Fresh Milk is thrilled to announce our 2026 cohort of TENDER grantees! This year’s TENDER programme, supported by the Clara Lionel Foundation and the Panta Rhea Foundation, took an alternative approach to our previous editions due to both our modified budget, and the high quantity of strong aspirants in the existing pool of applications from 2024 and 2025.
We invite you to consult our Jury Report below for a full breakdown of our procedure and General Comments.
Please join us in extending a huge congratulations to our 2026 Grantees!
TENDER JURY REPORT 2026
Procedure
The third year of TENDER: A Caribbean Arts Regranting Programme, spearheaded by Fresh Milk, was supported in partnership with the Clara Lionel Foundation (CLF) and the Panta Rhea Foundation. While the first two editions of the initiative employed a Caribbean-wide open call process, out of which contemporary visual artists, curators and arts organisations were awarded a total of USD $124,500 ($65,500 in 2024 and $59,000 in 2025), a different approach was adopted this year.
Given that the overall funding available this year was USD $28,000, and taking into account the many exceptionally strong applications we had received from the wider Caribbean out of the pool of 352 prior applicants, the decision was made by the Fresh Milk team to revisit eligible artists from past editions to be considered. Rather than having a third open call, a shortlist was compiled of the top-scoring submissions from the first two years in the three most popular, well subscribed tiers of grant funding offered: the emerging, mid-career, and established artists categories.
This model honours the quality of previous applications, and acknowledges the fact that the scores between applicants were often extremely close, making past jurors’ decisions very difficult. It also recognises the subjective and often difficult to quantify nature of arts practices, and afforded a chance for different perspectives and gazes to be cast over the portfolios of artists that had already proven themselves as impressive practitioners.
59 applications were selected for re-evaluation based on the applicants’ statements and work samples that collectively received the 10 highest numerical scores in past years, from the following categories:
- Emerging Artists – 20 applicants (13 women, 4 men, 3 non-binary)
- Mid-Career Artists – 21 applicants (10 women, 10 men, 1 non-binary)
- Established Artists – 18 applicants (8 women, 9 men, 1 non-binary)
The 59 submissions spanned the following twenty countries:
Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Aruba, The Bahamas, Barbados, The Cayman Islands, Curaçao, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Puerto Rico, The Bahamas, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, US Virgin Islands.
Our committee of jurors was composed of the following members:
- Versia Harris, Visual artist and Tutor in the BFA Studio Art programme at Barbados Community College, Barbados
- Ronald Rose-Antoinette, Max Stern Curator at the Leonard & Bina Ellen Gallery in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal;
- Sarabel Santos-Negrón, Visual artist, Educator and Director of the Museo de Arte de Bayamón, Puerto Rico .
The jury comprised three former TENDER grantees. Versia Harris (TENDER grantee 2024) served as a juror for TENDER’s 2025 open call, while Ronald Rose-Antoinette (TENDER grantee 2024) and Sarabel Santos-Negrón (TENDER grantee 2025) were first time jurors, allowing for a nuanced mixture of revisiting work in some instances, while also having fresh eyes on the artists’ portfolios. The committee was asked to reflect chiefly on the strength of the work submitted in relation to the contemporary visual art sector and evaluate areas such as conceptual direction, evidence of intent to continue their practice, and potential for growth.
The final jury meeting was chaired and moderated by Annalee Davis, Founding Director, Fresh Milk and Katherine Kennedy, Director of Programmes, Fresh Milk.
General comments on the TENDER 2026 Grant Cycle
The members of the jury were once again impressed by the overall high standard of work being produced by contemporary artists across the region. Applicants were working across a wide range of media including animation, drawing, digital art, illustration, installation, new media, printmaking, painting, performance, photography, sculpture, sound, textiles, video and interdisciplinary practices.
In terms of the review process, Santos-Negrón highlighted that portfolio presentation, including CV structure and visual clarity, was crucial for evaluating artists, particularly those with whom she was not familiar with, and that she was pleased with the depth and breadth of work she encountered. Harris and Rose-Antoinette agreed, and observed that the current cohort’s portfolios were easy to navigate and accessible, although it was agreed that professional documentation of work is an area in which Caribbean artists could still use additional support, so their portfolios do their practices justice when opportunities arise. As a veteran juror, Harris also noted the value of revisiting some work one year on, with fresh perspectives casting the work in a new light, reiterating the ongoing and dynamic impact of the artwork. It was also mentioned by the Fresh Milk team that a number of artists had applied to both the 2024 and 2025 open calls, and having their work ranked among the top ten highest scores consistently was noteworthy when making the final decision.
The jury further observed some of the recurring themes in the submissions, including ritual work, use of natural materials, cooking, food security, solidarity and climate urgency. These concerns seem to be indicative of not only a heightened sense of awareness around some of the Caribbean’s most pressing issues and precarious circumstances, but also an interest in alternative and reparative methods of addressing them, with an emphasis on sustainable practices, healing and community work.
Collectively, the jury considered other factors such as geographical reach across all four linguistic territories and a diversity of art forms to ensure a comprehensive selection reflecting the richness of art practices in the wider Caribbean, and enjoyed the opportunity to connect and collaborate with one another in the meeting.
The final list of grantees includes 7 women from all linguistic parts of the Caribbean including Aruba, Guadeloupe, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago and the US Virgin Islands.
We are delighted to share that the seven 2026 TENDER Grantees are:
Caribbean emerging artists: USD $2,500.00 each
- Ada del Pilar Ortiz (Puerto Rico)
- Malaury Eloi Paisley (Guadeloupe)
- Shanice Smith (Trinidad & Tobago)
Caribbean mid-career artists: USD $3,500.00 each
- Katrina Coombs (Jamaica)
- Natalia Lassalle-Morillo (Puerto Rico)
- Velvet Zoe Ramos (Aruba)
Photo credit: Toni Lance
Caribbean established artist: USD $7,500.00
- La Vaughn Belle (US Virgin Islands)
About Fresh Milk:
Fresh Milk is an artist-led, non-profit organisation founded in 2011 and based in Barbados. It is a platform which supports excellence in the visual arts through residencies and programmes that provide Caribbean artists with opportunities for development, fostering a thriving art community. Fresh Milk offers professional support to artists from the Caribbean and further afield and seeks to stimulate critical thinking in contemporary visual art. Its goal is to nurture artists, raise regional awareness about contemporary arts and provide Caribbean artists with opportunities for growth, excellence and success.
About the Panta Rhea Foundation:
Mission: To catalyze a just and sustainable world through food sovereignty, community power building, and grassroots liberation around the globe.
The Panta Rhea Foundation (PRF) was established in 2001 as a private foundation devoted to researching issues and analyzing the operations, goals and potential of organizations committed to building a more just and sustainable world. The Foundation advises individual donors and other charitable entities on grantmaking strategies and specific grants.
We believe that lasting, authentic change must come from the grassroots; from the organized efforts of people and organizations to enliven the social imagination and envision a better future, to experiment with new ideas, and to hold elected leaders and corporations accountable to the communities they serve.
Our foundation name, Panta Rhea, is inspired by Ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus. It roughly translates to “You never step into the same river twice” or “All things change, all things flow”—suggesting both inherent constancy and change as a fundamental of life itself.
About the Clara Lionel Foundation:
The Clara Lionel Foundation (CLF) was founded in 2012 by Robyn “Rihanna” Fenty in honor of her grandparents, Clara and Lionel Braithwaite. CLF supports and funds climate resilience and climate justice projects in the U.S. and Caribbean. The foundation’s five key pillars are: Climate Solutions; Women’s Entrepreneurship; Health Access and Equity; Future Generations; and Arts and Culture.
The CLF actively supports arts initiatives that preserve cultural heritage and foster community engagement in the regions we fund. We invest in community-led organizations that promote asset creation, long-term sustainability, and innovative climate solutions through arts practices.
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