A new artist grant aims to fill the gaps when it comes to paying for childcare. Artists & Mothers, the name of both the grant program and the nonprofit that will administer it, will distribute grants of $25,000 to artists identifying as mothers who are based in New York, which are to be used for childcare. The inaugural winner of the grant is Carissa Rodriguez.
Artists & Mothers was founded by artist Maria De Victoria and arts consultant Julia Trotta, who had been “workshopping an idea around a resource for artists who are mothers,” Trotta told ARTnews in an interview.
Initially, they thought the project could take the form of a residency program with studios and childcare, but ultimately they decided to “boil it down to the most impactful path, thinking about what really do people need and what we established that they needed was funding to be able to pay a childcare provider, flexible to their needs,” which can range from daycare to hiring a nanny, Trotta said.
The prize money was calculated at $25,000 based on what the average cost of full-time childcare in New York for a year. “We decided that we wanted it to really be something that would make a difference—$25,000 is really a lot,” Trotta said.
“I am grateful to Artists & Mothers for recognizing that social reproduction—or more simply put, the care work that holds us together as families and communities—is a vital part of what makes art possible,” Rodriguez said in a statement. “By addressing the crisis of care that so many of us are experiencing, Artists & Mothers stepped in to provide much-needed support that the professional sphere has long overlooked.
Carissa Rodriguez.
Courtesy the artist
As the inaugural winner, Rodriguez will receive the funds over the course of the next year. As an artist, she is known for her research-based practice that examines the structures of the art world and how they facilitate the creation of work. She was also a founding member of the collective Reena Spaulings Fine Art, which she collaborated with for over a decade.
Among her best-known works is The Maid (2018), which was commissioned by SculptureCenter in New York and has been shown across the country, including in the 2019 Whitney Biennial. The film follows several “Newborn” sculptures by Sherrie Levine over the course of a day and their lives in different settings, including museums and private collectors’ homes.
Last month, Rodriguez opened her first institutional solo exhibition in Europe at the Kunstverein München in Munich, Germany. Titled “Imitation of Life,” the show presents a new video work that Rodriguez created during the first year of her firstborn’s life. (Trotta said that selected artists’ practices or forthcoming works do not necessarily have to revolve around motherhood in order to qualify for the grant.)
The exhibition, Trotta said, comes at a “critical juncture” in Rodriguez’s career, one of the main criteria for the prize. Artists often “have children, not at the very beginning of their careers, but [after] they’ve had some success, some attention, some momentum, at that moment, where you have to add this other very important, but very consuming, element to your life,” she said. “We want to make sure that that gap is filled, and that they’re able to still meet the projects, opportunities, and attention that they’ve received so far.”
The geographic restriction for Artists & Mothers, Trotta said, came down to the founders’ own experiences of raising children in the city, having to make decisions based on childcare costs, and “exponentially high costs associated with having a kid here.”
Similarly, the grant is currently restricted to artists with children under 3 years old because enrollment for universal 3-K beings at that age in New York. Trotta said that as the nonprofit grows, they will explore introducing additional programs that would accommodate childcare at different stages.
Carissa Rodriguez, Imitation of Life (04/09/24), still, 2024.
Courtesy the artist
To help realize their vision, De Victoria and Trotta assembled an advisory board consisting of several other art world professionals that included artists Camille Henrot and Maia Ruth Lee, gallerist Bridget Donahue, communications strategist Sarah Goulet, and publisher Elizabeth Karp-Evans, all of whom Trotta described as important figures who “are leading with care.”
The founders and the board all work on a volunteer basis and have been actively fund-raising. The Niki Charitable Art Foundation, founded by artist Niki de Saint Phalle, provided funding for the inaugural 2024 grant, while the James Family Foundation has supported the 2025 grants. Additional donors include artists Sam Moyer, Hilary Pecis, and Arlene Shechet; curators Lumi Tan, Loring Randolph, and Carolyn Ramo; and dealers Hannah Hoffman and Martha Moldovan. “It’s a simple mission; I think people understand the need right away,” Trotta said of her experience soliciting donations. “There’s so much need out there, so, obviously, the more funds we can raise, the more grants we can give out.”
Trotta said the inaugural grant was designed as a pilot program and would differ from subsequent years. For the first year, artists were nominated and selected by the board as a way to “almost move things along faster,” she said. “There was this urgency to getting this project launched,” she said.
Going forward, the grants will have an open-call application that will be decided by an anonymous jury. For 2025, the foundation will dole out at least two grants, though that cohort could rise to three. Trotta said the open-call is key to the program because the board or invited nominators “don’t necessarily know who has children or who doesn’t” and will allow for us to “expand the net wider.”
She added that the application will not be too labor intensive, as “we understand everybody applying to this will already be extremely busy trying to juggle their professional life and their home life.”
