Emily Mason and Alice Trumbull Mason Foundation

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Grants

The Mason Lift Scholarship

The Mason Lift Scholarship provides financial support towards tuition and fees for one year, so students have the ability to focus on their artistic pursuits.

The recipients for 2024 are CUNY Hunter College students Anastasya Peña (MFA), Gigi Lin (BFA), and Alyssa Sukana (BA).

2024 Grantees

Anastasya Peña, “Squeeze,” 2024, oil and acrylic on canvas, 73 x 54 in. Image courtesy of the artist.

Anastasya Peña

Anastasya Peña is an abstract, color-based painter, born and raised in New York City. Peña’s artistic process reflects themes of identity and vulnerability. She first pours paint onto raw canvas as a gesture towards authenticity and interiority. She then applies thicker acrylic and oil paint to create depth and opacity. By building up layers, Peña mimics the process of identity formation. She experiments with concealment and visibility in order to expose organic interiors that evoke raw flesh, dark cavities, or hidden inner landscapes.

Image of an art installation with 4"x 6" photographs tacked to the wall, with white molds of nature-inspired forms on the ground below.
Gigi Lin, “忘了你有多美 (Forgot how Beautiful You Are),” 2024, Chromogenic prints (4 x 6 in.), mold and castings (dimensions variable). Image courtesy of the artist.

Gigi Lin

Gigi Lin: Hi, I’m Gigi Lin, and I am a Chinese-American activist and artist. I grew up in Chinatown and the Lower East Side, with the mindset that I would waste my time away, dreaming, in a place of seagulls. My greatest source of strength and inspiration to pursue artistic expression has been other artists and political activists, particularly other BIPOC artists that have experienced the fragmentation of their own histories and of America’s. I am interested in combining painting, sound, and film to create immersive and emotionally heightened experiences, like an orchestra of syncopated symphonies.

Image of a painting of two yellow heads, one 3/4 view and the other as a side profile, surrounded by beige lace
Alyssa Sukana, “previous self,” 2024, mixed media on wood panel, 9 x 12 in. Image courtesy of the artist.

Alyssa Sukana

Alyssa is a multidisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn. Her work reflects her experiences with mental health, natural elements and concepts of change.

2023 Grantees

Ink and watercolor pen drawing of a neighborhood street of storefronts.
TJ Wilson, “Sketch of Neighborhood.” Image courtesy of the artist.

TJ Wilson

TJ Wilson: I came into this artistic journey late, I realize that I was made to be this artist and Hunter has been integral to my development. It’s great to see a path that seems to be tailor made for you and have the access, the tools, the guideposts, the network at your disposal. This is an exciting moment and I feel that it’s just the beginning.

Photograph of a painting comprised of a red, yellow, and green packaged candies on a neutral background.
Noelle Salaun, “Dulcísimo,” 2023. Image courtesy of the artist.

Noelle Salaun

Noelle Salaun is a painter born and raised in New York City. Her work is autobiographical, often delving into femininity, being a first generation Dominican-American, and neurodivergent.

Photograph of two tables with blue model houses on top of green astroturf.
Shannon Pritchard, “I Know Nothing About This Place,” 2023, and “I Know Everything About This Place,” 2023. Image courtesy of the artist.

Shannon Pritchard

Shannon Pritchard is a sculptor and mixed media artist from Indiana who has been living and studying in New York City for just over a year. She uses material resourcefulness learned from a working class upbringing to elevate trashy materials in a fine art context. She hopes that, through the inclusion of skillful craft and making methods, her art remains open and enjoyable to those outside of the artworld along with those within it.

The Emily Mason | Alice Trumbull Mason Foundation & Wolf Kahn Foundation Grant Initiative

In 2022, the Emily Mason | Alice Trumbull Mason Foundation, in partnership with the Wolf Kahn Foundation, announced $800,000 in grants to six arts and culture organizations in NYC and Vermont, honoring the joint legacy of the 62- years-married artists Wolf Kahn and Emily Mason. The grant recipients’ focus areas reflect the life that Emily and Wolf built together as prolific, academically influential artists living between New York City and Vermont, from their 1956 introduction at the Eighth Street Club until Emily’s 2019 death.

Grant Recipients and Designations

  • Brattleboro Museum & Art Center – Creation of the Wolf Kahn & Emily Mason Exhibition Fund, a perpetual endowment supporting an annual exhibition with a special focus on emerging artists, historically overlooked artists, or curatorial projects dealing with issues such as social justice and climate change.
  • The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop – Grant provides five years of support for the Kahn | Mason Studio Immersion Program (SIP) Fellowship, with additional funds devoted to the Workshop’s publications program.
  • Hunter College (Advanced Curatorial Certificate Program) – Establishment of a fund providing eight years of support for the annual catalogue production associated with the Advanced Curatorial Certificate.
  • Print Center New York – The establishment of the Emily Mason – Wolf Kahn Artist Development Fund, which, among other things, provides eight years of support for the PCNY’s New Voices program.
  • The New York Botanical Garden – The establishment of an eight-year fund in Emily and Wolf’s name, dedicated to the research and planning of an annual exhibition that is curatorially focused on the union of nature and the visual arts.
  • Vermont Studio Center – Seed funding for the Wolf Kahn and Emily Mason Fellowship, granted to a visual artist annually and selected by VSC’s admissions department.

Download a pdf of the full press release.