Project for Empty Space is pleased to announce the renewal of their Mellon Foundation Growing Capacity Grant which will bring them into the 2025-2026 fiscal year. During this time the Mellon Foundation will grant PES 1.5 million to support continued efforts within their programming including the Artist In Residence Program, Capacity Building and Development.
From 2023 to 2024, the Mellon Foundation awarded PES $1.5 million in funding, empowering the organization to expand its institutional footprint with two new exhibition spaces in Newark, New Jersey. The grant also increased the organization’s capacity to welcome more artists into its Artist In Residence program, while introducing enhanced support in the form of unrestricted honoraria and exhibition stipends. Additionally, the funding provided critical resources to hire new team members, ensuring the effective operation of both the expanded programs and the new facilities.
In celebrating the organization’s fifteen year anniversary, PES for many years has made vast strides in catalyzing community, resources, and space to encourage new artistic practice and intervention. This grant provides the organization with the means to further its mission to create safe and equitable spaces for artistic innovation and complex public engagement by supporting artists whose work is oriented towards social discourse.
The renewal of the Mellon Foundation grant allows PES to continue in fulfilling a strategic goal to support the growth of its direct grants and services to artists, and position them to be increasingly eligible for other sources of funding only available to larger organizations. Within the last year with the support of the previous grant PES have not only expanded their physical footprint and cohorts but have also worked with the City of Newark to create an outdoor installation space for artists to petition for proposals titled Newark Grounds.
With this support, PES will host exhibitions featuring upcoming AIR participants: Andrea Chung, Heather Hart, Helina Metafaria, Jake Troyli, Layqa Nuna Yawar, Lina Puerta, and Noelle Lorraine Williams. These residents will join a celebrated roster of AIR alumni, including Adama Delphine Fawundu, Amy Khoshbin, Azikiwe Mohammed, Daphne Arthur, David Antonio Cruz, Delano Dunn, Derrick Adams, JC Lenochan, Jaret Vadera, Kambui Olujimi, Nadia Estela, Nina Chanel Abney, Renluka Maharaj, Richard Hart, Ron Norsworthy, Shoshanna Weinberger, Victoria-Idongesit Udondian, and Wardell Milan.
PES is a robust and multifaceted organization that is a primary cultural artery for working artists and an ever-broadening nationwide audience. It is with great excitement that co-directors Jasmine Wahi and Rebecca Pauline Jampol continue this next chapter in their organization’s future.
“We are deeply honored and grateful to receive continued support from the Mellon Foundation. This renewed grant is an affirmation of our mission and the impactful work of our artists. With this funding, we can further strengthen our commitment to equity, access, and sustainability in the arts—expanding our programs, deepening our support for artists, and growing our impact within the Newark community and beyond.”
Jasmine Wahi and Rebecca Pauline Jampol
Co-Directors of Project for Empty Space
About The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is the nation’s largest supporter of the arts and humanities. Since 1969, the Foundation has been guided by its core belief that the humanities and arts are essential to human understanding. The Foundation believes that the arts and humanities are where we express our complex humanity, and that everyone deserves the beauty, transcendence, and freedom that can be found there. Through our grants, we seek to build just communities enriched by meaning and empowered by critical thinking, where ideas and imagination can thrive. Learn more at mellon.org.