Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation focuses its visual arts grants on photography, and its disease grantmaking on HIV/AIDS.
IP TAKE: The Mapplethorpe Foundation’s accessible visual arts grants supports photography exhibitions, programs and publications at museums and other visual arts organizations. Its disease grantmaking, which accounts for less than half of the foundation’s grantmaking, focuses exclusively on research, treatment and social services for HIV/AIDS. The foundation predominately limits grantmaking to the U.S., while only a few grants support organizations in Canada, Mexico and the U.K. This is an approachable funder dedicated to its work.
PROFILE: The late photographer Robert Mapplethorpe established the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation in 1988 in order to “protect his work, to advance his creative vision and to promote the causes he cared about.” Mapplethorpe established his foundation just one year before his death from complications related to AIDS. Grantmaking focuses on the “recognition of photography as an art form” and research, treatment and social services related to AIDS/HIV.
Mapplethorpe accepts proposals for funding on an ongoing basis and reviews these at quarterly meetings. Proposal guidelines are available at the foundation’s website. Grants are generally awarded in amounts of up to $50,000.
Grants for Visual Arts
In the visual arts space, the Mapplethorpe Foundation supports photography programs “at the institutional level, including exhibitions, acquisitions, and publications.” Support can take the form of both monetary grants and/or “gifts of original Mapplethorpe artworks.” Mapplethorpe awards grants to both large, landmark art institutions and small, community-based arts organizations. Past grantees include New York City’s Museum of Modern Art and ArtTable Inc., a leadership organization supporting professional women in the visual arts.
Grants for Diseases
The Mapplethorpe Foundation’s disease-related grantmaking focuses exclusively on HIV/AIDS. In its early years, the foundation helped to establish the Robert Mapplethorpe Laboratory for AIDS Research at the Harvard Medical School and the Robert Mapplethorpe Residential Treatment Facility at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City. In recent years, the foundation has made only a few grants per year in this focus area, and these tend to go to large, well-established HIV/AIDS organizations and programs. Recent grantees include amfAR, the Elton John AIDS Foundation and Bailey House, a New York-based organization offering safe and affordable housing for men, women and children living with HIV/AIDS.
Important Grant Details:
In a recent year, the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation made just over $500,000 in grants, typically ranging from $2,000 to $50,000. While most grants go to U.S.-based organizations, a few recent grants have supported organizations in Canada, Mexico and the U.K. For additional information about past grantmaking, see the foundation’s recent tax filings.
The Mapplethorpe Foundation accepts unsolicited requests for funding on a rolling basis. The foundation does not run a formal application process, but applicants may submit “a description of the project and institution, other financial resources obtained or being sought, a project budget, full descriptions and qualifications of personnel involved including other similar or dissimilar projects for which they were responsible, a selection of images for photography-related projects, and any other relevant materials.” Submissions are reviewed at quarterly meetings. The foundation does not award grants to individuals. General inquiries may be submitted to the foundation via its contact page.
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