
Ruby Carlson, Sara Velas, Megan Koester, Anna Seregina, Anthony Oberbeck, Kent Bulza, Pa,Sacio Davinci, Forest Casey, Union Square Florist Shop: Better Living Through Floristry, presented at Velaslavasay Panorama, 2021. © Velaslavasay Panorama.

Li Wu, Yan Yang, Zhou Fuxian, Sara Velas, Ruby Carlson, Guan Rong, Rastra Contreras, Andy Cao, Anna Tanner, Moritz Fehr, and Chu-Hsuan Chang, Shengjing Panorama, on view at the Velaslavasay Panorama, 2019-2025. © Velaslavasay Panorama.

Rastra Contreras, Sara Velas and Ruby Carlson, Nova Tuskhut, on view at the Velaslavasay Panorama, 2014-2023. © Velaslavasay Panorama.
Velaslavasay Panorama
Fund: $24,000
The Velaslavasay Panorama (VP) is the only institution in America creating contemporary immersive 360-degree painted panoramas. Located in the historic Union Theatre (1910) with a neon facade, 80-person theater, elaborate garden and exhibit space, the VP exists as a gesamtkunstwerk—a total work of art—expressed through painting, architecture, typography, and language to enhance the illusion of being in a faraway place and time. Beyond the panoramic installations, the VP is an artist-run organization that curates programs, exhibits, performances, workshops, films and illustrated lectures with a focus on marginalized art forms and artists whose personal backgrounds are nonconforming; art school dropouts, self-taught artists, “technical” artisans and those confined by the “folk” or “traditional art” moniker.