Tanne Foundation awards recognize outstanding achievement and are an expression of gratitude to artists for their passion and commitment to their work.
20th Anniversary
2019 marks the 20th anniversary of the Tanne Foundation a family-founded artist-run organization that provides unrestricted funding for gifted individual artists. The award acknowledges the remarkable dedication and creativity of artists in all disciplines and from all sections of the country, and has pioneered support for artists with limited resources at critical stages in their artmaking These testimonials of previous recipients confirm how the recognition and support are crucial to their sustained creativity.
Tanne Award Testimonials:
At 64, one’s biggest surprises are likely to be terminal. Notice of a Tanne Foundation award literally knocked me off my feet. As a regional socially engaged artist, one hardly gets the money one asks for let alone money not requested.
The Tanne Foundation award gave me not only cash but acknowledgement as an artist - that I am doing something meaningful both aesthetically and ethically. In my case it gave visibility and voice to grass roots arts projects that empower the disenfranchised and push the boundaries of their marginalization.
More specifically I applied the money as a cash match for a grant to finish a career monograph. That monograph gave a credibility to my work needed to get funding for more projects. In the end, the Tanne Foundation award was support for all the under-valued workers, immigrants and homeless my projects have involved over the years. Most importantly, at 64, it gave me permission to keep working!
Receiving the Tanne’s generosity was key to the success of the Black Factory project and it would not have happened without the support of the foundation. It arrived at the right time and made so many things so much easier.
It was a big deal. As a wood artist, finding and storing lumber is a big part of my job. I was continually turning down good deals, or passing up nice wood because I simply had nowhere to keep it.
The award from the Tanne Foundation allowed me to build a barn that I use to keep lumber, found chunks of wood, and other weird art supplies I drag home.
Tanne gave me wings to continue the work of socially engaged art. There was a time when I was not able to continue to do the work and I opened an unusual envelope and thought, “oh the Tanne Foundation, what is this? Probably an organization that needs a donation for their art auction!!” I was behind in all my expenses, just back from Romania and you all showed me the best next chance ever. Love love love to all and what you do!!!!!!!!!
Warmest greetings, Tanne Foundation Family
It has been quite an amazing ride since I received my Tanne Foundation Award in 2016. I am still so honored to be among your awardees. Hearing that this is the 20th year of the Award brings me great joy and a sense of pride to be among those celebrating the vision, generosity, and love of the arts of the Tanne Foundation. I am proud to be an awardee and even more proud of the amazing 20 years you have dedicated to artists and the arts. I wish you 20 more years of art-loving and artist-supporting success! With deepest gratitude and continuing appreciation.
The Tanne Foundation Award helped me to finish and publish the 2nd work in my poetry trilogy and begin to the 3rd and final work. The complete trilogy has been out now since 2017, thanks in no small part to Tanne. This wasn’t the only impact that Tanne had, however. The award impacted not only my art and career; it made an indelible impression on my life overall. The timing of the award could not have been more serendipitous. I was at a crossroads as an artist, deeply considering whether or not to continue endeavoring to make art my main vocation or to go back to a “9 to 5.” When I received the award, it became for me a sign – a signal from the universe, if you will – to keep making art and to keep investing in myself as a full-time artist. For this, I cannot thank the Tanne Foundation enough; you helped change the course of my life. I have been making and producing written and spoken art and teaching art as my full-time occupation ever since. My voice acting business and studio is growing apace and I have another book on the way to be published this year. I know I will continue making and producing art into the foreseeable future and hopefully for all my life. Thank you, once again, Tanne Foundation Family, for the encouragement and support for my work and for me.
I will never forget weeping onto the beautiful handwritten letter that arrived with the Tanne Foundation gift. What a rare and precious moment of gratitude and humility. Thank you for believing in artists, trusting our insights, and fortifying so many bodies of work, so many lives and communities.
The Tanne Foundation award came at a moment when I felt particularly depleted, consumed with financial worry, and doubt. The award strengthened me by validating my journey, letting me know that my risks and my work were seen. This gesture of radical kindness propelled me into a new chapter of growth as a choreographer, offering me grounding to sustain my practice while continuing to dreams.
Receiving the Tanne Award was a crucial and pivotal moment in my artistic career. Through it’s acknowledgment and practical support, I was able to share my solo performance SO THEARROWFLIES around the world, including the TED stage. From that momentum, I was also able to get it published in two countries and now it is used as teaching materials in university class rooms. Thank you Tanne!
When I received a Tanne Foundation Award in 1999, it enabled me to focus on writing American Wake. On behalf of all those involved in American Wake, I express gratitude to those board members who have proposed artists to support.
American Wake is a play which staged the music and games, the encounters and grief of an all-night party given for four Irish youngsters the night before they leave for America. The project was a happy experience for me, and it offered substantive roles to six professional and nine student actors, of whom six are still involved in theater, two are writers, two went to Yale Drama and one to the Royal Scottish Academy, two have been artistic directors. One of the student designers went on to a professional career in television, as did one of the student actors. It is in this indirect, often unsuspected way that Tanne funding impacts many lives and careers.
