WOPHA receives $20,000 Miami-Dade Nonprofit Support Grants at The Miami Foundation

WOPHA / 11.12.2020

We are pleased to announce WOPHA has received an award of $20,000 from the Miami-Dade Nonprofit Support Grants program at The Miami Foundation. Dedicated to mitigate economic distress as a result of the COVID-19 public health emergency, these vital funds allow WOPHA to continue its operations and current projects. 

Despite the difficult circumstances that we have faced this year, including the postponement of the WOPHA Congress (now scheduled for November of 2021), we were able to quickly pivot and adapt our programs to the virtual space. Beginning in May, we launched WOPHAGRAMS, a program that consists of weeklong Instagram takeovers by women photographers. To build our membership and support for the upcoming Congress, in August, we initiated WOPHA With, a series of recorded virtual meetings where women photography organizations convene to discuss initiatives poised to provoke a paradigm shift in photography and institutional practices. 

To fill our programmatic gap from the delayed WOPHA Congress, we partnered with the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) to develop an online conversation based on women and photography. We have formed new collaborations, including one with Faena Arts, where we are working side-by-side with the Belizean-American artist Amanda Bradley as part of Faena’s Artist-in-Residence program. We continue to partner with organizations such as Feminist Art Coalition, El Espacio 23, and The Betsy Hotel for in-kind services that promote our mission, encourage collaboration and share information about our work.

WOPHA is grateful for the assistance provided by The Miami Foundation to continue its mission, to produce scholarship and opportunities for women in the photographic arts, and to meet its obligations to working artists towards the artistic and cultural enrichment of our local community. This one-time grant to nonprofit organizations was offered through The Miami Foundation, in partnership with Miami-Dade County, through its Department of Public Housing and Community Development. It dispersed a total of $10 million in funding made possible through Federal Coronavirus Relief Funds that cover employee payroll, business interruption costs, reopening, and other expenses related to COVID-19.