Grants

The Astraea Lesbian Visual Arts Fund promotes the work of contemporary lesbian visual artists. Grants are awarded to artists working in an array of media including sculpture, painting, prints, mixed media and works on paper.

After a rigorous selection process, reviewing work in mediums from nail polish to welded steel, Astraea named Jess Dunn, Elaine Gan and amey gee the winners of the 2008 Astraea Visual Arts Fund. The Fund was founded in 2002 to promote the work of contemporary lesbian visual artists who show artistic merit and share Astraea's commitment to LGBTI visibility and social justice.

Each year, three grants of $2,500 are awarded to artists working in an array of media including sculpture, painting, prints, mixed media and works on paper. Two grants are supported by an endowed gift from founding mother and artist Joan Watts. A third grant is made possible by Skip's Sappho Fund, established at Astraea by a bequest from Skip Neal, a lesbian artist who enjoyed a successful career in museum exhibition.

The awards are determined by a distinguished panel of artists and art professionals. This year's panel was composed of: Nancy Azara, Jess Leigh, Karyn Olivier, Flavia Rando, Linda Stein and Mickalene Thomas.

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Jess Dunn

Jess Dunn is an installation-based visual artist and landscape designer based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Her art focuses on ecological sustainability--generating conversations where the familiar opposition of nature and culture is reworked in fragile, hybrid, and intensely corporeal ways. Her three-dimensional and installation projects speak to how historically and culturally specific human populations intersect and transect natural worlds. Jess has exhibited her work in Northern California and New Mexico, and has received grants from the state of New Mexico, and a residency from The Center for Land Use Interpretation in Wendover, Utah. She recently finished her Masters of Fine Arts at the University of New Mexico, and is now pursuing a Masters in Landscape Architecture there, where she continues to create awareness about environmental sustainability through public art. http://jessdunn.carbonmade.com

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Elaine Gan

Born and raised in Manila, Philippines, Elaine Gan works primarily in the public domain and seeks to reconfigure urban spaces, social roles, and popular images. Her work exposes institutionalized networks of hierar chy and privilege that bind certain people together as much as discriminate violently (often invisibly) against others. Elaine holds a B. A. in Architecture from Wellesley College in Massachusetts and recently participated in the Independent Study Program of the Whitney Museum of American Art. She has received awards, grants, and support from organizations that include the New York Foundation for the Arts, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Amnesty International/Firefly Project, and NY Department of Cultural Affairs. Elaine's work has been exhibited at venues including The Soap Factory in Minneapolis, Exit Art, Artists Space, Bronx Museum of the Arts, Socrates Sculpture Park, Islip Art Museum, and P. S. 122.

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Amey Gee

Astraea has honored amey gee's request to post her unedited bio: "I have a BA in Middle Eastern Langauges, MASters of Library Science from Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel and postgraduate certificate in Art Therapy from Thomas Merton Institute in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The genesis of the Art is Spiritual and was the Soul's Sole Way to connect and Ray!connect with niece Tali, then preliterate when 2 oceanSeparated us from face-to-face phase of intHerActions. The Art was thus born and the Treatment RaySisTant Deepressin (TRD) was thus borne if but barely over the last 3.5 decades. I have exhibited at multiple! Juried and curated RxHibits and received a Very Special Arts Minnesota Artists Recognition Grant in 2005 and the Consumer Survivor Network minigrants in 2006 and 2007 to further my ongoing Lyfe imitates Art Owt-of-Beddy FrontRoom Project recycling Knot only Art Matte-Reelz & Realz (& thensome win!!some looze/loose sum!) but also keeping me active & out-of-bed for bedder&Verse [ameygee c-2008]."

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Honorable Mentions:
Caitlin Rose-Applegate

Caitlin Rose-Applegate's work explores ways that we define ourselves for others and what happens when pretense is stripped away. Alone or in intimate groups, her sculptures describe the vulnerability and insecurity felt beneath our perceived exteriors. Her work has shown at venues including the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, the Pulp Gallery, and the Lux Center for the Arts. Rose-Applegate has served as a board member at the Haydon Art Center, and was a contributing artist for Lincoln Art Council's public art Stories of Home Project. In the fall of 2007, Rose-Applegate was awarded an Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation grant. She holds a BFA in Printmaking and Ceramics from the Hartford Art School and an MFA from the University of Nebraska Lincoln.

Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice works for social, racial and economic justice in the U.S. and internationally. Our grantmaking and philanthropic advocacy programs help lesbians and allied communities challenge oppression and claim their human rights.