Madlener House
4 West Burton Place
Chicago, Illinois 60610
Telephone: 312.787.4071
info@grahamfoundation.org

Advisoryboard1956_copy

Mission

Founded in 1956, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts fosters the development and exchange of diverse and challenging ideas about architecture and its role in the arts, culture, and society. The Graham realizes this vision through making project-based grants to individuals and organizations and producing exhibitions, events, and publications.

Grantmaking Focus

Architecture and related spatial practices engage a wide range of cultural, social, political, technological, environmental, and aesthetic issues. We are interested in projects that investigate the contemporary condition, expand historical perspectives, or explore the future of architecture and the designed environment.

We support innovative, thought-provoking investigations in architecture; architectural history, theory, and criticism; design; engineering; landscape architecture; urban planning; urban studies; visual arts; and related fields of inquiry. Our interest also extends to work being done in the fine arts, humanities, and sciences that expands the boundaries of thinking about architecture and space. In an effort to bridge communities and different fields of knowledge, we support a wide range of practitioners (such as architects, scholars, critics, writers, artists, curators, and educators) and organizations (such as non-profit galleries, colleges and universities, publishers, and museums).

Open discourse is essential to advance study and understanding, therefore our grantmaking focuses on the public dissemination of ideas. With our support, the work of individuals and organizations reaches new audiences, from specialized to general, and creates opportunities for critical dialogue between various publics.

Graham Foundation Advisory Board Reviewing Proposals, 1956. From left to right: Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe, Jose Luis Sert, Sigfried Giedion, William E. Hartmann, Daniel Catton Rich, James Johnson Sweeney, John E. Burchard, Grace L. McCann Morley