[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/us-pavilion-1.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tDespite months of controversy, the United States managed to get Alma Allen\u2018s enormous sculptures to Venice for this year\u2019s Biennale. Getting them home, however, is proving more difficult.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe American Arts Conservancy, the nonprofit behind the US Pavilion, is roughly $1 million short of the funds needed to cover the exhibition\u2019s costs, including dismantling the show and shipping the artworks back to the US, according to a report in The New York Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n \n\tJenni Parido, the pavilion\u2019s commissioner, has been appealing to potential donors for help. In a letter obtained by the Times<\/em>, she acknowledged that the final stages of the project had become difficult.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWhile we have accomplished a tremendous amount in a relatively short period,\u201d Parido wrote, \u201cthe final phase of this undertaking has presented financial challenges that I am working tirelessly to resolve.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe American Arts Conservancy, which Parido runs, has brought in $1.4 million against a projected budget of just under $2.5 million. That shortfall has left it without the funds to store the massive stone and metal sculptures or ship them back to the US. The problem is growing more urgent, as the Biennale is due to close next month. There\u2019s no obvious place nearby to put them, either: the US Pavilion has no storage facilities, and the Guggenheim Foundation, which owns the building, doesn\u2019t have room for them.<\/p>\n \n\tThe funding troubles add another chapter to what has already been an unusually messy American outing at the Biennale.<\/p>\n \n\tParido, whose previous business experience included running an upscale pet boutique in Florida, was a surprise choice to oversee the US Pavilion. The Trump administration had scrapped the traditional selection process, which relied on proposals from established arts institutions and an independent review panel. Parido got the job after being recommended by her friend Erin Scavino, who heads the State Department\u2019s Art in Embassies program.<\/p>\n \n\tThe organizers eventually landed on Allen, an American sculptor based in Mexico, after several artists reportedly turned down the opportunity. Things didn\u2019t go smoothly from there.<\/p>\n \n\tAllen told the Times<\/em> that neither Parido nor the exhibition\u2019s curator, Jeffrey Uslip, visited his studio to see the sculptures before the show. By the time the Biennale\u2019s preview days were over, Allen and Uslip were no longer speaking.<\/p>\n \n\tAs for the financial predicament, Allen said he knew nothing about the nonprofit\u2019s fundraising. His own expenses, he said, amounted to travel and a cheap Airbnb, for which he was reimbursed.<\/p>\n \n\tThe organizers had initially pitched the exhibition\u2019s modest price tag as a selling point, calling it one of the cheapest US pavilions ever mounted. For comparison, the 2024 American presentation cost about $5 million, while the 2022 edition came in at nearly $7 million.<\/p>\n \n\tThe State Department provided a $375,000 grant toward the pavilion, with private donors expected to cover the rest. Parido\u2019s fundraising efforts included a party during Art Basel Miami Beach and a dinner at Mar-a-Lago. The department told the Times<\/em> it wasn\u2019t involved in raising the money.<\/p>\n \n\tFor now, it\u2019s unclear what happens if Parido can\u2019t close the million dollar gap. The American Arts Conservancy didn\u2019t answer the Times<\/em>\u2018 questions about what it would do if it couldn\u2019t afford to bring the sculptures home.<\/p>\n \n\tKaty Siegel, who helped organize the 2017 American pavilion, had a rather pithy assessment of the situation.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThis is crazy,\u201d she told the Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/u-s-pavilion-venice-biennale-1-million-short-alma-allen-1234804285\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/us-pavilion-1.jpg?w=1024″] Despite months of controversy, the United States managed to get Alma Allen\u2018s enormous sculptures to Venice for this year\u2019s Biennale. Getting them home, however, is proving more difficult. The American Arts Conservancy, the nonprofit behind the US Pavilion, is roughly $1 million short of the funds needed to cover the exhibition\u2019s costs, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-2229015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2229015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2229015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2229015\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2229015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2229015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2229015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}