For Immediate Release
Trellis Art Fund Announces 2025 Milestone Grant Recipients
Twelve Artists Nationwide Awarded $100,000 in Unrestricted Grants
New York, NY – July 8, 2025 – Trellis Art Fund, is excited to announce their twelve 2025 Milestone Grant recipients, who will receive an unrestricted grant of $100,000 paid in two installments over a two-year period. The award encourages artists to ‘keep going’ to sustain and uplift their creative practices with a supportive community. Trellis Art Fund envisions a world where the work of individual artists is recognized for its intrinsic value; holding art as an unparalleled means to understand ourselves and connect with others.
Trellis Art Fund’s Program Director Emily Davidson shared, “While this year’s grantees vary greatly in their career stage, many mentioned how meaningful the grant is, not only as a financial boost but as affirmation and encouragement during this challenging economic and cultural moment. We’re excited to see how these funds, and being in community with one another, might impact these grantees over the next two years and beyond.”
For their second annual Milestone grant cycle, Trellis Art Fund invited 56 artists, curators, and art world professionals nationwide to nominate artists living in or eligible to work in the United States. Artists submitted applications throughout the Spring, after which an anonymous jury of 5 art leaders reviewed submissions and picked twelve artists from an applicant pool of 81. Trellis reserves a number of grants for artists who are also caregivers to children, seniors (such as parents), and other family members in need. In this round, four artists fit this designation, and they are: Julie Buffalohead, william cordova, Tuan Andrew Nguyen, and Amanda Ross-Ho.
Young Joon Kwak, one of Trellis’ 2024 Grantees, said, “Receiving the Trellis Milestone Grant allowed me to continue making work that speaks first to my community rather than the market. At a time when public support for the arts is eroding and artists are expected not only to survive but to grow and sustain a practice, Trellis’s support offers a rare kind of permission to be bold, brave, and uncompromising in our work.”
The diverse, interdisciplinary group of applicants ranged from 29 to 83 years old and came from 19 of the 50 states, plus Puerto Rico. 71.6% self-identified as artists of color, and 37% identified as LGBTQIA+. The Milestone cohort is similarly diverse: they work across various mediums of painting, sculpture, filmmaking, video, installation, and performance and span 38 to 82 years old. The jury selected the artists for the Milestone cohort based on the commitment they have demonstrated to their practice, their unique contributions to their fields, and the sustained high level of quality within their work.
Trellis Art Fund announced their first round of grantees in July 2024. Over the course of running their initial program, Trellis saw the need to support more artists and launched the smaller Stepping Stone grant in January 2025, renaming the larger award as the Milestone Grant. The Stepping Stone grant allocates $20,000 to 20 artists in various stages of their careers. During the Stepping Stone grant cycle, Trellis redefined its designation for “caregivers” from parents of children under 12 to include those who are caregivers of any relative or loved one.
In making unrestricted grants, Trellis encourages artists to apply the funding to any area of their practice in accordance with their needs. Throughout the two-year grant allocation period, Trellis also provides the grantees with resources for their professional development, including workshops to foster various aspects of their careers. In November 2025, Trellis will host a retreat in Upstate New York for this year and last year’s Milestone Grantees, giving them an opportunity to meet one another and build community.
2025 Grant Recipients:
Willie Birch, New Orleans, LA
Julie Buffalohead, St. Paul, MN
Nao Bustamante, Los Angeles, CA
william cordova, Miami, FL
Sofía Gallisá Muriente, San Juan, PR
Harmony Hammond, Gallisteo, NM
Maren Hassinger, New York, NY
Guadalupe Maravilla, New York, NY
Tuan Andrew Nguyen, Los Angeles, CA and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Walid Raad, Medusa, NY
Amanda Ross-Ho, Los Angeles, CA
Diana Thater, Los Angeles, CA
Julie Buffalohead, william cordova, Tuan Andrew Nguyen, and Amanda Ross-Ho are the 2025 Trellis Art Fund Caregiver Grantees.
About Trellis Art Fund
Trellis Art Fund is a private organization based in New York City, dedicated to providing support to individual artists so they may pursue their creative endeavors. The foundation envisions a world where the work of individual artists is recognized for its intrinsic value. Trellis believes that visual art offers essential benefits to humanity, both as the quintessential expression of our times and as an unparalleled means to understand ourselves and connect with other human beings, and that its practitioners deserve recognition and sustained support to cultivate their work. To achieve this, Trellis creates a community wherein artists are supported as they deepen and expand their practices.
Media Contacts:
For interviews, background and images, please contact: Katrina Stewart
Blue Medium, Inc.