SPACE is honored to award 12 Project Grants and 4 Research and Development Grants in this year’s cycle of the Kindling Fund, totaling $65,000 in grantmaking!
The Kindling Fund supports inventive, artist-organized initiatives that engage the public and the visual arts in new and meaningful ways. The funded projects below value community, freedom of expression, interdisciplinary, creative thinking, and sustaining artistic opportunity for creative peers. Grantees were juried from a pool of 111 submissions to the Kindling Fund — the highest-ever mark in its 11-year history.
The 2025 Kindling Fund grantees are Julia Arredondo (Portland), Tehani Baldecchi (Portland), Travis Clough (Westbrook), Annika Earley (Belfast), smudge studio (Elizabeth Ellsworth and Jamie Kruse of Belfast), Candice Gosta (Portland), Kate Greene (Rockland), Michelle Hauser (South Thomaston), Morgan Hulquist (Portland), Daisy Hutt (Portland), Striped Canary (Stephen B. Nguyen and Wade Kavanaugh of Bethel), Lamia Lazrak (Portland), Elise Schloff (Portland), Olivia Spring (Belgrade), Picnic Collective (Asha Tamirisa and Carolina González Valencia of Portland), and the Maine Palestine Film Collective (lead grantee Raivo Vihman of Freedom, with collaborators). The grantees are collected here.
The Kindling Fund is administered by SPACE Gallery as part of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts’ Regional Regranting Program.
The Kindling Fund jury is composed of three individuals, one from the greater Warhol Regranting Program, one past grantee local to Maine, and one art leader who may have opportunity for artists in Maine further afield.
This year’s jury was composed of:
Laurel Vera McLaughlin (she/her) – Laurel Vera McLaughlin is a writer, curator, art historian. She is the director of the Collective Futures Fund at the Tufts University Art Galleries, and the former Director of Curatorial Affairs at Artspace New Haven. Her curatorial and scholarly research has been published in Art Papers, BOMB magazine, Performance Research, and Antennae: The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture, among others.
James Allister Sprang (he him) – The son of Caribbean immigrants, Sprang considers his relationship to Diasporic timelines while weaving together his multimedia work, to create sensory poems for the spirit. This work is informed by the Black interior as well as radical and experimental traditions. Sprang’s work lives in gallery spaces, theater spaces and the space between the ears. In 2022, Sprang was awarded both the Pew Fellowship and the Knight Foundation Art + Tech Fellowship for his work with the only 4DSound system in America.
A graduate of the Cooper Union (BFA) and the University of Pennsylvania (MFA), Sprang has completed numerous residencies domestically and internationally including MONOM, Shandaken, YoungArts, Baryshnikov Arts Center, The Public Theater, BHQFU, Fountainhead, FringeArts and The Kitchen. Sprang has shown and/or performed at The Brooklyn Museum, TATE Museum, PAFA Museum, The Aldrich Museum, The Kitchen, Storm King Art Center, The Public Theater, Baryshnikov Arts Center, The Margulies Collection, David Nolan Gallery, The Apollo Theater, Pioneer Works, On The Boards, Northwest Film Forum, Knockdown Center and The Painted Bride Art Center.
Roopa Vasudevan (she/her) – Roopa Vasudevan is a 👩🏽🎨 media artist, 👩🏽💻 computer programmer, and 👩🏽🏫 scholar based between New York City and Western Massachusetts. Her work examines social and technological defaults and protocols, and explores labor, time, humanity, and critical self-reflection within our relationships with technology. 💾 ⚡️ 🌎 You can find her at UMass Amherst, where she is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art, or at NEW INC, where she is a current Community Member and former Art & Code track member. She is also a 2024 Processing Foundation Fellow, and a co-investigator on the Data Fluencies Project, an international research initiatve funded by the Mellon Foundation.
The 2025 Kindling Fund Grantees
Guide to Starting a DIY Tape Label zine
Grantee: Julia Arredondo (she/they)
Guide to Starting a DIY Cassette Tape Label zine is an independently produced publication by artist and indie publisher Julia Arredondo. Released under mixtape publishing imprint From Away Tapes, the zine combines practical how-to instructions with interviews from Maine- and Chicago-based cassette tape labels. Covering tools, processes, and sales strategies, the zine provides readers with a creative blueprint for starting their own cassette tape label. By blending guidance with real-world insights, the zine not only aligns with Julia’s scholarship and research of artist-run business structures, but also engages audiences with the DIY spirit of independent artistry.
Social media
Julia Arredondo | Instagram
Wilder Gardens
Grantee: Tehani Baldecchi (they/them)
Wilder Gardens will be an outdoor sculpture garden created by Indigenous ceramicist Tehani Baldecchi located on one of Portland’s public trails. The gallery will consist of 20+ life-sized sculptures of a variety of Maine’s mushrooms. The sculptures will be installed discreetly so that participants must “forage” for the art by engaging the landscape. Gallery-goers are encouraged to “harvest” the art by taking sculptures home. Baldecchi hopes to connect participants with the land through a unique, playful experience meant to channel the gratitude Baldecchi enjoys in relationship with Maine’s public lands. An original Instagram account will be created to share updates, educational hints, best practices, and a full photo gallery of the art for those not lucky enough to make discoveries on the trail.
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Tehani Baldecchi | Instagram
Transmissions (Quilts for Trans People)
Grantee: Travis Clough (he/they)
Collaborators: Nino Claveria (they/them), Cordy Joan (they/them), Maddy Magnuson (they/them), Dan Toomre (he/him)
Transmissions is a project that makes quilts for trans people. In Maine, it will commission three trans quilters to make quilts for three trans recipients. The project makes quilts because of the way they increase comfort and enhance belonging. Quilts live in a rich history of mutual aid and care-work that has enabled the survival of marginalized groups across generations. The Maine chapter is part of a broader endeavor that will make 20 quilts over two years for trans people around the country. The Kindling Fund will also support the project in welcoming a traveling exhibition to Maine in fall 2025, which will pair with a collection of engagement events teaching textile and oral histories skills to communities in Portland.
Social media
Travis Clough | Instagram
Cordy Joan | Instagram
Maddy Magnuson | Instagram
Dan Toomre | Instagram
Dear Darling: A Mail Art Project
Research and Development Grant
Grantee: Annika Earley (she/they)
Dear Darling is a collaborative mail art project that provides joy, levity, and tenderness through an exchange of letters and artwork. After a year of exchanging letters, the project will culminate in an anthology documenting all visual work produced and a pop-up exhibition in a community space. The project builds on my previous body of work around my alter ego/fairy godmother/personal demon, Batshit. Through Batshit and the world in which Batshit lives, I explore sensuality, sexuality, nostalgia, and the absurd. Batshit also works as an advice columnist which I currently run online via email and social media. Dear Darling is a step out of the digital and into the tangible tenderness of letterwriting.
Social media
Annika Earley | Instagram
REAL PLACES MAINE
Research and Development Grant
Grantees: smudge studio – Elizabeth Ellsworth (she/her) and Jamie Kruse (she/her)
REAL PLACES MAINE is a research project toward the creation of site-responsive, large poster-murals to be installed on the exteriors of abandoned buildings at several locations across Maine. Sites and buildings will be studied and selected for how they inspire and invite creative responses to their highly specific environmental, social, and historical contexts and conditions. The research will also test mural materials viability, i.e. non-toxic inks, weather-proofing, compostable paper-fabric, and methods for attaching poster-murals to buildings in a non-permanent, non-destructive way. The project’s ultimate aim is to create and display image-sensations of “belonging” and “place-ness” within Maine landscapes, built and natural.
Social media
Observatory Belfast
POSER
Grantee: Candice Gosta (they/them)
POSER is a mini-event series and publication highlighting the contributions of Black punk musicians, both past and present. Through engaging do-it-yourself art workshops and events, the project captures their stories and explores their impact on the punk genre and culture.
Participants will learn about the history of Black punk musicians and express their interpretations through visual art, music, and writing. The workshops foster connections and collaborations, embodying punk’s spirit of rebellion and creativity. Attendees can submit their work to create a bi-monthly zine and a pop-up exhibition, ensuring the project continues beyond the grant cycle.
Social media
Candice Gosta | Instagram (personal) | Instagram (professional)
Night Sky Lifelines: Witnessing Resilience by Studying Darkness
Grantee: Kate Greene (she/her)
Collaborator: Jake Jamieson (he/him)
This project investigates Dark Sky sanctuaries in Maine, regions of global ecological significance. These landscapes are among the most intact forested areas on the East Coast, fostering biodiversity, habitat resilience, and a refuge for species adapting to climate shifts. Large-scale lumen prints will be created by exposing silver gelatin paper to moonlight, transforming found forest materials into intimate documents of the landscape’s own illumination. Field recordings taken at each location will form immersive soundscapes, inviting audiences to experience the forests’ depth and presence firsthand. The work will culminate in an exhibition and panel discussion, fostering dialogue on how these resilient landscapes can counterbalance climate anxiety. The project envisions these landscapes as a sanctuary of hope, encapsulating resilience, diversity, and the protective strength of darkness.
Social media
Kate Greene | Instagram
Meeting Halls: Inspiring Maine’s Collective Future
Grantee: Michelle Hauser (she/her)
Collaborator: Sally Eckhoff (she/her)
Visual artists Michelle Hauser and Sally Eckhoff will co-create four pop-up exhibitions to be held in historic meeting halls during open-house events. Free and open to the public, dormant halls will be enlivened by opening up the doors to showcase the artists recent work along with invited guest speakers. Topics will explore the significant role that Maine’s meeting halls have played in bringing people together and invigorating our democracy, posing the question: What is the fate of our collective future. The team aims to inspire more artists and community members to collaborate and become stakeholders in changing the relevancy and fate of these endangered buildings through social engagement and the arts.
Social media
Michelle Hauser | website | Instagram
Sally Eckhoff | website | Instagram
INVADERS
Research and Development Grant
Grantee: Morgan Hulquist (she/her)
Collaborators: Rebecca Celli (she/her), Cindy Choung (she/her)
INVADERS is a poetic documentary film following a group of citizen scientists as they spend their free time scouring Maine’s coastline for marine invasive species.
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Morgan Hulquist | Instagram
Maine Correctional Center Pottery Class
Research and Development Grant
Grantee: Daisy Hutt (she/her)
The Maine Correctional Center Pottery Class is a weekly hand-building clay class with the women at the Maine Correctional Center in Windham, Maine, that Daisy Hutt has been teaching since March of 2024. The artist was informed by the Maine Correctional Center that the program no longer has funding.
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Daisy Hutt Pottery | Instagram
Tannery Brook Pottery | Instagram
The Penny Pool Gallery
Grantees: Stephen B. Nguyen (he/him) and Wade Kavanaugh (he/him)
Collaborators: Bee Daniel (she/her)
The Penny Pool Gallery is a conceptual gallery space founded by Striped Canary (Stephen B. Nguyen and Wade Kavanaugh) and Bee Daniel. Inspired by the “leave a penny, take a penny” trays at cash registers, the gallery fosters a chain of artistic support. Artists share proceeds of their work, half as income and half to commission another artist of their choice. This creates a ripple effect of mutual admiration and economic impact. A Kindling Fund grant would seed this initiative, commissioning the first artist and tracking how each dollar multiplies within Maine’s artistic community. The Penny Pool Gallery seeks to highlight the multiplier effect of artists supporting artists, demonstrating the deep value they bring to their communities.
Social media
Striped Canary (Stephen B. Nguyen and Wade Kavanaugh) | Instagram
Bee Daniel | Instagram
Dar Marjana Shadow Puppet Project
Grantee: Lamia Lazrak (she/her)
Collaborators: Josie Colt (she/they), Manette Pottle (she/her), Irene Yadao (she/her), Lisa Yadao (she/her)
In the documentary feature film Dar Marjana, Portland-based Moroccan filmmaker Lamia Lazrak documents her mother Kenza’s difficult decision to leave her family restaurant, housed for the past four decades in a 200-year-old, multi-generational home in the medina of Marrakech, Morocco — a home long ruled by the family jinns (spirits). The film, now in pre-production, personifies these jinns and portrays their interactions with Kenza and others through the nuanced artistry of shadow puppetry. The Dar Marjana Shadow Puppet Project will develop this shadow puppetry both as an artistic medium and as a tool for community engagement, partnering with local Muslim and Arab community organizations to present shadow puppet-making workshops and interactive installations in Marrakech and Maine to foster community engagement, meaningful dialogue, and youth education.
Social media
Lamia Lazrak | Instagram
Josie Colt | Instagram
Dar Marjana (the film) | Instagram
Refectory
Grantee: Elise Schloff (she/her)
Collaborator: Meera Chauhan (she/her)
Refectory, a collaboration between Elise Schloff and Meera Chauhan, stages an areligious, ecological, and queer intervention through a culinary performance series and zine project that reconfigure feminine monastic culinary traditions for contemporary rural Maine communities. Named after the room in which cloistered Catholic nuns gathered for eating, Refectory’s feasts will take place at South Solon Meeting House, a former church with stunning interior frescoes. Refectory’s menu references Catholic food traditions — such as eucharistic devotion, feasting, and fasting — and strange food behaviors both actual and mythical, such as food multiplication, virgin lactation, and consuming spoiled or ash-adulterated foods. All ingredients will be sourced through gathering wild foods or from Maine farms. A zine will document the feasts through photographs, recipes, essays, and marginal illustrations modeled after medieval manuscripts.
Social media
Elise Schloff | Instagram
SICK Magazine
Grantee: Olivia Spring (she/her)
Collaborators: Maya Skylark (she/they), Calla King-Clements (she/her)
SICK is an independent, thoughtful magazine by chronically ill & disabled people, founded & edited by Olivia Spring and designed by Kaiya Waerea. SICK is committed to elevating the voices of sick & disabled people by publishing essays, features, poetry, visual art, interviews, and more. Our aim is to increase representation of sick & disabled people in publishing and the arts and to challenge the harmful stereotypes and misconceptions surrounding disability. We work in and with our slowness, pausing and resting when we need to. We believe, listen to, and support each other. We reject productivity as means of value and celebrate our sick & disabled bodies.
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SICK magazine | website | Instagram
How to Move a Tree
Grantees: Asha Tamirisa (she/her) and Carolina González Valencia (she/her)
Collaborators: Ian-Khara Ellasante (they/them), Bukola Koiki (she/her), Verónica Pèrez (they/them), Stacey Tran (they/them)
“How to Move a Tree” is a collaborative, process-oriented project culminating in a book publication. The project aims to document a group of Maine-based artists manifesting an instructional score in their chosen medium. The score, fashioned as a poetic “how-to” guide, involves a series of instructions that engage ideas of uprooting, transplanting, and finding agency and community.
Social media
Picnic Collective | Instagram
Asha Tamirisa | Instagram
Carolina González Valencia | Instagram
Maine Palestine Film Collective
Grantee: Raivo Vihman (he/him)
Collaborators: Sarah Erwin (she/her), Sean Flynn (he/him), Jess Goldfin, Morgan Hulquist (she/her), Renny Sabina (he/him), Irene Yadao (she/her)
Maine Palestine Film Collective is a group of Maine-based artists, curators, arts workers and allies using cinema as a catalyst for collective liberation in Palestine and beyond. Launched in May 2024, MPFC works in collaboration with artists and community organizers to produce film screenings and community gatherings dedicated to amplifying Palestinian stories and voices, deepening public understanding of the history of Palestinian erasure and colonial violence, and building solidarity between Maine and Palestine. In 2025, the series will be anchored by a month-long statewide festival held over four weekends in May, centering around Nakba Day — the annual commemoration of Palestinian displacement during the 1948 Nakba, or “catastrophe.”
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Maine Palestine Film Collective | Instagram