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 $750,000 in funding to 152 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 41 regranting partners across the country: Albuquerque, NM – 516 ARTS: Fulcrum Fund; Atlanta, GA – Atlanta Contemporary: Nexus Fund; Baltimore, MD – The Peale Center: GRIT Fund; Buffalo, NY – The Buffalo Institute for Contemporary Art: Generator Fund; Central Appalachia (KY, VA, WV) – Wrymakers Collective: Appalachian Visionary Artist Fund; Chicago, IL – 3Arts: Ignite Fund; Cleveland, OH – SPACES: The Satellite Fund; Denver, CO – RedLine Contemporary Art Center: INSITE Fund; Detroit, MI – CultureSource: Flourish Fund; Hartford, CT – Real Art Ways: Provision Fund; Honolulu, HI – Puʻuhonua Society: Hoʻākea Source; Houston, TX – Aurora Picture Show, DiverseWorks, and Project Row Houses: The Idea Fund; Indianapolis, IN – Big Car Collaborative: Power Plant Grants; Iowa City, IA – Public Space One: Big Field Fund; Kansas City, MO – Charlotte Street Foundation: Rocket Grants; Knoxville, TN – Tri-Star Arts: Current Art Fund; Lakota Communities/Western South Dakota – Racing Magpie: Sinew Fund; Los Angeles, CA – LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions): Lightning Fund; Medford, MA – Tufts University Art Galleries: Collective Futures Fund; Miami, FL – Locust Projects: WaveMaker Grants; Milwaukee, WI – The Open Fund and Poor Farm: The Open Fund; Minneapolis, MN – Midway Contemporary Art: Visual Arts Fund; Mobile, AL (statewide) – Coleman Center for the Arts, Alabama Contemporary Art Center, and Space One Eleven: Verdant Fund; New Orleans, LA – Ashé Cultural Arts Center, Antenna Works, and Junebug Productions: Platforms Fund; Newark, NJ – Project for Empty Space: Newark Artist Accelerator; Oklahoma City, OK – Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition: Thrive Grants; Omaha, NE – The Union for Contemporary Art: Populus Fund; Philadelphia, PA – Asian Arts Initiative: The Velocity Fund; Portland, ME – SPACE Gallery: Kindling Fund; Portland, OR – Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA): Precipice Fund; Providence, RI – Dirt Palace Public Projects: Interlace Grant Fund; Raleigh, NC – Visual Art Exchange: Snapdragon Fund; Salt Lake City, UT – Utah Museum of Contemporary Art: Assemblage Art Fund; San Francisco, CA – Southern Exposure: Alternative Exposure; San Juan, Puerto Rico – Beta Local: Máquina Simple; Seattle, WA – Northwest Film Forum: Collective Power Fund; St. Louis, MO – The Luminary: Futures Fund; Tucson, AZ – MOCA Tucson: Night Bloom Grants; Utica, MS – Sipp Culture: TBD Fund; Washington, D.C. – 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.