The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation has announced the recipients of the 2012 Artistic Innovation and Collaboration grant program (AIC). The AIC grant program aims to advance the values promoted by artist and activist Robert Rauschenberg during his lifetime and career. These grants drive the Foundation’s mission of cultivating, encouraging and supporting the production and exhibition of art.

Self Portrait of Robert Rauschenberg with “Navigator (1962)", ca.1962. Copyright: Robert Rauschenberg Foundation.

The goal of the Artistic Innovation and Collaboration Program is to support innovative projects in which a visual artist collaborates with one or more artists in any discipline to make a new work, advance a multi-stage artistic exploration or push forward a new artistic form. Grantees will be small and mid-sized cultural organizations with a track record of creative risk-taking, experimentation and identifying emergent talent. The Foundation’s grant works to enable emerging talent to achieve their artistic goals and leverage resources.

Grants are generally in the range of $50,000 to $150,000, and can be given over a period of one to three years. These creative initiatives may open the doors to new ideas that many people might not understand now but which will become increasingly relevant in the future.

Robert Rauschenberg with Merce Cunningham and members of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. The Eisenhower Theater, John F. Kennedy Center, Washington DC, 2000.

In 2011, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation invited 65 arts organizations across the country to apply for the inaugural grant. After a competitive application process, nine grants, totaling $800,000, were awarded to a diverse group of innovative projects.

List of 2012 AIC Program Recipients:

Ballroom Marfa, Marfa, TX
Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha, NE
The Drawing Center, New York, NY
Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA), Los Angeles, CA
Machine Project, Los Angeles, CA
Mary Miss/City as Living Laboratory, New York, NY
North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks, ND
Space One Eleven, Birmingham, AL
STREB, Brooklyn, NY

Billy Klüver and Robert Rauschenberg working on “Oracle (1962-65)” in Rauschenberg's studio, late 1964-early 1965.

The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation is located at 381 Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10003. For additional information, call 212.228.5283 or visit Robert Rauschenberg Foundation.

Emmaline Niendorf is an Integrated Marketing Associate with Otherwise Incorporated.