Light Work Photography by Karen M Brummund
From the project “Casa Poli” 2011
The Verdant Fund supports public-facing projects that complicate and expand narratives of creative practice born of and within Alabama. With an emphasis on artists that have been underrepresented and underfinanced within the state, we bolster risk-taking within the field and divergent paths within contemporary practice.
An expansion of the Warhol Foundation’s Regional Re-granting program, the Verdant Fund supports creative practice born of and within Alabama. The fund’s goal is to reach a broad range of artists across all geographic areas of the state. The Verdant Fund distributes $60K+ in project grants each year. The goal of our work is to support artists working in community, aid in artist retention in the state, and deepen the network among people in creative practice.
The Verdant Fund is administered through a partnership between Alabama Contemporary Art Center, Coleman Center for the Arts, and Space One Eleven.
Mobile, AL
Founded in 1999, Alabama Contemporary Art Center is a non-profit contemporary arts center located in the heart of the port city of Mobile, on the southern coast of Alabama. We are a non-collecting organization that is committed to the work of living artists. We serve our community by originating ten to twelve exhibitions a year, offering public programming, adult and children’s education, and outreach programming. Through guest curatorship, artist residencies, and our Independent Projects program, we create sustainable opportunities for curators and artists worldwide to make work, take risks, and explore divergent paths.
York, AL
The Coleman Center was founded in 1985 through the grassroots efforts of local citizens, and programs have evolved to answer the needs of the community. Its work is done through five main programmatic arms: arts education for area youth and adults; a community-based artists’ residency that produces socially engaged public art projects and events; xhibitions that feature the work of regional artists; a free, public community garden that promotes small-scale food production; and Pop Start, a storefront space for artists-community experimentation.
Birmingham, AL
A nonprofit visual arts center founded in 1986, Space One Eleven showcases contemporary exhibitions and promotes social justice through the visual arts, where artists innovate, explore, and take risks while creating provocative new work. Space One Eleven presents artist’s talks, public forums, professional development workshops for artists, and offers free arts education for children and youth from overlooked families through its City Center Art afterschool program and summer art camps. It is our belief that cross-cultural, community-based arts programs knit together the fabric of a community by elevating public discourse.
