SPACE Gallery announced recipients in its new grant program for Maine visual artists on Monday. The Kindling Fund will award $5,000 each to 10 projects with a strong public component, said SPACE executive director Nat May.

“Many of Maine’s artists are working outside traditional commercial structures, and this grant offers support for worthy projects that may be difficult to fund by other means,” he said in a press release. “SPACE has worked hard to fund artists working on projects presented at its multidisciplinary art space in Portland, and this grant gives the organization a way to encourage additional contemporary visual art projects to be presented independently, under the artists’ terms.”

Grantees include Ashleigh Burskey and Jenna Crowder for “The Chart,” an online arts journal for artists, writers and cultural producers to create traditional and experimental art criticism; Will Sears and Tessa O’Brien, who will work with local artists to create temporary and permanent murals, wall paintings and architectural interventions in Portland; and “MELT” by D.M. Witman, who will print and mail 250 postcard-sized unfixed salt prints to Mainers, asking them to decide whether and how to open the envelope, which will interfere with the image – a decision he says parallels our daily choices that contribute to climate change. Find the full list of grantees at kindlingfund.org.

SPACE will host an awards reception from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Friday at 522 Congress St.

May said the Kindling Fund, part of the Regional Regranting Program of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, received 84 applications from across Maine. The program matches Warhol Foundation support with local partner organizations who value artist-driven contemporary and independent practices. SPACE is one of nine regranting projects around the United States.