NYFA Partners with Woodman Family Foundation (WFF) on New Housing Stability Grant for New York City-Based Visual Artists

In its inaugural cycle, the WFF Housing Stability Grant for Artists (WFF HSG) will award three-year grants of $30,000 to five artists.

The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) and the Woodman Family Foundation (WFF) will launch a new grant program in recognition of the increasing unaffordability of rental housing in New York City and the housing insecurity it creates for artists. Called the WFF Housing Stability Grant for Artists (WFF HSG), it will award $30,000 grants—distributed over three years—to five New York City-based visual artists in its first cycle with the goal of improving artists’ housing stability. 

Through this grant, NYFA and the Woodman Family Foundation hope that recipients will be able to remain in, or find, reliable and stable housing for at least three years, thereby allowing them to focus on their creative practice and build more sustainable careers. Recipients may use the funds for new housing that reduces their rent obligation, guarantees a stable rental obligation such as a lengthy lease in their existing or new housing, and/or provides greater access to live/work space.

The 2025 application cycle will open Tuesday, February 11, 2025, with applications closing on Tuesday, April 8, 2025. There are three eligibility criteria in this program: Individual, Artistic, and Emergency. Applicants must meet all three areas, as of the cycle’s deadline, to apply. Please click here for full details.

The program is administered by NYFA and made possible through the support of the Woodman Family Foundation, which was established by Betty Woodman (1930-2018) and George Woodman (1932-2017) in dedication to stewarding their artistic legacies and that of their daughter, Francesca Woodman (1958-1981). All visual artists, they lived and worked in New York City in a more affordable time. Each intimately understood that secure housing within the city’s active arts community is vital to the lives and work of artists. As such, the WFF HSG will serve established visual artists living in, and planning to remain living in, New York City.

“For anyone living in New York City finding affordable housing is next to impossible. For artists the situation is even more extreme” said Michael Royce, CEO, New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA). “Through partnership with the Woodman Family Foundation in offering this pilot program, we hope to be part of the solution of keeping the cultural capital of the world a place where artists can thrive.”

Explains Lissa McClure, Executive Director of the Woodman Family Foundation: “In addition to being prolific artists themselves, Betty, Francesca, and George Woodman were deeply engaged with and supportive of other artists and their work. This grant is the Foundation’s way of carrying on their commitment to artists at a time when the financial realities of living in the city have become so prohibitive. Each of our artists lived and worked in New York at different points in their careers, and it was critical to their artistic development. Francesca moved here in 1979 after graduating from RISD to build her career. Betty and George, more established artists and art professors in Boulder, arrived a year later. George continued to show in museums and galleries in New York and the move was pivotal in Betty’s shift from potter to sculptor.”

As an emergency grant, decisions will be made based on demonstrated need and history of professional practice, not artistic merit. Due to the expected large number of qualified applications and the limited amount of funds, NYFA will review applications for eligibility and completeness. Eligible applications will then be assessed by a review panel based on the demonstrated need of each applicant. Following the panel review, the top-scoring applications will be placed into a lottery for final selection.

For those interested in applying, the NYFA Grants team will host virtual information sessions on Thursday, February 13 at 3PM ET and Tuesday, March 11 at 3PM ET, designed to help artists understand if they are eligible and how to build a strong application. The live session will have a Q&A section where artists can ask the Grants team questions about the application process. All info sessions are held virtually over Zoom, are free to attend, and are presented in English. Registration is required.

The 2025 application is a pilot cycle. Those interested in helping to address the issue of affordable artist housing can contribute funds to this annual award by donating here.

The Woodman Family Foundation (WFF), based in New York City, is a non-profit organization established by Betty Woodman and George Woodman during their lifetimes that became active in 2020. WFF is a unique artist endowed foundation in that it stewards the artwork and legacies of three artists: Betty Woodman (1930 – 2018), sculptor; Francesca Woodman (1958 – 1981), photographer; and George Woodman (1932 – 2017), painter and photographer. WFF maintains and oversees a substantial collection of artworks by each artist from all periods and media, organizes museum and gallery exhibitions and publications of their work, and facilitates the placement of their works in public collections. WFF is in the process of cataloguing the extensive archives of each of the artists to create a study center open to scholars and curators to conduct research and create new scholarship. This partnership with NYFA is their first foray into making grants to support artists.

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