California Institute of the Arts is pleased to announce that its School of Art is the first recipient of the Felix Gonzalez-Torres Travel Grant. Generously awarded by the Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation, the $25,000 grant will provide $5,000 per year over the next five years — allowing talented student artists to participate in an increasingly globalized artistic landscape. The first student grants will be awarded in spring 2015.

González-Torres

Felix Gonzalez-Torres (1957-1996) taught at CalArts’ School of Art in 1990. His work often referenced concepts of travel and he prioritized the potential for meaning to unfold in changing settings and locations. “We are proud to have counted Felix Gonzalez-Torres among our faculty in the School of Art,” said School of Art Dean Thomas Lawson, “and are honored to award travel grants to our outstanding young artists in his name. The funding will allow our students to go further and stay longer in the pursuit of ambitious projects.”

At CalArts, students are encouraged to be active members of their communities, whether on campus, in the region, or in the broader world. The grants will provide support for domestic and international travel—enabling students to develop their art practices in continually expanding contexts, and create the international networks that can help advance their careers during the crucial first years after graduation.

Installation view of Itinerari. Castello di Rivara, Turino, Italy. 1991.

The School of Art selection committee, led by Dean Lawson, will review student applications and allocate the $5,000 grant award among up to three students per year. Grants will be awarded on the merit of the travel proposed and its relevance to students’ art making goals at the Institute.

The Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation is dedicated to maintaining, building, and facilitating knowledge and understanding around Felix Gonzalez-Torres’ work. The Foundation’s activities are concentrated on preserving the open-endedness of Gonzalez-Torres’ work over time and carries out its charitable and educational mission by providing information and guidance about the nature of the work, facilitating exhibitions and publications, licensing reproduction of the artist’s artworks, and supporting scholarship at all levels.