Lannan Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Lannan Foundation supports the visual arts, creative writing and Indigenous communities through grants and an array of awards and fellowships for individual artists and writers. It also runs award and fellowship programs for writers and others working to protect cultural freedoms.
IP TAKE: Lannan’s grantmaking supports a broad range of organizations in its areas of interest ranging from well-known museums to community libraries and literary organizations. This is not an accessible funder. It does not accept letters of inquiry or proposals of any kind. Prospective grantees may engage with the foundation via its public events, social media or its online contact page. This is going to be a tough nut to crack, so networking will be necessary with the exception of awards and fellowships for creative writing.
PROFILE: The Lannan Foundation was established in New York City in 1960 by J. Patrick Lannan, who served as chair of the Susquehanna Corporation and was a director of the International Telephone and Telegraph Company. Lannan, who died in 1983, was also a great patron of the arts and amassed a large, diverse art collection and established his foundation to support artists and writers. Today, the Lannan Foundation is based in Santa Fe, New Mexico and steered by Lannan’s descendants. It is “dedicated to cultural freedom, diversity and creativity through projects which support exceptional contemporary artists and writers, as well as inspired Native activists in rural indigenous communities.” Its current grantmaking areas are contemporary visual art, literature, indigenous communities and cultural freedom. This funder also runs award and fellowship programs for poetry, fiction, nonfiction and cultural freedom.
Grants for Visual Arts
Lannan’s art program makes grants to nonprofit art organizations for publishing, exhibition, tours and other types of public art programs with an emphasis on contemporary art and artists. One recent grant supported the exhibition and tour of Guy Tillim: Avenue Patrice Lumumba by the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College in Chicago. Another grant supported a collaborative project between Houston’s Menil Collection and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art that produced the exhibition Vija Clemins: Television and Disaster, 1964-66 and its accompanying catalogue. In addition to supporting nonprofit art organizations with grants, the Lannan Foundation loans works of art from the Lannan Collection in Santa Fe to art museums in the U.S. and purchases and donates works of contemporary art to museums and other public institutions.
Grants for Creative Writing
The Lannan Foundation supports the creation, dissemination and broad appreciation of prose and poetry written in English through its literary grants, fellowships and awards programs. The foundation’s literary grants aim to “increase public appreciation, understanding, and support for contemporary literature” and generally go to nonprofit publishers, distributors, literary journals, educational programs and libraries. Past grants have supported organizations including the Folger Shakespeare Library, the Institute of American Indian Arts, Marfa Public Radio and the National Poetry Series.
Lannan also funds awards and fellowships in the areas of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, as well as awards for lifetime achievement and notable books. These awards and fellowships aim to “honor both established and emerging writers whose work is of exceptional quality.” Many recipients of Lannan’s fellowships and awards go on to receive broad acclaim and recognition for their work. In recent years, the foundation has named between five and seven awardees and fellows each year, with the number of recipients in each category varying from year to year. Lists of recipients by category and year are available at the foundation’s website.
Grants for Racial Justice and Indigenous Rights
The foundation’s indigenous communities program “supports the resolve of Native Americans to renew their communities through their own institutions and traditions.” The program makes grants in the areas of Native American tradition, culture and education; language preservation; environmental protection; legal rights and special projects. Priority is given to Native American communities in rural areas of the U.S., Mexico and Canada. One recent grant supported ‘Aha Pnana Leo, an organization that has been a key player in the reestablishment of Hawaiian languages. An environmental grantee, the O’odham Rights Cultural and Environmental Justice Coalition, contested a Mexican company’s plans to create a hazardous waste landfill near U.S. and Mexican villages along the national border. Another grantee, Sinte Gleska University, which serves the Sicangu Lakota Community in South Dakota, used funding to build a gymnasium that will be used for both sports and ceremonial events.
Other Grantmaking Opportunities
The Lannan Foundation also runs a cultural freedom program, which also awards prizes and fellowships. The foundation’s Cultural Freedom Prize recognizes “people whose extraordinary and courageous work celebrates the human right to freedom of imagination, inquiry, and expression.” Past winners include the author and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, Bryan Stevenson; the historian and activist Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and Robert Fisk, a British journalist and author who has worked extensively in the Middle East. Lannan’s Cultural Freedom Fellowships support “individuals whose work inspires their communities, domestic and international, that are struggling to uphold and defend their right to cultural freedom and diversity.” Past fellows include journalists, authors, activists, lawyers, academics, scientists and others working on issues that align with the foundation’s mission.
Important Grant Details:
In recent years, the Lannan Foundation’s grantmaking has ranged from about $7 million to $9 million. Grants to organizations range from a few thousand to $250,000, while awards and fellowships to individuals generally range from $30,000 to $125,000. While this funder supports some large organizations with national presence, many of its grantees are small community-led endeavors. Additional information about past grantees, fellows and award winners is available on the foundation’s individual program pages.
The Lannan Foundation does not accept proposals or letters of inquiry for any of its grantmaking programs. Prospective grantees may choose to join the foundation’s mailing list, participate in its public events or engage with the foundation via social media. General inquiries may be submitted to the foundation’s staff via email or its contact page.
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