American Art Responsive Grants

Responsive Grants &
American Art Renewal Fund

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Responsive Grants

This category enables the Foundation to support projects that address the prevailing needs of the American art field and are crucial to its development. Successful projects include, but are not limited to, reinstallation, digitization and archives of American art collections. Funding for special exhibitions is not included under this category; museum permanent collection projects are eligible.

A letter of inquiry may be submitted at any time and the foundation’s directors review proposals at board meetings three times a year. Inquiry letters should be no more than two pages including the basic facts about the project, i.e., who, what, when, where, why and estimated cost. Proposals are not accepted from individuals.

As of March 2010, The Luce Foundation is pleased to announce a special initiative – the American Art Renewal Fund, in response to the current need to strengthen American art museums. For maximum impact, the initiative is by invitation only.

An acknowledged steward of American art, the Foundation has approved $130 million in grants since 1982 to enhance programs at museums, universities and service organizations across the United States. The Foundation values its reputation as responsive to the fields it serves and the American Art Renewal Fund (AARF) builds on a significant past investment in American art.

The recent economic downturn has stalled progress and negatively affected American art museums, as widely reported in the press and trade publications, and by industry associations. Museums across the country have seen great reductions in their endowments, funding sources and operating funds, together resulting in widespread layoffs, cancellation of exhibitions, modified capital projects, shortened public hours and increased admission fees.

For the balance of 2010 and all of 2011 the responsive grants category of the Luce Foundation’s American art program will focus predominantly on stabilizing American art activities at U.S. art museums through the implementation of the American Art Renewal Fund. Requests to the Fund will be considered for general use, rather than for a specific project, but restricted to support only a museum’s expenditures for American art including programmatic, personnel, maintenance, capital, cash reserves and debt-reduction. Conservation expenses are excluded, as the Foundation distributed $1.75 million in a 2007 special initiative for that purpose, and funds will not be provided for art acquisitions or artist commissions.

At least $4 million in responsive grants is estimated to be approved over the course of the initiative, with the potential to assist 30 to 50 museums with grants ranging from $50,000 to $200,000. Financial and administrative limitations dictate that the applicant pool be narrowed to a manageable size. Therefore, approximately 90 institutions have been invited to apply. All are prior grantees of the Foundation with successful track records fulfilling Luce-funded projects. Many came to the Foundation’s attention through the American Collections Enhancement (ACE) initiative of 1996 to 2000. The museums represent a geographic range across the country and have annual operating budgets from $500,000 to $70 million. Proposals will be managed in the same manner as previous responsive grants, presented at board meetings for approval by the Foundation’s directors (twice in 2010 and three times in 2011). During the AARF initiative other types of responsive projects may also be considered, but on a limited basis. The exhibition (Luce Fund) and dissertation fellowship components of the American art program remain unchanged.

See Recent Grants for examples of museums and projects that have been supported.

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