New Art Grants Program Set Up for Minorities

Ten California arts institutions have been invited to submit proposals to the first round of AT&T;’s New Art/New Visions program, designed to promote the work of women and artists of color.

Five proposals will be selected in March from a nationwide field of 50 candidates. Winners will receive challenge grants ranging from $25,000 to $75,000 to develop and present innovative exhibitions of new art and educational programs, and to acquire artworks. Artists, curators, educators and administrators will jury the new program.

Southern California institutions currently developing proposals are the California Afro-American Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Plaza de la Raza, the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena, the Long Beach Museum of Art and the San Diego Museum of Art. Northern California participants are the Asian Art Museum, the Mexican Museum and the Friends of Photography, all in San Francisco.

AT&T;, which has sponsored such major exhibitions as “High and Low: Modern Art and Popular Culture,” launched the program to “allow American museums to undertake challenging contemporary art exhibitions and to build their permanent collections.”