$150,000 Hewlett grant will support film program operations; $120,000 in NEA grants will support three exhibitions; $34,000 Warhol grant will support a curatorial research fellowship in film.

Berkeley, CA, January 10, 2011- (Download a PDF version of this press release.) University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA) has been awarded a combined $304,000 in grants from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

The Hewlett Foundation has awarded BAM/PFA $150,000 over three years to support Pacific Film Archive operations, through November 2013.

Grants from the NEA are supporting three exhibitions: State of Mind: New California Art Circa 1970 ($50,000), a comprehensive exhibition focusing on Conceptual art in both Northern and Southern California, on view February 29–June 17, 2012; the national tour of PFA's Radical Light: Alternative Film & Video in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1945-2000 ($40,000), which begins in spring 2011; and a major solo exhibition of work by San Francisco-based artist Barry McGee, scheduled to open in fall 2012 ($30,000).

The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts has provided BAM/PFA with a $34,000 Curatorial Research Fellowship to support a pioneering project to develop a touring series of films from the Republic of Georgia, spanning the history of filmmaking in that country.

“Foundation and government support is essential to BAM/PFA's ability to explore new territory in art and film and to sustain our general operations,” said Lawrence Rinder, director of BAM/PFA. “The staff of BAM/PFA is committed to serving the entire Bay Area community, providing stimulating and dynamic programs in art, film, and performance while supporting the academic goals of the University of California, Berkeley.”

While BAM/PFA is part of the University of California, Berkeley, as a non-academic unit, the museum is required to raise $4 million of its $8 million annual operating budget. The campus contribution to support the museum is $2.5 million, and of the total budget, approximately $1.5 million is from endowment revenue.

BAM/PFA is one of 1,057 not-for-profit organizations recommended for NEA support as part of the federal agency's first round of fiscal year 2011 grants. In this round, the Arts Endowment will distribute a total of $26.68 million to support projects nationwide. BAM/PFA was one of 517 organizations awarded grants or gifts from the Hewlett Foundation in 2010; one of the nation's largest foundations, in 2009, the Hewlett Foundation dispersed over $345 million to organizations both international and domestic. The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts awarded 78 grants last year, focused primarily on supporting challenging and experimental work.

The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA) is the visual arts center of the University of California, Berkeley, the nation's leading public research university. One of the largest university art museums in the United States in both size and attendance, BAM/PFA aims to inspire the imagination and ignite critical dialogue through contemporary and historical art and film, engaging audiences from the UC Berkeley campus, the Bay Area, and beyond. Each year BAM/PFA presents fifteen art exhibitions, 380 film programs, and dozens of performances, as well as lectures, symposia, and tours. The museum's collection of more than 30,000 works ranges from Neolithic Chinese pottery to contemporary video art. Among the collection's exceptional strengths are Ming and Qing dynasty Chinese painting, Italian Baroque painting, Old Master works on paper, early American painting, mid-twentieth-century abstract painting-including important works by Hans Hofmann, Jackson Pollock, Eva Hesse, and Mark Rothko-Japanese cinema, Soviet silent film, West Coast avant-garde video and film, animation, and international classic films. For more information, please visit bampfa.berkeley.edu.

The National Endowment for the Arts was established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government that has awarded more than $4 billion on projects of artistic excellence, creativity, and innovation for the benefit of individuals and communities. The NEA extends its work through partnerships with state arts agencies, local leaders, other federal agencies, and the philanthropic sector. To join the discussion on how art works, visit the National Endowment for the Arts at arts.gov.

The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation has been making grants since 1967 to solve social and environmental problems at home and around the world. The Foundation's programs have ambitious goals that include: helping to reduce global poverty, limiting the risk of climate change, improving education, improving reproductive health and rights worldwide, supporting vibrant performing arts in our community, advancing the field of philanthropy, and supporting disadvantaged communities in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Hewlett Foundation has total assets of $6.87 billion; in 2009, it awarded 596 gifts and grants, and dispersed a total of $345,190,721. To learn more, visit www.hewlett.org.

The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts was established in 1987; in accordance with Andy Warhol's will, the Foundation's objective is the advancement of the visual arts, focused primarily on supporting work of a challenging and often experimental nature. The Foundation works to foster innovative artistic expression and the creative process by encouraging and supporting cultural organizations that in turn, directly or indirectly, support artists and their work. The Foundation encourages curatorial research leading to new scholarship in the field of contemporary art. Visit www.warholfoundation.org for more information on Warhol's legacy and the Foundation's work.

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