About JAF: Grants
2021
High Museum of Art
In support of educational outreach programming during the exhibition Really Free: The Radical Art of Nellie Mae Rowe
Toddler Thursdays in November featured Nellie Mae Rowe’s artwork. Staff members kept
everyone supplied with materials and inspiration.
The exhibition of the work of Nellie Mae Rowe, curated by Katherine Jentleson, and featuring many of the works of art donated to the museum by Judith Alexander, met with acclaim by visitors and critics alike. It and the catalog that accompanied it were both listed in The New York Times lists of The Best of 2021, art exhibitions and art books, respectively.
OPENDOX LLC
In further support of This World is Not My Own, a documentary film about the artist Nellie Mae Rowe and her friend and champion, Judith Alexander
Nellie’s Playhouse reimagined by OPENDOX for the film, This World Is Not My Own
The Judith Alexander Foundation provided additional funding to OPENDOX LLC for the production of the hybrid feature-length documentary film about the artist Nellie Mae Rowe, directed by Petter Ringbom and produced by Ruchi Mital, with music by Matt Head. OPENDOX created detailed sets that reimagine Nellie’s “Playhouse,” and partnered with Kaktus Film to design and animate 3D characters in Nellie’s and Judith’s likenesses. Actresses, Uzo Aduba and Amy Warren, perform scripted scenes based on Nellie Mae Rowe quotes. Their recorded voices and movements make the animated Nellie and Judith come to life.
This World is Not My Own will premier in the Spring of 2023.
GEORGIA COMMITTEE OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF WOMEN IN THE ARTS (GA NMWA)
In support of the mission of GA NMWA to champion Georgia women artists
Members of GA NMWA were treated to a private tour of Really Free: The Radical Art of Nellie Mae Rowe at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta by the curator of the exhibition, Katherine Jentleson.
As one of the first of the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) committees, the Georgia Committee (GA NMWA) realized the importance of a museum advocating for women artists and swiftly formed as a committee in 1986. We are proud to support their work on behalf of women artists in our home state.
2020
EMERGENCY COVID RELIEF GRANTS
In support of Georgia visual artists during difficult and unprecedented times of pandemic
2020 Grantee and Georgia Artist: Zuzka Vaclavik, Untitled, Acrylic on Panel
The Judith Alexander Foundation Relief Fund for Georgia Visual Artists (JAF RFGVA) presented 106 Georgia Artists with individual grants of $500 in August-September 2020. Guided by the example set by Judith Alexander in her lifetime, we were thrilled to have honored the contributions of 106 Georgia artists with $500 each in individual grants.
For our 2020 Relief Grants campaign, we received a large number of applications from artists across the state whose careers and finances have been turned upside down by the pandemic. Through the process of reading all the applications, the formidable hardship provoked by the situation was tangible and heartbreaking. The grit and resolve shown on the part of everyone we heard from were likewise palpable and inspiring. We would have helped each applicant if we could.
Our original goal was to fund up to 100 Georgia visual artists. When the number of applicants kept growing, we did a short fundraiser, allowing us to make 6 additional grants. We are so grateful to those donors who stepped up to help.
2019
MOCA GA Atlanta
In support of “Speaking”:
A Benjamin Jones Retrospective
Benjamin Jones, courtesy MOCA GA
Judith Alexander had a huge appreciation for Benjamin Jones and his work. The board knew for certain that she would want to support this significant exhibition.
MOCA GA had this to say about the show: "Organized in seven enticing themes, Benjamin Jones' "Speaking" spans 40 years of making art, including fresh work never seen before.
Jones continues to hone his distinct visual language as a thought-provoking force for change. “I want people to feel the rage and to fight injustice in today’s crazy world,” Jones says. “The drawings are my way of screaming out, hoping to make another person speak out, and then another.”
As a keen observer of current events, Benjamin Jones keeps intricate journals. He mines images clipped from magazines, newspapers and his travels, then recycles this source material into his drawings.
Parallels have been drawn between Jones’ work and graffiti artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, painter and sculptor Jean Dubuffet and young Pablo Picasso. Each influence gave Jones new tools to break the rules and discover a visual voice undeniably his own.
Mixing whimsy with horror, humor with malevolence, Jones’ haunting creatures speak to life’s paradoxes and struggles, compelled by the artist’s internal urgency.
Inhabiting an intriguing, indefinable space, each poignant portrait reveals a glimpse of Benjamin Jones’ own innermost feelings and insecurities, while touching a familiar place in all of us."
Click here for Benjamin Jones Documentary. Michael Brassert, Director, Brooke McDonald, Producer, Courtesy MOCA GA
Click here for the interview with Lois Reitzes on WABE, 2020, featuring Benjamin Jones and Barbara Archer
2018
Kenkeleba House NYC
In support of Tina Dunkley’s Solo Exhibition, Sanctuary for the Internal Enemy: An Ancestral Odyssey at Wilmer Jennings Gallery NYC
Tina Dunkley in her studio by Jerry Siegel
The New York premier opening of Tina Dunkley's multimedia solo exhibition, Sanctuary for the Internal Enemy: An Ancestral Odyssey, inspired this gift from the Judith Alexander Foundation, which provided funding for the show's catalogue.
Dunkley presented prints, assemblages, and textiles based on her publication, The Merikins: Forgotten Freedom Fighters in the War of 1812, in an evocative and visually riveting exploration into the lives of enslaved Africans who escaped bondage and fought for the British during the War of 1812.
Dunkley's passion for the subject came as a result of meticulous research into her own maternal ancestry, through which she learned of the plight of her ancestor, Ezekial Loney, and other freedom fighters who fled a Virginia plantation in 1814. Loney was among 4,000 former slaves who were settled after the war in South Trinidad and called themselves Merikins, a creolization of "American".
The exhibit traveled to Atlanta's Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History, where it was on display from June, 10 2019 - October 6, 2019.
Video: Tina Dunkley Artist Talk: Discussing Sanctuary for the Internal Enemy
Slideshow Images (below): Pieces from Sanctuary for the Internal Enemy: An Ancestral Odyssey by Tina Dunkley. The still photo image is taken from Manifest Odyssey, 2018, a
4-minute video by Tina Dunkley and Shelia Pree Bright.
MOCA GA Atlanta
In support of Felipe Barral Film on Larry Walker Exhibition
The Judith Alexander Foundation was the sole funder of a film by Emmy award-winning Felipe Barral, documenting Larry Walker's monumental MOCA GA retrospective of 2018.
The film, produced, written, filmed, and edited by Barral, was screened at the museum in October 2018 and now resides in the permanent archives there as an important component of the documentation of the work and life of the great visual artist, beloved art professor and mentor, Larry Walker.
OPENDOX LLC NYC
In support of This World is Not My Own, a documentary film about the artist Nellie Mae Rowe
The Judith Alexander Foundation provided initial funding to OPENDOX LLC for the production of a hybrid feature-length documentary film about the artist Nellie Mae Rowe, directed by Petter Ringbom and produced by Ruchi Mital, with the working title, This World is Not My Own. The film is scheduled to open in early 2023.
Click here to learn more about this project at the OPENDOX website
Follow This World is Not My Own on Instagram and on Facebook.
2017
Georgia Lawyers For the Arts (GLA)
In the spirit of Judith Alexander, who worked tirelessly to support Georgia artists in many different and crucial ways, we were pleased to make a gift to Georgia Lawyers for the Arts, an organization that provides pro bono legal services to artists and arts organizations through its network of over 1,000 volunteer lawyers. In addition to providing legal services to limited-income artists, GLA also conducts dozens of free or low-cost educational seminars and workshops for artists and arts organizations on numerous legal and business-related topics.
MOCA GA Atlanta
In support of MOCA GA’s General Fund
.PAINTING: Untitled by Herbert L. Creecy, Jr., 1992; acrylic on canvas; MOCA GA Permanent Collection. Courtesy of MOCA GA
The Judith Alexander Foundation is pleased to continue its support of MOCA GA (the Museum of Contemporary Art Georgia) in supporting Georgia's contemporary artists. The Museum is now home to a permanent collection of over 1,000 works of art which continues
to grow in depth and breadth by 50-100 pieces a year through donation, gift, bequest, and purchase.
2016
Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP)
In support of This World is Not My Own, a documentary film about the artist
Nellie Mae Rowe and her friend Judith Alexander
Dear God Help Us To Keep Peace, 1977. Nellie Mae Rowe . Photo Lucinda Bunnen . Gift of Judith Alexander . Courtesy The High Museum of Art . Atlanta
The Foundation made a gift to the Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP) in support of a new documentary that will chronicle the life, work, and times of Nellie Mae Rowe, and her friendship with Judith Alexander. The film is being directed by Petter Ringbom and Marquise Stillwell, and produced by Ruchi Mital at Opendox, NYC with the working title, This World is Not My Own. The film is scheduled to premier in early 2023.
Click here for more information about the film.
Follow This World is Not My Own on Instagram and on Facebook.
MOCA GA Atlanta
In support of MOCAGA’s
Annual Fund
PAINTING: Time by Rocio Rodriguez, 1995; oil on canvas; MOCA GA Permanent Collection. Courtesy of MOCA GA
The Judith Alexander Foundation supports the ongoing work of MOCA GA (the Museum of Contemporary Art Georgia) in supporting Georgia's contemporary artists as well as art history as it continues to engage the public in innovative and thought-provoking exhibitions and educational programming.
2015
High Museum of Art Atlanta
In support of SPRAWL: Drawing Outside the Lines Exhibition
Gossip by Fabian Williams, 2014
The High Museum's exhibition, Sprawl: Drawing Outside the Lines had special meaning to the Judith Alexander Foundation as it brought together a diverse selection of over 100 newly acquired works by Georgia artists from the sprawling metropolis of Atlanta. Michael Rooks, the High's Weiland Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, put an emphasis on making clear the burgeoning energized dialogue between local artists, the museum, and the community at large. That quest speaks directly - and beautifully - to our mission of supporting Georgia visual artists.
2011
Clark Atlanta University Atlanta
In support of In the Eye of the Muses at Clark Atlanta University Art Gallery
The gifts of works by Nellie Mae Rowe and Thornton Dial that The Judith Alexander Foundation made to The Clark Atlanta University Art Gallery were included in the exhibition, In the Eye of the Muses, curated by Tina Dunkley, then Director at the gallery.
The Foundation was honored to have a hand in the creation of the accompanying significant and historical volume of the same name, co-authored by Dunkley and Jerry Cullum. The commemorative 253-page tome celebrates the seventieth anniversary of the founding of the art gallery's permanent collection and the sixtieth anniversary of the unveiling of the Art of the Negro murals in Trevor Arnett Hall on the CAU campus.
Click here to enjoy a video about the collection, with commentary by Tina Dunkley, created by Felipe Barral