Imagine getting a call that says, "Here's $50,000. Do whatever you want with it." That's essentially what just happened for eight visual arts journalists, courtesy of the Dorothea & Leo Rabkin Foundation. Each writer received an unrestricted grant, because apparently, some foundations still believe in giving smart people money and letting them do their thing.
The foundation, based in Portland, Maine, specifically praised this year's recipients for being "deeply interested in the forces that shape what we see—and what we don’t." Which, if you think about it, is a rather elegant way of saying these folks actually pay attention.
Unpacking the Minds Shaping Our View of Art
Among the lucky eight is Damien Davis, an artist and educator who dissects how cultural narratives get built (and rebuilt) through images. Then there's Melaine Ferdinand-King, the inaugural curator of the African American Museum of Rhode Island, who's busy exploring art's role in community cohesion, which is arguably more important than ever.
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Start Your News DetoxTyler Green, a critic, hosts The Modern Art Notes Podcast, which is exactly what it sounds like, but smarter. And Alicia Inez Guzmán? She's an investigative journalist digging into colonialism, identity, and land, currently with a laser focus on the impact of nuclear testing on Indigenous communities. Because nothing says "art world" like radioactive fallout, apparently.
Other recipients include Julia Halperin, an investigative data journalist whose Burns Halperin Report tracks things like fairness and representation in the art world (spoiler: it's complicated). Harvard professor Sarah Lewis, who founded the Vision & Justice initiative, examines culture's role in democracy and penned The Unseen Truth: When Race Changed Sight in America. Also, Jan Tumlir, a founding editor of the contemporary art journal X-TRA, and Kaelen Wilson-Goldie, who links art to global politics.
The foundation gushed that these writers "insist on close attention, deep research, complexity, independent thought, and a long view" – especially crucial when cultural stories are often debated, or, as we like to call it, argued about on the internet.
Since its inception in 2017, the Rabkin Prize has doled out an impressive $4.1 million, making it one of the most substantial grants for visual arts journalists. Let that satisfying number sink in.
And for those who like to peek behind the curtain, the foundation is rolling out a podcast, RabkinInterviews, where the winners will spill the beans on their writing processes and art world philosophies. Melaine Ferdinand-King, for example, dropped this gem during her interview: "History is the ground that we walk on... And art is where history and even identity and lived experience become legible, known to wider audiences." Which, if you consider it, is a pretty profound way to justify staring at paintings for a living.
