The Luminary Awards Futures Fund Grants to Eight Innovative Artist Projects in the St. Louis Region
The Luminary Awards Futures Fund Grants to Eight Innovative Artist Projects in the St. Louis Region
The Luminary is thrilled to announce the winners of the 2026/Cycle 8 Futures Fund Regranting Program, dedicated to supporting innovative artist projects throughout the St. Louis region.
With generous support from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts, a total of $60,000 has been awarded to eight exceptional projects, with individual grants ranging from $6,000 to $8,000.
This year’s Futures Fund cycle emphasizes life-sustaining ideas that nourish the cultural ecologies of St. Louis. Established in 2019, the Futures Fund aims to engage with the city’s past, present, and future, providing crucial support for projects that foster artistic expression and address pressing societal issues.
The eight selected projects span a diverse range of styles and approaches, reflecting the rich artistic landscape of St. Louis. The selection panel, including Thea Spittle (Curatorial Curator, SPACES, Cleveland, OH), Kathy Cho (Exhibitions Manager, Counterpublic, St. Louis, MO), and Malik Fabian-Mahmud (Artist and Cycle 7 Futures Fund Recipient), selected the winners based on the projects' innovation and distinctiveness.
The 2026 Futures Fund Grantees are:
St. Louis Art Builders ($6,000): Miriam Ruiz & Colin McLaughlin's community arts initiative facilitates large-scale "art builds" in partnership with local activist organizations, producing banners, printed pendants, and ephemera that create unified visual languages for political action.
Haatko Maya ($8,000): Jeena Gurung's multidisciplinary project centers food as a living archive of care and cultural memory, gathering 22 POC women in St. Louis to share recipes and personal narratives, culminating in a collaborative textile, a published cookbook, and a public gallery exhibition and potluck in 2027.
Clay Futura ($8,000): Aida Lizalde's social practice project investigates local clay in the St. Louis region through collaborative gatherings with artists, historians, and earth scientists, sharing research through workshops and a printed zine rooted in ecological awareness and cultural memory.
4 Tha Love ($7,500): Anthony Lucius, Daryll Garner, and Hannah Tevebaugh's docuseries functions as a digital archive of St. Louis's grassroots community infrastructure, documenting local changemakers through a lean, cinema verité aesthetic that centers community-produced storytelling.
Brain in Motion ($6,500): Kyla Kikkawa and Tyrus Watson's community research initiative explores Hip Hop dance as a force for mental health and well-being, combining fMRI brain imaging data with a structured dance intervention, and culminating in a public visual art installation created by St. Louis youth in 2027.
Art Forearm ($8,000): Natalie Baldeon, Jana Harper, Matt McInerney, Skylar Perez, Jennifer Seas, and Anika Todd's publication explores visual art and culture through themed issues, with Issue 2 (METAL) supported by two St. Louis public programs: a pitching and publishing workshop and a launch celebration featuring local metal bands and readings.
Hellbender Puppet Theatre Collective ($8,000): Charlie Bosco, Tara Morton, and Mary Fox's puppet ensemble draws on the Cheap Art Movement and political puppet theatre traditions to create large-scale parade puppets for community-made performances that connect current civic concerns to local and national history.
Kairat Trade Wars ($8,000): Samantha Demichieli, Theta Lynch, Ky Koteen, and B Diaz's all-transgender Midwestern fashion collective expands into a full atelier with a pop-up sale, fragrance launch, magazine, and Ready to Wear line ahead of a runway presentation in May 2027, asserting trans visibility and resilience through fashion as protest.
The selected projects will be realized between June 2026 and May 2027, with various installations and events planned throughout the region. For more information about the Futures Fund and updates on the grantees' progress, please follow @theluminaryarts on Instagram and visit theluminaryarts.com/programs/futures-fund.
Support for the Futures Fund has been provided by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.