Creativity Explored Selected to Receive 2025 Teiger Foundation Grant
We’re excited to announce that Teiger Foundation—the only U.S. foundation dedicated exclusively to supporting contemporary art curators—has selected Creativity Explored as one of its 2025 grantees! We are among 85 curators and 54 institutions across the United States to receive a grant as part of the Foundation’s Call for Proposals. The grant program advances innovative curatorial practice in contemporary art, supporting projects beyond traditional art centers—from rural Mississippi and Appalachia to Hawai‘i and Puerto Rico—that engage with the environmental, political, and cultural contexts of their local communities. This year, the Foundation awarded $7 million to US curators at organizations of all sizes to conduct research, mount exhibitions, and host touring shows, and curators at organizations with budgets of $3.5 million and below to realize three years of programming.
Teiger Foundation’s grant was awarded to support Creativity Explored’s Exhibitions Coordinator Alisa Polischuk to establish guidelines for arts professionals on how to partner with artists with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD) in the exhibition planning and curating process. The results will be published as a free, digital resource. You can find out more about the project here.
"Through connecting with my colleagues and artists at Progressive Art Studios across the country, I’m excited to capture the wide range of approaches, perspectives, and solutions folks have developed around the exhibition planning process and the representation of artists with IDD,” Alisa said. “I have always been energized by the innovative spirit of Progressive Art Studios, and look forward to collaborating on this comprehensive resource, created for our community, by our community."
We’re proud to be among several Bay Area organizations to receive Teiger Foundation grants this year, which also include:
Theresa Hak Kyung Cha: Multiple Offerings at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, the first retrospective of the artist in over 20 years. Curated by Victoria Sung with Tausif Noor, the exhibition will present Cha’s most comprehensive body of work to date, including pieces never before shown publicly, focusing on her explorations of language, memory, and diasporic identity.
CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts is entering a new chapter of site-responsive programming following its move to California College of the Arts’ unified campus. Led by Daisy Nam, Jeanne Gerrity, and Diego Villalobos, new initiatives include Venue, an outdoor commissioning series debuting with a performance by Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste, followed by projects from Justin Caguiat, Rafael Delacruz, and Lotus L. Kang. A research season will activate the galleries through installations and public programs exploring labor and rest, while the Wattis residency relaunches with CFGNY.
Lian Ladia, Curatorial and Organizational Director at 500 Capp Street, leads with a vision that bridges curatorial experimentation, institutional transformation, and equity in contemporary art. With an MA in Curatorial Studies from Bard College and training from the De Appel Curatorial Programme in Amsterdam, she has developed artist residencies, educational initiatives, and an archive team rooted in mentorship and accessibility.
“Curators play a critical role in shaping cultural narratives, we are proud to support this dynamic and diverse cohort of leaders,” said Larissa Harris, Executive Director of Teiger Foundation. “We’re excited to support an expanded range of curatorial voices across geography, experience, and institutional scale, underscoring our belief that critical, ambitious work is happening in every corner of the country. These new programs allow us to meet curators where they are, respond to the evolving needs of the field, and ensure that artists and communities have the thoughtful stewardship they deserve.”
The complete list of grantees can be found at teigerfoundation.org.