Mojdeh Rezaeipour: Recipient of the 2020–21 Wherewithal Research Grant
12 DC-based artists receive $5,000 grants in support of collaborative research and idea development
Washington Project for the Arts is excited to announce the first recipients of Wherewithal Research Grants. The twelve artists and collectives, each of whom will receive $5,000, are: Sobia Ahmad, CONTROL-ALT-DELETE, Ayana Zaire Cotton, janet e. dandridge, Jeremiah Edwards & Jeremiah Long, Curry Hackett, Michelle Lisa Herman, MJ Neuberger & Susan Main, Mojdeh Rezaeipour, Asha Adia Santee, Jessica Valoris, and Monsieur Zohore. Their research covers such wide-ranging subjects as ancestral memory, abolitionist technology, socio-ecological relationships, and the resurrection of now-forgotten performances.
An independent panel of four artists and curators reviewed 94 applications and recommended the final 12 for funding. The panelists were Andy Johnson, Gallery Director and Chief Curator, Gallery 102, Corcoran School of the Arts & Design/George Washington University (Washington, DC), Ashley DeHoyos, Curator, Diverseworks (Houston), Christopher K. Ho, artist (New York/Hong Kong), and Sophia Maria Lucas, Assistant Curator, Queens Museum (New York). Wherewithal Research Grants are generously funded by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts through its Regional Re-granting Program.
"Despite the fact that many artists' practices are increasingly research-based, grants that pay for intellectual labor and process-based collaboration are still rare," says Executive Director Peter Nesbett. "WPA is proud to support this type of work and even more excited to learn, even if vicariously, about these compelling subjects."
“The Warhol Foundation’s Regional Regranting Program supports ambitious public-facing artist-led projects in communities across the country” says Rachel Bers, Program Director at the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, “We are proud to partner with WPA on its Wherewithal Research Grants, which turn this moment of COVID- imposed restrictions on public engagement into an opportunity for artists to focus on exploratory thinking and to develop creative strategies for participating in cultural dialogues that address urgent local, regional, and national issues”.
Learn more about each grantee and their research project below and follow along on Instagram at @wherewithalgrants as their work unfolds. Grantees will present their findings during a virtual symposium in July 2021.
Mojdeh Rezaeipour | Mapping Fragments
Mojdeh Rezaeipour’s research focuses on a collection of ancient fragments of pottery that originate from over thirty sites located across the Middle East. She will build and share a library of resources, as well as organize a series of independently-led interviews with an intergenerational group of experts, locals, and creators with lineage across the sites. This inquiry is the beginning of a much more expansive body of research, as well as a first step, perhaps, of a collectively imagined work.