Anonymous Was A Woman (AWAW) and the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) have named this year’s recipients of the AWAW Environmental Art Grants program. Together, the arts organizations awarded $521,125 to 29 projects.
The program awards one-time grants of up to $20,000 in support of environmental art projects led by women-identifying artists from the United States and its territories. Additionally, selected projects will have a public engagement component completed by August 2026.
A preliminary panel of judges selected the first round of applicants, followed by a second panel who chose the winners. The applications in the second panel were reviewed by Rehema C. Barber, director of curatorial affairs at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts; Clarinda Mac Low, executive director of Culture Push, Inc. & co-director of Works on Water; Diné artist Dakota Mace; Mari Robles, CEO at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts; and Mary Ellen Strom, professor of the practice, media arts at SMFA-Tufts University, Boston. The intended impact of the project factors into the selection process.
“We are living in a time of multiple crises—but we must not be overwhelmed or paralyzed from taking action. Environmental action is more urgently needed than ever before, and artists have a powerful role to play in helping us see, feel, and respond to the crises around us,” Susan Unterberg, AWAW founder, said in a statement. “The 2025 AWAW Environmental Art Grants recipients are not only illuminating the profound challenges we face, but also imagining new paths of resilience, justice, and collective care. Their projects remind us that art can be both a call to action and a source of hope at a time when both are essential.”
This is the fourth year of the program, with $521,125 in grants already given to 29 projects focused on environmental issues and advocacy across California, Guam, Hawai’i, Louisiana, Maine, México, New York, Nigeria, Senegal, South Korea, and Utah. The 29 projects were selected from 1,004 applications.
AWAW has awarded more than $10 million in unrestricted grants to more than 400 artists, particularly women-identifying artists older than 40, since 1996. Since 2022, it has given $1.4 million in funding to 82 projects.
This year’s recipients are as follows:
BEAM (Annie Chen, Zoe Lee, and Ellen Fritz) in Potter’s Pond, Rhode Island
Heidi K. Brandow in Santa Fe, New Mexico
Charlotte Brathwaite in Popenguine-Ndayane, Senegal
Chantal Calato in Niagara County, New York
Erika Cohn and Nicole Docta in Salt Lake City, Utah
Herban Cura in Hudson Valley and New York, New York
Earth Rise Collective in Vinton, Louisiana
DeepTime Collective (Amanda Leigh Evans and Tia Kramer) in Washington State
Susie Ganch online
Madeline Gunderson in Estado de México, México
Maria Hernandez May in Barrigada, Guam
Tomiko Jones in Madison, Wisconsin
Maryam Kazeem in Lagos, Nigeria
Leilehua Lanzilotti in San Francisco, California
Sujin Lim in Yeongheung Island, South Korea
Jemila MacEwan in New York
Jennifer Neptune with Erin Hutton in Penobscot Nation Museum, Indian Island, Maine
Natalia Neuhaus in Niagara Falls, New York
Margaret Pearce with Prairie Island THPO and Ho-Chunk Nation Cultural Resources and The Anderson Center in Mississippi River
Emily Raboteau in Bronx, New York
Tiare Ribeaux in Honolulu, Hawai’i
LaRissa Rogers in Los Angeles, California
Cara Romero in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Chemehuevi Indian Reservation, California
Virginia San Fratello in California
Nina Sarnelle in Los Angeles, California
Theresa Secord in Farmington, Maine
Supermrin in Brooklyn, New York, and Cincinnati, Ohio
Xochipilli Collective in Houston, Texas
Zahra Rasool and Ariel Ritchin in Hoosick Falls, New York
