Taking initiatve
Ruby Green and Cheekwood's Temporary Contemporary get prestigious and sizable grants from Warhol Foundation
Given the steady stream of discouraging news in the visual arts community in recent months, it's nice to see Ruby Green and Cheekwood's Temporary Contemporary Gallery, two of the leading exhibitors of contemporary art in Nashville, get deserving attention in the form of sizable grants from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts in New York.
From its space on Fifth Avenue South, Ruby Green offers consistently strong shows by local, regional and international artists that cover a wide range of styles and media, and that reflect care and intelligence in their selection. This sustained level of quality, all the more remarkable for being achieved on what can generously be called a shoestring budget, has led to serious recognition in the form of a major capacity-building grant from the Warhol Foundation. As a participant in the Warhol Initiative program, Ruby Green will receive up to $100,000 in support as well as technical assistance (the gallery and the Foundation are currently working out the details on the amount and types of assistance). Other recipients have used the funds, in the Foundation's words, for "a variety of uses, from paying off mortgages to creating cash reserves or upgrading computers and other equipment, all in the service of increasing capacity to serve their constituents."
Just as important as the direct support, this grant associates Ruby Green with some of the most significant art spaces around the country. The Warhol Initiative grant goes to a small number of organizations every year, each of which applied upon invitation from the Foundation: just to get considered for this, word has to be out that the organization is up to something good. Previous recipients have included Project Row Houses and Diverseworks in Houston, the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, The Luggage Store Gallery in San Francisco, and White Columns in New York, names recognizable to anyone who travels on the circuit of "alternative" art and music that threads across the country. These places are essential to their communities, especially in the less densely developed art towns. Ruby Green plays a critical role in Nashville, and recognition and support like this may take it to a new level or at least help it stay around for a while. As Ruby Green director Chris Campbell puts it, this grant will allow the gallery to "implement strategies and strengthen our exhibition program in ways we could only dream about before."
The Temporary Contemporary series at Cheekwood, under the leadership of curator Terri Smith, fills the former stables of the estate with a rotating series of video pieces, while an adjacent one-room gallery is typically dedicated to painting or installations. This program at Cheekwood is the primary venue for video art in Nashville, and the format has allowed the museum to display work by first-rank international artists like Emily Jacir, Gary Simmons and William Kentridge within a modest budget.
According to Smith, the Warhol Foundation grant of $50,000 over two years is the largest monetary donation Temporary Contemporary has received. As with Ruby Green, the value of the grant to Cheekwood includes the association with other recipients like the Los Angeles and Chicago Museums of Contemporary Art. Smith says, "For me, as a contemporary art curator, it is equally exciting (if not more) to have that stamp of approval from a national foundation whose primary concern is furthering opportunities for contemporary artists." Nashville as a whole can take these two grants as a nice bit of recognition for an emerging visual arts scene. —David Maddox
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