Rhizome, a platform for digital art and culture founded by the artist Mark Tribe in 1996 and an affiliate of the New Museum since 2003, announced today that it has received a five year, $1m "Change Capital" grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The funding, which Rhizome says is a “first of its kind investment” in the organisation, aims to sustain the art space’s long-term mission of being a cultural hub, and give it room to grow.
With help from the grant, Rhizome will be hiring two new full-time positions: a development director and a community designer. It will also use the funds to launch a new annual fellowship, in addition to making monetary investments in the open-source software projects it oversees (including Webrecorder, Emulation-as-a-Service, and Wikibase) and establishing operating reserves for future use.
"This grant from the Mellon Foundation is transformative. And it’s more than just a financial gift, it’s an opportunity for us to develop our long-term resilience and better deliver our mission,” says Zachary Kaplan, the executive director of Rhizome. “Coupled with our newly announced board members, our relaunch of the Artbase collection earlier this year, and other programme plans on the horizon, this is a really exciting time for the organisation."