En Foco is embarking on a new initiative, commissioning three artists to create new work using the Nueva Luz Study Center as a catalyst to explore historical contexts, artists, and themes from a contemporary point of view. We seek to fund proposals that inspire and re-contextualize artworks, themes, and issues contained or referenced within the archives and propel the original compositions into exciting directions that inform audiences anew and add to our long-lasting legacy of excellence in the arts.

First published in 1985, Nueva Luz is produced twice annually and highlights the work of contemporary photographers with essays by fellow cultural writers. Nueva Luz is a valuable cultural, social, and political document—an evolution of voices from diverse backgrounds that is used by artists, gallerists, curators, academics, activists, and social historians. The Nueva Luz Study Center has been formed to make the digital archives more accessible and activates the material through programming.

We are open to projects that take varied forms and we encourage all artists including visual artists, choreographers, composers, poets, curators, activists, etc. who reside in New York State. The final project will be published in the fall issue of Nueva Luz, and will become part of the Nueva Luz Study Center and it’s digital archives. The Nueva Luz Commission Fund is En Foco’s new funding source for artists that adds to existing Fellowship and Media Arts Fund programs and previous New Works artists from 1996 to 2007.