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ABOUT THE LIGHTNING FUND
LACE is thrilled to announce our fourth Lightning Fund open call, a regional regranting fund made possible by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. The Lighting Fund is an annual grant for artists and artist-driven organizations, projects, and publications. In 2020 and 2021, the Lightning Fund provided emergency relief grants at $1,500 each for a total of 101 LA-based artists. In 2022, the Fund pivoted to supporting artist projects.
This year, LACE will award 10 artist project grants in the amount of $6,000. Only applicants that are LA County residents, are at least 18 years of age, and are not currently enrolled in a college program, will be considered. One additional mid or late-career artist will be selected from the pool of Lightning Fund applicants to receive the Jacki Apple Award in Performance and Artist Projects.
Learn more about the selected projects for the 2024 Lightning Fund Artist Grant and Jacki Apple Award
GUIDELINES
Qualified applicant artists are required to live in Los Angeles County and maintain a visual arts practice. We have an expansive definition of visual art practice. In addition to more traditional forms such as drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture, installation, and similar mediums, we are also open to artists practicing in film/video, new media, sound art, performance art, and social practice. Artists whose practices are firmly rooted in dance, theatre, music, or industry/feature filmmaking are not eligible to apply. We are open to innovation, experimentation, and risk-taking in the field and are supportive of diverse approaches to visual art making. Lightning Fund project submissions should be innovative and socially relevant, as well as accessible to the public outside of traditional museum or gallery settings. Awarded projects are not intended for presentation at LACE.
Please submit an application through the Submittable portal after creating an account. Applicants must include the following items in their application:
- Artist Contact Information – artist teams are welcome to apply, but provide one person’s information as the main contact.
- Web site and/or social media if available
- Brief description about yourself and your artistic practice – include past project experience (300 word max)
- Project Title (working title OK) and description of your proposed project – this can be a new project or a continuation of work in your practice. Include information about your timeline and collaborators, materials, location, and any needs you have to make the project happen. (500 word max)
- Outline of how a $6,000 grant would be used to fund or offset costs for a project in process. Provide a budget breakdown if available. The majority of the project should be achievable with the Lightning Fund grant. Artists may pay themselves a fee from the award. (500 word max)
- Submit 1-3 strong work samples (images, video, audio, and/or links) that represent the project you are proposing for funding. Optional images can include: audio, video, writing, links, supplemental materials, and/or related information. (Video 2 min max)
Applications will be reviewed by a panel of local cultural workers, artists, and members of the LACE Team. Panelists will evaluate applicants based on their proposals and active artistic practice. We encourage applications from artists whose communities are underrepresented in relationship to visual art opportunities, economies, and funding streams. Strong consideration will be given to Black, Indigenous, POC, elder, LGBTQ+, disabled, immuno-compromised, and immigrant artists.
SELECTION CRITERIA
All proposals will be considered based on:
- Overall concept, vision, and innovation
- Relevance to a local social, cultural, and/or geographic context
- Accessibility of the project to the public outside of a museum or gallery
- Capacity of the applicant to realize the project on time (within one year maximum) and within estimated budget
- Potential impact on the local community, the arts and culture landscape, and/or the artist’s growth
Photo by Sophia Alvarado.
LACE is thrilled to announce a new annual artist award: The Jacki Apple Award in Performance and Artist Projects!
The Jacki Apple fund was established as her legacy project to give back to the Los Angeles Art Community she championed since the early 80’s in her writing, teaching, radio shows, and artist practice.
This award supports one LA-based artist with a $10,000 grant for work resulting in performance, media, exhibition, and/or publication within one year of the award. One artist will be selected through the Lightning Fund application process for this honor. Refer to the Lightning Fund requirements for eligibility. The artist selected for the Jacki Apple Award will have the added requirement of being a mid or late-career artist. No additional application is required to be considered for this award.
ABOUT JACKI APPLE (1941-2022)
Jacki was an artist, an educator, a critic, an expert on performance art, and a beloved LA art world figure. Her collection of essays, Performance/Media/Art/Culture: Selected Essays 1983-2018 edited by Marina LaPalma (Intellect 2019) was celebrated in 2019 at LACE with a book launch and conversation with John Fleck. More about Jacki’s life and work can be found in her obituary in Artillery.
ABOUT THE JACKI APPLE FUND
The Jacki Apple Fund was established by her sister, publisher/educator Marjorie Bank, working with performer/writer/educator Jeff McMahon, performer/producer/educator/curator Deborah Oliver, diplomat/editor Stuart Jackson-Hughes, and Emily Waters, as her legacy project to give back to the Los Angeles Art Community she championed since the early 80’s in her writing, teaching, radio shows and artist practice. Matching efforts are established in New York and New York City artists may check for information in 2024 about the Jacki Apple award administered by Franklin Furnace.
SUPPORTERS
The Lightning Fund is administered with lead support from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts as part of the Regional Regranting Network of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
LACE recognizes our local partners who share the Lightning Fund opportunity with artists in their communities.
ABOUT THE WARHOL REGIONAL REGRANTING PROGRAM
The Regional Re-granting 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.
Since its inception, the Regional Re-granting Program has grown steadily, adding new cities and regions to its national network each year. When COVID-19 hit and it became clear that artists needed a different kind of support, the Foundation’s Board authorized a programmatic pivot; the existing 16 partners in the Regional Re-granting Program swiftly set up COVID-19 emergency relief funds to help artists cover basic living/medical/child-care expenses. Since April 2020, the Foundation’s original 16 Regional Re-granting partners have disbursed over $1 million in emergency grants. When the pandemic entered its 8th month, the Foundation doubled the number of re-granting partners in its network; 16 new programs provided emergency funds to artists in their regions while many of the original 16 programs have already begun a second round of emergency grants.