Terra Foundation for American Art – The Terra Foundation fosters intercultural dialogues and encourages transformative practices to expand narratives of American art.

Image: Beverly Buchanan, slab works, c. 1978–1980. Cast concrete sculptures with acrylic paint. Dimensions unknown. Courtesy the Frances Mulhall Achiles Library, Artist File, Whitney Museum of American Art.

Grants Awarded Summer 2024

Jessica Winters, born in Makkovik, Nunatsiavut, Newfoundland and Labrador, in 1996, Lichen (Hopedale 1), 2023, Acrylic on canvas, 91,5 x 91,5 cm, MMFA, purchase, the Paradis family fund in memory of Claude Paradis, Photo MMFA.

Chicago Grants Awarded 2024

Andrea Carlson, Perpetual Genre, 2024. Oil, acrylic, gouache, ink, color pencil, and graphite on paper; overall: 45.5 × 61 in. (115.6 × 154.9 cm). Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Block Board of Advisors Endowment Fund purchase, 2024.2a-d. © Andrea Carlson. Courtesy of the artist and Bockley Gallery.

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The Terra Foundation fosters intercultural dialogues and encourages transformative practices to expand narratives of American art.

Our grant program, art collection, and initiatives support visual art projects that broaden understandings of American art and transform how its stories are told.

Grant Opportunities

Announcements & Deadlines

Collections Grants: Letters of Inquiry Due August 4

The foundation invites proposals for collections grants to provide support for organizations to reinterpret and re-present their collections through reinstallations or temporary exhibitions drawn from their permanent collections.
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Convening Grants: Letters of Inquiry Due September 29

Grant support is available for programs that foster exchange and collaboration, such as workshops, symposia, and colloquia.
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Terra Foundation Collection

The Terra Foundation collection of American art includes over 750 paintings, prints, drawings, photographs, and sculptures by 242 artists.

Frederic Edwin Church, The Iceberg, 1875

Impressionist painting of a street scene in Paris. Two individuals and a dog are in the foreground, and a domed building is in the background. The sky is gray and cloudy.

Henry Ossawa Tanner, Les Invalides, Paris, 1896

Isabel Bishop, Noon Hour, 1935

Painting of an Laotian boy wearing a red shirt.

Jamie Wyeth, Kalounna in Frogtown, 1986

Painting of letters, newspapers, notebook, a feather, stamp, and other memorabilia held to a brown bulletin board by pinned, thin red tape.

John Frederick Peto, Old Time Letter Rack, 1894

Painting of a telephone wires above a house.

Joseph Stella, Telegraph Poles with Buildings, 1917

Painting of a white woman wearing a pink shirt with a black tie.

Lilla Cabot Perry, Self Portrait, 1889–96

Painting of a boy and a cow, with buildings in the background and a black sky.

Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Boy with Cow, 1921

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News

Arthur Cohen, Amina Dickerson, and Kaywin Feldman headshots.

Terra Foundation Adds Arthur Cohen and Martha Tedeschi to Board of Directors, Amina Dickerson Elected Chair, Kaywin Feldman Elected Vice Chair

March 25, 2025

From left to right: Stephanie Harris; Amina Dickerson; Ric Estrada.

Terra Foundation Adds Ricardo Estrada to Board of Directors, Stephanie Harris Elected Chair, Amina Dickerson Elected Vice Chair

December 4, 2023

A group of people looking at a painting on a wall as they walk by at an exhibition.

Grants Awarded Fall 2024

Grants Awarded Summer 2024

Chicago Grants Awarded 2024

The Terra Foundation fosters intercultural dialogues and encourages transformative practices to expand narratives of American art.

Announcements & Deadlines

Collections Grants: Letters of Inquiry Due August 4

Convening Grants: Letters of Inquiry Due September 29

Terra Foundation Collection

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News

Terra Foundation Adds Arthur Cohen and Martha Tedeschi to Board of Directors, Amina Dickerson Elected Chair, Kaywin Feldman Elected Vice Chair

March 25, 2025

Terra Foundation Adds Ricardo Estrada to Board of Directors, Stephanie Harris Elected Chair, Amina Dickerson Elected Vice Chair

December 4, 2023

Terra Foundation Launches Art Design Chicago: A Citywide Event And Exhibition Series

November 3, 2023