The first six years of Sixty were fueled and funded by a mix of individual donations, anonymous gifts, in-kind offers, curatorial collaborations, parties, and small niche grants. Since 2018, we’ve been seeking and building an increasing number of relationships with grantmakers and foundations who understand or seek to understand the principles, values, and advocacy that drive our editorial, archival, and collective work.
We are always seeking out new grant or sponsorship opportunities that align with our work. Leads and inquiries can be sent to info@sixtyinchesfromcenter.org.
The following are a few of our most recent grant partners.
Teiger Foundation supports curators in contemporary visual art. In 2022, Sixty Inches From Center received a three-year grant supporting co-curators Tempestt Hazel and Kate Hadley Toftness as part of Teiger Foundation’s inaugural year of grants programming. This grant supports Sixty’s Chicago Archives + Artists Project, including our archive + artist pairings and the Chicago Archives + Artists Festival. Teiger Foundation’s support makes possible the ongoing evolution of this project.
Arts Midwest has provided Sixty with emergency pandemic support (with funding from the NEA) and also funding to take CANJE to Peoria, Illinois. Arts Midwest supports, informs, and celebrates Midwestern creativity. They build community and opportunity across Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin, the Native Nations that share this geography, and beyond. As one of six nonprofit United States Regional Arts Organizations, Arts Midwest works to strengthen local arts and culture efforts in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, state agencies, private funders, and many others. Learn more at artsmidwest.org.
Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelley Foundation
The Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelley Foundation first supported Sixty through a project grant to support a cohort of artist/archive residencies for our Chicago Archives + Artists Project. They have also provided grants for our general operations. The Donnelley Foundation is known for supporting land conservation, artistic vitality, and regional collections for the people of the Chicago region and the Lowcountry of South Carolina.
Sixty was part of the first cohort of Hauser & Wirth Institute’s grants to organizations and projects that foster innovation and advance equity in the field of artists’ archives. They are the primary supporters of the latest iteration of our Chicago Archives + Artists Project, the book Case Studies in Collaboration which gathers reflections and documentation on 5+ years of collaborations between artists, archivists and special collections in Chicago.
The Joyce Foundation and Builders Initiative
Although they are each distinctly different and unrelated in their funding, we also discuss these funders jointly because Joyce Foundation and Builders Initiative provided critical operating support to Sixty at around the same time, which helped us implement the most ambitious and hard-to-fund elements of our 2019 Reflection and Growth Plan, or a 4-year blueprint that outlines Sixty’s long term goals, dreams, and organizational needs as we evolve as a worker-led organization and collective. The Joyce Foundation invests in public policies and strategies to advance racial equity and economic mobility for the next generation in the Great Lakes region. Builders Initiative works with people and organizations to help build a more humane and healthy planet by supporting work in Food and Agriculture, Climate and Energy, Oceans, and Community.
Society of American Archivists Foundation
The Society of American Archivists Foundation was the lead supporter for the inaugural volume of the Loss/Capture Project, an editorial project co-led by archivists, librarians, artists, activists, and curators that explores the current state of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and POC collections in and beyond Chicago. The project is designed to speak directly to local and national archiving communities while bringing the archival profession’s best practices and most pressing concerns to an audience of cultural workers, artists, writers, curators, grantmakers, street scholars, and community archivists. SAA Foundation is a leading source of nonprofit funding dedicated to the interests of archives and archivists.
The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts
Thanks to AWF, Sixty was able to spend two years researching, developing, piloting and expanding several of our core editorial and archival projects and efforts, including Smiling Behind the Sun, Chicago Archives + Artists Project, CANJE, and more. The AWF Foundation is dedicated to supporting the creation of new work by experimental visual artists through flexible grants to the organizations and institutions that support them. They fund projects and organizations that challenge art historical and social conventions, address systemic inequities, and push art in new directions, whether through content, concept, aesthetics, process, techniques, or materials.
Walder Foundation and The Arts Work Fund
Although they are each distinctly different and unrelated in their funding, we discuss these funders jointly because The Arts Work Fund and Walder Foundation both took a chance on a seedling of an idea. They’ve both provided Sixty with early support for the creation of Sixty Collective, a platform and custom benefits program that will allow us to dedicate more time and resources to nurturing the creative lives and livelihoods of the people contributing to all areas of Sixty’s work. The Arts Work Fund provided support for two years of thinking and testing around the program. Then, Walder Foundation provided the seed funding Sixty is using to develop and launch the first iteration of the program. Additionally, and to expand the presence of dance, music, and theater in the Collective, Walder Foundation is providing Sixty with critical editorial support to grow our coverage of the performing arts in Chicago.