Anonymous Was a Woman
/OVERVIEW: Anonymous Was a Woman awards $25,000 prizes to women-identifying artists who are over the age of 40 and who are “at a critical juncture in their career.”
IP TAKE: Awards mainly support women working in the visual arts and film, with a few awards going to multi-media artists whose work includes writing and performance.
The foundation is not accessible and does not operate an application program, but artists who meet the foundation’s criteria may consult the foundation’s past recipients page, as past award winners often serve on nomination and selection committees for the awards program. Network with past grantees to get on this funder’s radar. While not accessible, this funder is approachable.
PROFILE: Anonymous Was a Woman was established in 1996 when the National Endowment of the Arts ended its grantmaking programs to support individual artists. The foundation was founded by a New York-based female artists who has chosen to remain anonymous and takes its title from Virginia Woolf’s “A Room of One’s Own.” Each year, Anonymous Was a Woman makes ten grants of $25,000 to “woman-identified artists over the age of 40 and at a critical junction in their career.”
Grants for Visual Arts and Film
Anonymous Was a Woman awards are “given in recognition of an artist’s accomplishments, artistic growth, originality and potential.” Candidates for the award are nominated and chosen by distinguished women “art historians, curators, writers and previous winners from across the country.” Recent awardees have worked mainly in the visual arts and film, with a few awardees working in multiple media that include writing and performance. In a recent year, individual prizes were awarded to women working in the specific areas of weaving, sculpture, photography, painting, film and the design of functional spaces. For information on past award winners, see the organization’s recipients to date page.
Grants for Women and Girls
Anonymous Was a Woman awards are given exclusively to women and women-identifying artists who are over the age of 40. Awardees are nominated and selected by distinguished women from the fields of visual arts, art history and, in some cases, writing and film. Since the organization’s inception in 1996 over 600 women have participated in the awards program.
Important Grant Details:
Anonymous Was a Woman awards are given annually to ten women artists in amounts of $25,000. The foundation does not run an open application program but accepts nominations from “an outstanding group of distinguished women” including past award winners and experts from relevant fields. Grantmaking appears to be limited to artists working mainly in the U.S., but many grantees have roots in other parts of the world. For additional information about awards, see the organizations award and past recipients pages. General inquiries may be directed to the organization via email.
PEOPLE:
Search for staff contact info and bios in PeopleFinder (paid subscribers only).
LINKS:
