COVID-19 Response

We are committed to supporting our artist community and our staff through the COVID-19 pandemic. Here's how we've responded.

In 2020, the Foundation responded to the pandemic's devastating impact on artists by reallocating and increasing our Emergency Grants budget, providing over $1 million in relief funding to Foundation-affiliated artists and coalition efforts: Artist Relief, a national COVID-19 response fund for artists in all disciplines, and Creative Response, a New Orleans-based relief effort.

From Fall 2020 through the end of 2021, we shifted the residency program at the Joan Mitchell Center in New Orleans to a hybrid virtual/in-person residency, focusing on private studio space and virtual professional development solely for New Orleans-based artists. By temporarily converting lodging spaces typically used by visiting resident artists to additional studios, we nearly doubled the number of local artists who can have residencies at any given time.

In late 2021, recognizing the compounding effect of the pandemic and Hurricane Ida on New Orleans artists, the Foundation committed an additional $227,000 in relief funds to Foundation-affiliated local artists and the Creative Response Collaborative Fund.

$478,000

in contributions to Artist Relief’s national fund

$545,700

in need-based grants to 205 alumni artists

$215,000

to New Orleans Creative Response Collaborative Fund

50

residencies provided to New Orleans-based artists

COVID-19 Resources

We recommend the following sites for lists of current resources for artists and arts funders.

Our Sites & Staff

The Joan Mitchell Foundation office in New York is closed to the public, and staff are working both remotely and in the office as needed.

The Joan Mitchell Center in New Orleans has returned to hosting both national and local artists, and is holding limited public events at this time. Artists and staff are working on site and remotely, dependent on local COVID thresholds.