This year, Rhizome placed a specific focus on projects that address social issues and/or promote individual advancement through education or participation. Our focus was not restricted to this theme, but made a priority.

Rhizome awarded ten grants: eight grants were determined by a jury of experts in the field, and two were determined by Rhizome’s membership through an open vote.

In this funding cycle, Rhizome will awarded ten grants: eight grants were be determined by a jury of experts in the field, and two were be determined by Rhizome’s membership through an open vote.

The jury consisted of Tina Kukelski, formerly of the Whitney Museum of American Art, currently one of the curators for the Carnegie International 2012; Candice Madey, founder of On Stellar Rays gallery, and Domenico Quaranta, writer and media art historian. Two awards were determined by Rhizome’s membership through an open vote.

In 2009, Rhizome awarded nine emerging artists. Seven grants were determined by jury and two were selected by Rhizome's membership through an open, online vote.

The 2009 commissions jury included Barbara London, associate curator of media art at the Museum of Modern Art in New York; Oliver Laric, Berlin-based artist and creator of the arts-centered website VVORK.com; Emma McRae, co-curator of the Melbourne-based arts festival Experimenta; and Rick Rinehart, digital media director & adjunct curator at the Berkeley Art Museum. The jurors were joined by Rhizome's curatorial fellow Luis Silva and executive director Lauren Cornell.

For this cycle, Rhizome expanded the scope of our commissions program beyond a strict focus on Internet-based art to instead encompass the broad range of practices that fall under new media art. This included projects that creatively engage new and networked technologies, as well as works that reflect on the impact of these tools and media in a variety of forms. With this expanded format, commissioned works could take the final form of online works, performance, video, installation or sound art. Projects could be made for the context of the gallery, the public, the web or networked devices.

The jury included Oliver Laric, artist and co-founder of VVORK, Barbara London, Associate Curator, Department of Media, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Emma McRae, Curatorial and Projects Coordinator, Experimenta, Melbourne and Rick Rinehart, Digital Media Director and Adjunct Curator, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.From Rhizome, they will be joined by Luis Silva, our Lisbon-based Curatorial Fellow, and Lauren Cornell, Executive Director and Adjunct Curator at the New Museum.

In 2008, Rhizome increased funding for its Commissions Program, and awarded eleven emerging artists/ collectives a total of $23,000 in support of new works of Internet-based art. The commissioned works were presented at the New Museum and archived online in the Rhizome ArtBase.

The commissioned artworks were selected by Rhizome members and a jury composed of Suhjung Hur, curator, Art Center Nabi; Rudolf Freiling, curator of media arts, SFMoMA; Marc Garrett, co-director and co-founder of Furtherfield; Christina Ray, founder and director of Glowlab and the Conflux Festival; and Lauren Cornell and Marisa Olson of Rhizome. Rhizome members awarded three of the eleven commissions including our first ever Community Award, a new category created this year to support projects that enhance participation and communication on Rhizome's website. This award went to conglomco.org (Tyler Jacobsen & Kim Schnaubert) for zHarmony (see below for details).

Eleven artworks were commissioned in the 2007-08 cycle. While the call did not outline a specific theme, the commissioned works nonetheless share themes and concerns. Several take hidden or repressed information as their source material. Others examine the kinds of behavior the Internet encourages or inhibits through the creation of participatory systems. All together, the eleven artists and art collectives have considered the artistic, cultural, and political dimensions of the Internet and networked technologies and produced provocative artworks that Rhizome is proud to have supported.

These works were presented at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in 2008 and are preserved in the Rhizome ArtBase.

Eleven projects were awarded grants for the 2005-06 cycle; ten were selected by a panel of jurors, and one by the Rhizome Community through secure web-based ballots. Each one pushes formal and conceptual boundaries of works made with the Internet or networked technology, and present innovative models of new media art that are sure to have a wide and lasting resonance.

These artworks were presented at the New Museum Store on October 24, 2006.

For the 2004-05 cycle, artists were invited to submit proposals relating to the theme of games. The call asked artists to propose projects that will contribute to the art game genre, or reflect on broad interpretations of the word "game."

Natalie Bookchin of The Art Center, Francis Hwang of Rhizome, Rachel Greene of Rhizome, and independent curator Yukiko Shikata selected six winners and one honorable mention from the fifty proposals that were received by the March 7, 2004, deadline. Members of the Rhizome community participated in the evaluation process through secure web-based ballots, and awarded a commission to Carlo Zanni.