US foundations launch $25,000 cancer grant for New York artists
Two major US arts foundations have partnered to launch an unrestricted $25,000 grant for artists undergoing cancer treatment, highlighting the financial fragility of creative workers and offering a potential model for European cultural institutions.
Two American arts foundations have partnered to establish the Artists Living with Cancer Grant, a $25,000 unrestricted award for New York-based artists undergoing treatment. Conceptual artist Jacolby Satterwhite, a two-time cancer survivor now facing a third diagnosis, is the programme's first recipient.
The initiative arrives as the financial burden of cancer treatment escalates, exposing the economic fragility of creative workers who often lack traditional employment safety nets. Satterwhite’s situation underscores this reality. He recently raised nearly $359,000 from more than 2,000 contributors through a public crowdfunding campaign to cover medical bills, rehabilitation from childhood surgery complications, and lost income.
The Rema Hort Mann Fund (RHMF) and the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation designed the award to be unrestricted. Recipients' needs fluctuate weekly, covering anything from rent and studio costs to caregiving and transportation. “There isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution, and that an artist’s health and creative practice are deeply intertwined,” says Elysia Borowy, the director of the RHMF.
For Satterwhite, whose immersive installations and digital animations are held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art, the illness meant stepping away from work entirely. “This is my third stint, and it feels especially transformative, because it forced me to stop in a way I never had before,” he says. “I had to step off the hamster wheel and become domestic, focused on healing and survival, and that meant losing access to parts of my artistic process.”
The grant aims to provide a structural alternative to relying on individual public generosity. “I didn’t fully understand the impact that my own vulnerability could have on other people,” Satterwhite says. “I think I carried a lot of shame around being sick. Something I had felt embarrassed by, or wanted to hide, has ended up becoming a point of connection and, I hope, a source of empowerment for others.”
Over three decades, the RHMF has distributed more than $9m to over 400 artists with cancer and 2,300 cancer patients. The Rauschenberg Foundation brings a long history of emergency artist aid, stemming from Robert Rauschenberg’s 1970 creation of Change, Inc. “Rauschenberg viewed supporting artists during times of difficulty as an essential part of a thriving cultural ecosystem,” says Courtney J. Martin, the foundation's director.
The organisations plan to open the application cycle in October at the RHMF’s 30th-anniversary gala, where Satterwhite will be honoured. They will also distribute one-time grants of up to $10,000. “We are actively fundraising to expand the programme and ensure its long-term impact,” Borowy says.
The partnership is envisioned as a long-term effort to build a national model for how arts organisations respond to artists navigating cancer. As European cultural institutions face similar pressures to support precarious creative workers through health crises, this unrestricted funding framework offers a concrete template for sustaining a cultural economy.
