzhou Discoveries D.C.
Sackler Gallery
Hirshhorn Museum Visual Music, 1905-2005 Washington, $75,000
and Sculpture D.C.
Garden, Smithsonian
Institution
Isamu Noguchi Noguchi and Graham Long Island $35,000
Foundation City, NY
Jewish Museum, The Common Ground New York, NY $50,000
(tentative title)
Museum of Strange New World/Extrano La Jolla, CA $100,000
Contemporary Art Nuevo Mundo, Perspectivas
San Diego desde Tijuana
Museum of the African Disperal: New Works by Four San Francisco, $25,000
Diaspora, The Contemporary Artists CA
from the African Diaspora
National Center for Welcoming New Audiences: Albertson, NY $25,000
Disability Services Connecting People with
Disabilities to Museums
National Museum of Alice Neel's Women Washington, $45,000
Women in the Arts D.C.
Norton Museum of Art Continental Drift: West Palm $25,000
Installations by Joan Jonas, Beach, FL
Ilya Kabakov, Juan Munoz,
and Yinka Shonibare
Orange County Mary Heilmann Newport $45,000
Museum of Art Beach, CA
Regina Gouger Miller Groundworks: Environmental Pittsburgh, PA $35,000
Gallery at Collaboration in
Carnegie Mellon Contemporary Art
University
Romare Bearden Romare Bearden Homecoming New York, NY $150,000
Foundation Celebration
Site Santa Fe 2004 Exhibition Program Santa Fe, NM $25,000
Studio Museum in energy X experimentation: New York, NY $100,000
Harlem, The African American Artists and
Abstraction 1964-1980
UCLA Hammer Museum Made in Mexico Los Angeles, $40,000
CA
Walker Art Center Huang Yong Ping: A Minneapolis, $45,000
Retrospective MN
White Columns Odd Lots New York, NY $25,000
Whitney Museum of 2004 Whitney Biennial New York, NY $200,000
American Art
TOTAL $2,090,000.00
2004-2005 Community Arts Grants
Organization City, State Amount
Aldrich Museum Of Contemporary Art Ridgefield, CT $5,000
American Federation of Arts New York, NY $10,000
American Museum of Natural History New York, NY $50,000
American Folk Art Museum New York, NY $5,000
American Museum of the Moving Image Astoria, NY $20,000
Apex Art New York, NY $5,000
Art in General Inc. New York, NY $5,000
Artists Space New York, NY $15,000
Arts and Business Council, Inc. New York, NY $5,000
Arttable New York, NY $2,000
Asia Society New York, NY $50,000
Asian American Arts Alliance New York, NY $5,000
Bronx Museum of the Art Bronx, NY $5,000
Brooklyn Botanic Garden Brooklyn, NY $20,000
Brooklyn Children's Museum Brooklyn, NY $10,000
Brooklyn Museum of Art Brooklyn, NY $10,000
Business Committee for the Arts Inc. Long Island $10,000
City, NY
Creative Time New York, NY $10,000
Dia Center for the Arts New York, NY $7,500
Drawing Center, The New York, NY $10,000
El Museo del Barrio New York, NY $10,000
Exit Art New York, NY $15,000
Franklin Furnace Archive New York, NY $5,000
Frick Collection, The New York, NY $10,000
Guggenheim Museum New York, NY $20,000
Independent Curators International New York, NY $10,000
International Center of Photography New York, NY $10,000
Japan Society, Inc. New York, NY $10,000
Jersey City Museum Jersey City, NJ $5,000
Jewish Museum, The New York, NY $7,500
Katonah Museum of Art Katonah, NY $5,000
Lincoln Center Consolidated Corporate Fund New York, NY $200,000
Metropolitan Museum of Art New York, NY $100,000
Momenta Art Brooklyn, NY $5,000
Montclair Art Museum Montclair, NJ $5,000
Morgan Library New York, NY $10,000
Municipal Art Society of New York, The New York, NY $5,000
Museum for African Art Long Island City, $10,000
NY
Museum of Arts and Design New York, NY $20,000
Museum of Modern Art New York, NY $20,000
Museum of the City of New York New York, NY $10,000
National Academy of Design New York, NY $10,000
National Museum of Women in the Arts Washington, D.C. $2,500
New Museum of Contemporary Art New York, NY $10,000
New York Botanical Garden, The Bronx, NY $30,000
New York Public Library New York, NY $20,000
New York Public Library/Schomburg Center New York, NY $20,000
New York Studio School of Drawing, New York, NY $5,000
Painting and Sculpture, Inc.
P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, Inc. New York, NY $10,000
Phillips Collection, The Washington, D.C. $10,000
Printed Matter, Inc. New York, NY $5,000
Public Art Fund New York, NY $5,000
Queens Botanical Garden Society, Inc. Flushing, NY $10,000
Queens Museum of Art Queens, NY $20,000
Smithsonian / Cooper-Hewitt, National Design New York, NY $10,000
Museum
Snug Harbor Cultural Center Staten Island, NY $10,000
Socrates Sculpture Park Long Island City, $5,000
NY
Studio Museum in Harlem, The New York, NY $10,000
Corcoran Gallery of Art, The Washington, D.C. $20,000
Wave Hill Bronx, NY $5,000
Wildlife Conservation Society Bronx, NY $20,000
TOTAL $989,500
CONTACT: TAMARA MOORE
(917) 663-2144
SOURCE Altria Group, Inc.
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Related links:
http://www.altria.com/media
CONTACT:
Tamara Moore, +1-917-663-2144, for Altria
Group, Inc.
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