The Soil Factory, a project of the non-profit WEAVE Community, is a local creative space that was founded in 2021 to bring together artists, curators, and scientists from the Ithaca-area community, Cornell University, and a number of other institutions. The prestigious Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts recently announced that the organization has been awarded a Multi-Year Program Support Grant for $80,000 over two years that will bolster The Soil Factory’s artist residency and visual arts programming, building projects, and personnel.
The proposal was developed by The Soil Factory’s Curatorial Working Group, which includes faculty from Cornell’s College of Architecture, Art, and Planning (AAP) and College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS), a CALS postdoctoral associate, and several Ithaca-area community members:
- Dan Torop, AAP faculty
- Anna Ialeggio, AAP faculty
- Paulina Velázquez Solís, AAP faculty
- Johannes Lehmann, CALS faculty
- Rebecca Nelson, CALS faculty
- Krisztina Mosdossy, CALS post-doctoral associate
- Neil Schill, WEAVE Community
- Aimée Lehmann, community member
- Linda Weintraub, community member
- Ash Ferlito, community member
Assistant Professor of Art Dan Torop, an early member of The Soil Factory, organized with co-authors and collaborators to submit the successful proposal at a key moment in the organization’s development. Torop explains, “Support from the Warhol Foundation makes it possible to operate alongside a number of our highly regarded peer organizations around the country that also work to create dynamic, inclusive arts programming. We are especially grateful because these funds come at a transformative moment for The Soil Factory as momentum for both solidifying our existing programs and acting on new ideas is steadily building among our community.”
