ABOUT WAVEMAKER GRANTS
WaveMaker at Locust Projects supports Miami’s visionary artists with incubator grants for innovative projects that are shared with the public in unconventional spaces.
Since 2015, WaveMaker has awarded $600,000 in funding to 139 of Miami’s visionary artists. Grantees receive up to $6,000 each in three categories: New Work / Projects, Long-Haul Projects, and Research & Development + Implementation. In the spirit of Locust Projects’ artist-driven mission, WaveMakers experiment and take risks, creating innovative work that is shared with the public in unconventional spaces.
Founded in 2015 and administered by Locust Projects since 2017, WaveMaker Grants is made possible by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts' Regional Regranting Program, a network of 36 regranting partners across the country: Albuquerque - 516 ARTS: Fulcrum Fund, Atlanta - Atlanta Contemporary: Nexus Fund, Baltimore - The Peale: GRIT Fund, Buffalo - The Buffalo Institute for Contemporary Art: Generator Fund, Chicago - 3Arts: Ignite Fund, Cleveland - SPACES: The Satellite Fund, Denver - RedLine Contemporary Art Center: INSITE Fund, Detroit - CultureSource: Flourish Fund, Honolulu - Puʻuhonua Society: Hoʻākea Source, Houston - Aurora Picture Show, DiverseWorks, & Project Row Houses: The Idea Fund, Indianapolis - Big Car Collaborative: Power Plant Grant, Kansas City - Charlotte Street Foundation & Spencer Museum of Art: Rocket Grants, Iowa City - Public Space One: Big Field Fund, Knoxville (TN) - Tri-Star Arts: Current Art Fund, Lakota Communities/ Western South Dakota - Racing Magpie: Sinew Fund, Los Angeles - LACE Lightning Fund, Medford (MA) - Tufts University Art Gallery: Collective Futures Fund, Miami - Locust Projects: WaveMaker Grants, Milwaukee - The Open, Poor Farm: The Open Fund, Minneapolis - Midway Contemporary Art: Visual Arts Fund, Mobile - Coleman Center for the Arts, Alabama Contemporary Art Center/ Space One Eleven: The Verdant Fund, New Orleans - Antenna & Ashé Cultural Arts Center: Platforms Fund, Newark - Project for Empty Space: Newark Artist Accelerator, Oklahoma City - Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition: Thrive Grants, Omaha - The Union for Contemporary Art: Populus Fund, Philadelphia - Asian Arts Initative: The Velocity Fund, Portland (ME) - SPACE Gallery: The Kindling Fund, Portland (OR) - Portland Institute for Contemporary Art: Precipice Fund, Providence - Dirt Palace Public Projects: Interlace Grant Fund, Raleigh (NC) - Visual Art Exchange: Snapdragon Fund, Salt Lake City - Utah Museum of Contemporary Art: The Assemblage Art Fund, San Francisco - Southern Exposure: Alternative Exposure, San Juan, PR - Beta Local: Maquina Simple, Seattle - Northwest Film Forum: Collective Power Fund, Tucson (AZ) - MOCA Tucson: Night Bloom Grants, Washington DC - Washington Project for the Arts: Wherewithal Grants.
ABOUT LOCUST PROJECTS
Locust Projects is an arts incubator producing and presenting exhibitions, programs, and projects.
Our mission is to:
CREATE opportunities for visual artists at all career stages
INVITE risk taking and experimentation
ACTIVATE conversations around new art and ideas
ADVOCATE for artists and creative practices
Founded by artists for artists in 1998, Locust Projects is Miami’s longest-running nonprofit alternative art space. We produce, present, and nurture ambitious and experimental new art and the exchange of ideas through commissioned exhibitions and projects, artist residencies, summer art intensives for teens, and public programs on contemporary art and curatorial practice. As a leading incubator of new art and ideas, Locust Projects emphasizes boundary-pushing creative endeavors, risk-taking and experimentation by local, national and international artists. We invest in South Florida’s arts community by providing artists with project grants and empower creative careers by supporting the administrative work of being an artist through an onsite artist resource hub and access to pro bono legal services.
ABOUT WARHOL FOUNDATION
The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts’ Regional Regranting Program was established in 2007 to recognize and support the movement of independently organized, public-facing, artist-centered activity that animates local and regional art scenes but that lies beyond the reach of traditional funding sources. The program is administered by non-profit visual art centers across the United States that work in partnership with the Foundation to fund artists’ experimental projects and collaborative undertakings.
WAVEMAKER HISTORY
WaveMaker Grants was launched in 2015 with support from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts by the former nonprofit, Cannonball. Cannonball was previously known as LegalArt, a pro bono legal services program founded in 2003 by Carolina Jayaram and Lara O’Neil. LegalArt started with the urgency to support emerging artists by providing free legal services and professional development programs. These initiatives, which were co-presented throughout Miami with partner organizations, were created expressly to professionalize, sustain, and advance artists’ careers. The program was renamed LegalLink and a new entity, Cannonball, was established with an artist residency in downtown Miami and the founding of WaveMaker. In 2017, with the dissolution of Cannonball’s nonprofit, Locust Projects acquired WaveMaker and LegalArt (now LegalARTLink) sustaining these vital resources for Miami-based artists.
Image above: Nick Gilmore, Going Home.