A black and white portrait of Robert Rauschenberg standing, looking into the distance, with his right hand on his hip. He is wearing a sweater with sleeves rolled up and light color pants.

Robert Rauschenberg, New York, May 2, 1960. Photo: Richard Avedon © The Richard Avedon Foundation.

Mission

The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation builds on the legacy of Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008) who believed strongly that creative practitioners could serve as catalysts for social change. He shared his appreciation for chance and the everyday by seeking to act in the “gap” between art and life. He was also a gifted collaborator, breaking disciplinary boundaries by experimenting with scientists, performers, and visual artists. As such, we celebrate new and even untested ways of thinking and acting.

The Foundation promotes in-depth research and partnerships for staff, curators, critics, scholars, and students that open the artist’s life and work to wider interpretation and understanding. Its philanthropic activities, driven in part by a recently constituted Artists Council, primarily support small to midsize arts and socially engaged organizations that are contrarian and experimental, even courageous, in driving towards equity. In addition, the Foundation holistically sustains the creative life and well-being of artists across the disciplines by providing for a range of needs including time to think during multi-week residencies, funding for new commissions, and emergency medical grants. 

Finally, the Foundation supports exhibitions, publications, and special projects across the globe that reflect Rauschenberg’s joyful, responsive, and irreverent approach to making art while living an empathetic and meaningful life. 

July 2021

 

Land Acknowledgment

The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation acknowledges and respects the traditional territories that we are grateful to inhabit. We are honored to assemble on the ancestral homelands of the Calusa and the Seminoles in Captiva, the Lenape in Manhattan, and the Lenape and the Wappinger in Westchester. We are committed to continue their legacy of preserving the environmental integrity of these remarkable places and cultivating sustainable land use practices.