About

Artist Relief was organized by the Academy of American Poets, Artadia, Creative Capital, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, MAP Fund, YoungArts, and United States Artists. Artist Relief raised $25 million, beginning with seed funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and then an important lead gift from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. 

In total, Artist Relief operated 13 cycles of funding from April 2020 to June 2021 that supported 4,682 artists with $5,000 emergency relief grants. 

In addition, Artist Relief worked with Americans for the Arts and Yancey Consulting on research efforts to allow us to better identify and address the needs of artists, and independent creative workers, moving forward.

Artist Relief launched on April 8, 2020 with a generous $5 million seed gift from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, to match an initial $5 million in funding generously provided by the following foundations: 7|G Foundation, Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation, Amazon Literary Partnership, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Arison Arts Foundation, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, Ford Foundation, Helen Frankenthaler Foundation COVID-19 Relief Effort, Jerome Foundation, Joan Mitchell Foundation, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Kraus Family Foundation, LeRoy Neiman and Janet Byrne Neiman Foundation, Metabolic Studio, Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, Open Society Foundations, Pritzker Pucker Family Foundation, Richard Salomon Family Foundation, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, The Sue Hostetler and Beau Wrigley Family Foundation, Teiger Foundation, The Wallace Foundation, and The Willem de Kooning Foundation.

Artist Relief resumed from March 2021 to June 2021 thanks to a generous lead gift from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation that was matched by the Lily Auchincloss Foundation, The Willem de Kooning Foundation, DeWitt Stern, a division of Risk Strategies Company, Helen Frankenthaler Foundation COVID-19 Effort, Imperfect Family Foundation, Kinkade Family Foundation, Carolee Schneemann Foundation, Lenore G. Tawney Foundation, and Teiger Foundation.

Artist Relief is deeply grateful to the dozens of national, artist-endowed and family foundations, field partners, and companies, and thousands of individuals that came together to invest in artists whose personal and professional lives were severely impacted by COVID-19. For a list of major Artist Relief funding partners please visit, artistrelief.org/partners.