Trellis Art Fund Inc.

Trellis Art Fund operates through a nomination-only model that makes it fundamentally different from most foundations where applicants take the initiative. Artists cannot self-nominate; they must first be identified and put forward by one of the fund's nominators — a carefully curated network of artists, curators, and arts professionals distributed across the country. This closed-entry structure means that relationship-building within the broader arts ecosystem is the primary pathway to consideration, not grant-writing skill.

The foundation's giving philosophy centers on unrestricted, multi-year financial support for individual visual artists, with a clear preference for those outside the commercial art market and from historically underrepresented backgrounds. The 2025 cohort data reveals this concretely: 71.6% of Milestone Grant recipients self-identified as artists of color; 37% identified as LGBTQIA+. Geographic scope is equally intentional — that cycle reached artists from 19 states plus Puerto Rico, and the nominator network is national by design.

The fund offers two distinct pathways depending on career stage. The Milestone Grant ($100,000 over two years) targets artists with established, sustained practices whose impact is demonstrable. The Stepping Stone Grant ($40,000 over two years) was launched in January 2025 for emerging and mid-career artists with original, promising practices. Both grants are entirely unrestricted — funds can be applied to studio rent, childcare, materials, healthcare, or personal living expenses — a significant departure from project-based funders requiring tied expenditures.

A defining feature of Trellis's strategy is its caregiver priority. A percentage of each grant cycle is formally reserved for artists who serve as active caregivers. In 2025, the fund expanded its definition beyond parents of young children to include anyone supporting relatives, partners, or loved ones with significant needs. In the 2026 Milestone cycle, five of twelve recipients identified as caregivers — indicating this is a genuine structural commitment, not a token carve-out.

For first-time consideration: prioritize visibility within the nominator network by exhibiting in museum and institutional contexts, participating in prestigious residencies, and maintaining a consistent public presence as an artist. Nominators are distributed nationally, so geography relative to New York is not a factor. The IRS 990 data shows early grants to Portland Art Museum ($60,000) and artist Arlene Shechet ($15,000 for a Storm King Art Center exhibit), suggesting the fund's relationships were established in the East Coast and Pacific Northwest cultural communities from the outset.

Trellis Art Fund is a young foundation — IRS ruling date May 2023, formal launch February 2024 — and its 990 data reflects a clear ramp-up trajectory. FY2022 shows $15,889,522 in contributions received as the initial endowment was capitalized, with just $4,826 in total giving (administrative setup). FY2023 shows the first meaningful grant activity: $75,000 in grants paid to two recipients — Portland Art Museum ($60,000 for charitable purposes) and artist Arlene Shechet ($15,000 for an exhibit at Storm King Art Center). These early grants appear to be exploratory relationship-building disbursements, not representative of the full program scale. Total giving in FY2023 was $413,216 including program expenses beyond direct grants.

By 2025, the fund reached full program scale. The Milestone Grant cycle represents $1.2 million per cohort (12 artists × $100,000), paid in two annual installments of $50,000 each. The Stepping Stone program adds $800,000 per two-year cohort (20 artists × $40,000), also in annual tranches of $20,000. With both programs running and prior-year second installments disbursing simultaneously, total annual outflows are approximately $1.4–2.0 million. The Artforum-reported $820,000 for the expanded 2025 Stepping Stone disbursement alone confirms this scale.

Grant size: Milestone grants at $100,000 unrestricted over two years rank among the larger individual artist prizes in the United States. The Stepping Stone at $40,000 is competitive with peer programs at foundations like the Rauschenberg Foundation and United States Artists. Neither program imposes discipline, geography, age, education, or career-stage restrictions beyond the general excellence criteria.

Asset trajectory: $14,927,471 (FY2022) → $18,996,663 (FY2023) → $21,858,499 (FY2024), representing 46% growth over two years. Net investment income in FY2023 was $1,986,483, suggesting the portfolio is generating returns that will sustain and likely increase grant volume. With the endowment growing at this pace, total annual giving in the $2–3 million range is achievable within the next 2–3 fiscal years.

The fund does not award grants to organizations for institutional programs; all giving is directed to individual artists. The DB grantee data confirms both of the initial recipients (Portland Art Museum and Arlene Shechet) received funds for artist-centered purposes — an exhibit and a charitable arts purpose — consistent with individual-artist focus even when an institution receives the payment.

The foundations below represent asset-comparable peers identified in the same NTEE category (T22 — Private Grantmaking Foundations) with similar total assets near $21–22 million. Note that none of the asset-comparable peers operate individual artist grant programs; Trellis is distinctive within this cohort.

Trellis stands apart from its asset-size peers in a critical way: its program is entirely public-facing and artist-directed, while the comparable foundations in this cohort are either family or donor-advised vehicles with no public application infrastructure. Within the individual artist grant landscape specifically, Trellis's closest programmatic peers are United States Artists (~$10M annual giving), Creative Capital, and the Joan Mitchell Foundation — all significantly larger operations — making Trellis a distinctive mid-scale funder with outsized per-artist grant sizes relative to its endowment. The nomination-only model also distinguishes it from open-application peers such as the Pollock-Krasner Foundation. Trellis's FY2024 asset base of $21.9M and investment income trajectory suggest it will remain a well-capitalized, independent force in the individual artist grant sector for the foreseeable future.

June 17, 2026: Trellis announced twelve 2026 Milestone Grant recipients, each receiving $100,000 over two years ($1.2M total commitment). Recipients — Kelly Akashi (Altadena, CA), Lisa Alvarado (Chicago, IL), Ei Arakawa-Nash (Los Angeles, CA), Charles Atlas (New York, NY), A.K. Burns (Stone Ridge, NY), Alex Da Corte (Philadelphia, PA), Michiko Itatani (Chicago, IL), Candice Lin (Altadena, CA), Miguel Luciano (New York, NY), Senga Nengudi (Colorado Springs, CO), TT Takemoto (San Francisco, CA), and Rodrigo Valenzuela (Los Angeles, CA) — range in age from 42 to 82, spanning sculpture, painting, installation, film, photography, and performance. Five of the twelve identified as caregivers. Program Director Emily Davidson described the cohort as artists with "indelible impact" who "vary in vision and experience."

Late 2025: Trellis expanded the Stepping Stone program to a two-year rolling model, with 41 artists simultaneously active (20 new 2025 cohort + 21 continuing 2024 cohort), representing $820,000 in total disbursements across that cycle.

July 8, 2025: Twelve 2025 Milestone Grant recipients announced. The selection process drew on 56 nominators nationally and reviewed 81 applicants, with a five-person anonymous jury making final selections. A November 2025 retreat in Upstate New York brought current and prior grantees together for professional development and community-building.

2025: Caregiver definition formally expanded. The fund also launched the Stepping Stone Grant in January 2025 as a new program tier.

FY2024: Assets reached $21,858,499, up from $18,996,663 in FY2023, reflecting both investment returns and ongoing contributions to the endowment.

Because Trellis operates a nomination-only model, the strategic calculus is fundamentally different from open-application foundations. The path to a grant runs through the nominator network, not the grant portal — and that means the following concrete steps apply.

Building toward nomination: Trellis's nominators are artists and arts professionals drawn from across the country. Exhibiting in museum and non-profit gallery contexts (rather than commercial galleries alone), participating in competitive residency programs, publishing critical writing or being the subject of it, and maintaining an active, visible practice over many years are the primary pathways to being nominated. The fund explicitly favors artists outside the commercial market, so a strong track record in public or institutional settings carries more weight than gallery representation.

Once nominated: Milestone nominees are notified in December; Stepping Stone nominees in February. Time is limited — respond immediately. Required materials submitted via Submittable (trellisartfund.submittable.com/submit) include a professional CV, written statement, and images with supplementary materials.

Written statement strategy: The jury's stated criteria are "demonstrated trajectory of excellence, sustained professional commitment, and a consistent, engaged practice." Your statement should narrate the evolution of your practice across years or decades — not just a current project. Articulate what your work contributes to the field specifically and why continuity of practice matters to you. Generic statements about artistic process underperform; specific account of how your work has developed and what drives its consistency will resonate.

Caregiver disclosure: If you are actively caring for a child, elderly relative, family member with special needs, partner, or loved one with significant care needs, state this explicitly. Trellis reserves a percentage of grants for caregivers in every cycle and expanded the definition in 2025. In 2026, five of twelve Milestone recipients identified as caregivers — this is a meaningful competitive factor.

Diversity and underrepresentation: The fund's stated priority is artists from historically underrepresented groups. Be candid and specific about your background and your positionality in the art world; vague gestures at diversity are less effective than direct, honest framing.

Direct contact: info@trellisartfund.org or (646) 476-4144. Program Director Emily Davidson has been named in press releases — if you have a professional context to make contact, that relationship may be valuable.