In Round 18 of the Alternative Exposure Grant Program, Southern Exposure is awarding $65,000 to 16 projects. Alternative Exposure grants fund the unincorporated, independent work of artists and collaboratives who invigorate and transform the San Francisco Bay Area arts community. Projects will take place throughout the Bay Area and awardees are based in Alameda, San Francisco, Solano, and Sonoma Counties.

This year we are honored to present the third Alternative Exposure Award in memory of Jonathan Bernbaum. Multi-media and video artist Jonathan Bernbaum tragically died in the 2016 Oakland Ghost Ship Fire at the age of 34. The Jonathan Bernbaum Memorial Award honors his work and his commitment to the Bay Area artistic community by supporting a project that focuses on performance or multi-media work.This year’s Jonathan Bernbaum Memorial Award recipient, Gravitational Lensing: Feminist Film Dialogues, was chosen from amongst the pool of Alternative Exposure applicants.

16 Alternative Exposure recipients were selected from 100 applications: Salon Salon, Black & White Projects (BWP), CALMA's Stories of Survival: Threads of Resistence, Colectiva Libre, Escolar, gatherings, Hamesha Project, Light Field, Hub, Rebel Kings of Oakland, Free Palestine Poster Project, The First Time I Saw Me: Stories of Black Trans Emergence (TFTISM), Hye There, winslow house project, zinedogs and the  Jonathan Bernbaum awarded, Gravitational Lensing: Feminist Film Dialogues.

The 2024 grantees were selected by writer, artist and Program Manager for the Velocity Fund regional re-granting program in Philidelphia, Connie Yu; Bay Area curator, educator and community organizer, PJ Gubatina Policarpio; and Lian Ladia, Curator for Exhibitions and Programs of 500 Capp Street and former AltEx Grantee.

To date, Southern Exposure has awarded over of $1.2 million to 360 artists and projects thanks to major support from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Thank you to all who applied. Our panel was very impressed by the quality and variety of work submitted.