Press Releases
July 25, 2024
Pollock-Krasner Foundation Announces 2023 — 2024 Grants Totaling Over $3 Million
Toba Tucker, CANYONLANDS Utah #6061 (2014), Dead Horse Point, West Rim View
Archival ink jet print
New York, NY, July 25, 2024 – Today, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation announces that it awarded $3,066,000 to 97 artists and nonprofit organizations during its July 2023–June 2024 grant cycle, providing essential support to artists in the United States and around the world. The geographic reach of this year’s grant cycle spans 10 countries—including 12 states and Washington, D.C. in the U.S.—with grantees from South Dakota, New York, Spain, and India, among other locations globally. The Lee Krasner Award, given by the Foundation to an individual in recognition of a lifetime of artistic achievement, is presented to Toba Tucker, a contemporary American photographer who has worked within a lens-based practice for over 50 years.
The Pollock-Krasner Foundation has awarded more than 5,100 grants totaling over $90 million in 80 countries since its establishment in 1985. Approaching its 40th anniversary in 2025, the Foundation provides funding to professional artists internationally to support the creation of new works and the advancement of their practices. Applications for the Pollock-Krasner Foundation’s individual grant program are accepted year-round; for more information or to apply, please visit www.pkf.org.
“Lee Krasner established the Pollock-Krasner Foundation as a demonstration of her commitment to supporting generations of visual artists to follow,” said Ronald D. Spencer, Chairman and CEO of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation. “For almost forty years, the Foundation has provided artists with vital funding through which they can create new works, expand their practice, and contribute to the field as a whole.”
The 2024 recipient of the Lee Krasner Award, Toba Tucker, documents continuity and change in American culture through her work. Born in New York City and now based in Greenport, NY after living and working in Santa Fe, NM, Tucker joins a distinguished group of honorees recognized for their significant contributions to the arts through the Lee Krasner Award, which was established in 1991. Tucker’s photographs predominately focus on Native American populations and communities, with other subjects that include street portraits of pedestrians in New York City and Minneapolis, Minnesota; residents of a drug rehabilitation program; African American members of the First Baptist Church of Riverhead, New York; and others. In recent years, Tucker has photographed the landscape of the American West, referencing the work of 19th-century photographers.
Her work is in the collections of major arts libraries and institutions such as The Beinecke Library at Yale University; Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Musée français de la Photographie in Paris, France; Museum of Modern Art in New York; National Museum of The American Indian in New York; New York Public Library; and The Poeh Museum in Pojoaque, New Mexico, among others.
“The Pollock-Krasner Foundation established the Lee Krasner Award over thirty years ago as a tribute to Lee Krasner’s dedication and commitment to the visual arts. Through this award, we are honored to celebrate artists working today that carry the same passion,” said Caroline Black, Executive Director of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation. “The Foundation is delighted to honor Toba Tucker as this year’s awardee. Her contributions to the field of photography through her poignant images of the American West and of Native American culture and history embody the power that art can hold.”
The Lee Krasner Award distributes funds to recipients in three installments. Recent award winners Oliver Lee Jackson and Josely Carvalho received additional installments of their award during this grant cycle.
To amplify the work of cultural institutions who provide direct support to artists, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation has awarded grants to 23 organizations. Nonprofits that have received grants include Charlotte Street Foundation in Kansas City, MO to support its residency program; Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture in New York, NY for its Charles C. Bergman Fellowship; Yaddo in Saratoga Springs, NY to support several visual artist residencies; and the Musée National Picasso-Paris in France to support the English and French versions of the exhibition catalogue for the presentation Jackson Pollock: The Early Years 1934-1947, opening October 15, 2024. This past spring, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation supported the Portland Art Museum’s presentation of Jeffrey Gibson’s exhibition, the space in which to place me, for the U.S. Pavilion at the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, which is on view through November 24, 2024.
