Barbara Hammer and Queer|Art: Granting for the Future

This essay describes how the Barbara Hammer Lesbian Experimental Filmmaking Grant came into fruition, created by the pioneering lesbian experimental filmmaker Barbara Hammer and administered through the New York City nonprofit organization Queer|Art. In 2017, Hammer approached her friend and colleague Ira Sachs to set up a grant in her honor, through the nonprofit he founded in 2009 with the mission to create a diverse and vibrant community through the support of LGBTQ+ art and artists across generations and disciplines. Author and grant manager Vanessa Haroutunian describes the process of working with Hammer to develop the grant, how Hammer's commitment to intergenerational, interdisciplinary conversation cultivated permission for future generations to break boundaries with their artwork, and how her legacy continues to be preserved through the grant's existence. Hammer's mission—to make it easier for self-identified lesbian experimental filmmakers to make work—has been upheld by Queer|Art with the generous support of Florrie Burke and the Hammer estate.