Storefront for Art and Architecture announced today that it is the recipient of a $1.5 million grant from the Mellon Foundation. The money will be distributed over the next three years and be used to support new programming, and for its organization team to hire more staff.

The gallery celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2022. Storefront’s organization team said that the seed funding will help the historic institution further its partnerships with peer organizations, uplift underrepresented voices in art and architecture, and address sociopolitical issues that intersect with the built environment at the global scale.

“We are honored to receive this support from the Mellon Foundation, which will enable us to grow our footprint far beyond Kenmare Street,” said José Esparza Chong Cuy, Storefront’s executive director and chief curator. “Storefront has been devoted to public life and to chronicling the changes in diverse built environments through critical artistic practice for over forty years, and this funding will enable us to expand its grassroots legacy by creating even more opportunities for engagement and collaboration on many scales.”

In recent years, Storefront has partnered with other New York outfits including Montez Press Radio, frieze magazine, and Collaborative Arts Network New York. Montez Press Radio is currently producing podcasts with Storefront in a series called On the Ground: Broadcasts.

The current exhibition on view at Storefront is called IT IS A GOOD PROJECT AND SHOULD BE BUILT, curated by Fred Schmidt-Arenales. This exhibition explores a $57 billion infrastructure program called the Texas Coastal Barrier Project, and its broader socioeconomic ramifications. This show is part of Storefront’s Swamplands project, a year-long series of research and programs that focus on on the ethical and technical entanglements of water. There, Fred Schmidt-Arenales, Imani Jacqueline Brown, and Gala Porras-Kim each present new work rooted in sites across the Gulf of Mexico.

The Mellon Foundation’s support will help Storefront foster its existing partnerships, and facilitate future transactions.

IT IS A GOOD PROJECT AND SHOULD BE BUILT is on view until June 1.