Wexner Center for the Arts to receive $20,000 Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts

The Wexner Center for the Arts, the multidisciplinary contemporary art laboratory at The Ohio State University, has been approved for a $20,000 Grants for Arts Projects award from the National Endowment for the Arts. The funding will support the operation of the center’s Film/Video Studio, a residency program for filmmakers and artists working in the moving image.

The Film/Video Studio is among the more than 1,100 projects across America totaling nearly $27 million that were selected during this second round of Grants for Arts Projects fiscal year 2021 funding.

“As the country and the arts sector begin to imagine returning to a post-pandemic world, the National Endowment for the Arts is proud to announce funding that will help arts organizations such as the Wexner Center for the Arts reengage fully with partners and audiences,” said NEA Acting Chairman Ann Eilers. “Although the arts have sustained many of us during the pandemic, the chance to gather with one another and share arts experiences is its own necessity and pleasure.”

"Despite having to close to the public for much of 2020, the center has been able to maintain its direct support to artists,” states Executive Director Johanna Burton. “This is in part through the remote work of our Film/Video Studio staff and the generosity of funding programs such as the NEA’s Grants for Arts Projects. It’s especially meaningful to be recognized in this way at this time, as we continue to emerge from the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Each year, the Film/Video Studio supports approximately 25 filmmakers and video artists from around the world as they create works ranging from documentaries and narratives to experimental films and gallery-based installations. The Studio backs specific projects at various stages in the postproduction process, providing artists with the technical assistance and creative guidance needed to finish their work. Although the physical studio space has been closed for over a year due to COVID-19 restrictions and safety concerns, the Film/Video Studio staff has been able to continue its work with filmmakers online.

“The collaboration and patience of [Film/Video Studio editors] allowed us to complete the film, despite the many obstacles of the COVID-19 context, to a degree of polish we could not have otherwise achieved,” says Michelle Grace Steinberg, who finished her documentary A Place to Breathe with Studio support in 2020.

“[Wex Studio editors] pore over the details of films in progress, extract subtle meanings and make new connections,” says Catalina Alvarez, who is working with

the Film/Video Studio on her forthcoming film Sound Spring. “Furthermore, they are committed to putting in the time it takes to move new work along.”

More information about the Film/Video Studio is available here.

For more information on the projects included in the Arts Endowment grant announcement, visit arts.gov/news.