The Tamesis
The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts will expand its grantmaking with the addition of a new grant program that will support visual arts projects at U.S. nonprofits with budgets under $200,000.
Prior to this change, the Warhol Foundation’s funding was primarily focused on nonprofit visual arts organizations with budgets of $300,000 or more. The new program will provide grants of $20,000 to $30,000 and will begin accepting applications for the foundation’s upcoming spring 2026 grants, with a deadline of March 1.
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The catalyst for this change in funding rules was the recent cancellation of the National Endowment for the Arts’ Challenge America grant, which provided $10,000 grants to organizations in underserved communities across the United States. The Warhol Foundation has partnered with the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation to provide funding to nonprofits focused on the visual arts that are part of the canceled grants, providing $800,000 in funding to 80 organizations.
“At the time, we were looking for a way to take action against the paralyzing onslaught of ongoing, disorderly cuts and disruptions in cultural funding,” said Rachel Bers, program director of the Warhol Foundation Grants Program. “The America Challenge grant made us recognize all of these organizations that we had not previously funded and were in jeopardy as federal funding was eliminated.”
She added, “What we learned from this was that filling these grants had a profound impact on organizations—knowing that someone was paying attention to their work and valued their work enough to provide support when funds were taken away.”
Likewise, the Warhol Foundation received a nearly 40% increase in applications for its fall 2025 grant cycle, ultimately awarding more than $4 million in funding to 57 organizations, approximately 20% more nonprofits than are typically funded in a cycle. Bers has worked for the Warhol Foundation for 20 years, and during that time, the number of applications received each cycle “has remained more or less stable — the graph has spiked dramatically in the past year,” she said.
Bers said the Warhol Foundation has wanted to “keep the momentum going since then,” and that funding smaller organizations, such as those with budgets under $200,000, has long been a funding “missing link” that the foundation has been seeking to address for years.
One way it funds smaller organizations is through the Regional Re-Granting Program, which was established in 2007 and is now active in 39 cities and regions, providing funding to partner organizations in those areas and then re-funding artist-initiated projects through the collaborative organizations’ own funding programs.
The challenge for the Warhol Foundation, however, is how to do this with the resources the foundation now has, which consists of four people who work on the foundation’s grantmaking activities. (The Foundation will not increase staff as a result of the increased number of applications received.)
“The foundation’s goal has always been to support the full range of arts activity in the country, from major exhibitions at institutions to community-focused projects,” she said. “Obviously, there’s a need in all areas, so what we’re trying to do is increase support for all of our programs while creating this new area so that we’re not adding but still leaving gaps that have always been there.”
Bales said that despite the efforts of deep-pocketed foundations like the Warhol, they are currently unable to meet the growing needs of cultural organizations, but the purpose of expanding the grantmaking is to “make it clear that now is the time to step up and support artists and arts organizations.”
She added: “It is so important now to signal to everyone that during this period of complete instability and chaos, more funding than ever is needed to support the work of artists who, like all of us, feel threatened by the current environment. They need support to continue to work and to continue to present their views and ideas to the world through the platforms of these organisations.”
