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artist enhancement grants
Post #314 • July 5, 2004, 8:40 AM • 9 Comments
This just in: Artist Enhancement Grants from the Florida Department of State Division of Cultural Affairs.
The Artist Enhancement Grant Program is designed to assist practicing, professional and emerging artists residing in Florida. The program provides support for artists to take advantage of specific, professional development, skill-building opportunities to advance their work and careers. Project-oriented applications will not be eligible, nor will funds be awarded for the completion of a specific piece of work. Examples of opportunities eligible for support include:
- Attending advanced workshops, conferences, master classes, seminars or residencies.
- Participating in a performance or exhibition opportunity of significance.
- Preparation of portfolios, work samples, marketing materials or website development.
- Major equipment purchases that will have significant impact on the artist's career.
- Any activities that enable the artist to acquire techniques that improve his/her ability to present a body of work. Grants are available in three established amounts: $500, $750, and $1,000.
I commend the DCA for writing up crystal-clear guidelines for this award. I only wonder about how the grant amount affects one's chances - does asking for $1000 decrease them relative to asking for $500?
Our very own Rem Cabrera down at the local DCA will administer the award.
This new grant serves as some consolation for the retooled Individual Artist Fellowship Program, which now will award grants to visual artists only every other year (beginning 2005), and has arranged new disadvantageous categories for application: Media Arts and Visual Arts/Crafts. This creates a weird distribution of unrelated competitors: documentary makers vs. video artists in one category, painters vs. woodturners in the other.
The Artist Enhancement Grant Program resembles in name, amount and concept the Artist Access Grant put out by the Tigertail Foundation. Given their calendars, you could easily apply for both using the same pitch if you time it right. Next deadline is August 30.
2.
July 5, 2004, 7:34 PM
Now, that's what I call commitment, Momoko.
Those of you who would recoil at such a proposal (so to speak) consider for a moment the moral implications of kowtowing to the market, the dealers, the trends and fashions and the grant agencies.
3.
July 5, 2004, 10:10 PM
That's funny--as I was reading this post, I thought, wow--that's almost exactly like an Artist Access grant. It seems odd, and frustrating--in Miami-Dade there are now two nearly identical opportunities to fund artist development, but not actual projects.
One small possibility for an antidote that I'd like to point out is that if you can apply through a fiscal agent (i.e., a willing organization with 501(c)3 status), artists can apply for grants ($10,000 and less, I think) through the Cultural Affairs Dept's Community Grants program. I imagine these types of projects might also have to have a strong community/education/audience development component to be competitive for that particular grant program, though. Just a thought.
4.
July 5, 2004, 10:26 PM
Thought I'd also go ahead and post these links to the Miami-Dade Cultural Affairs Dept. grants for organizations I mentioned in the above comment. These MIGHT offer opportunities for artists applying through nonprofits, depending on the proposed scope and nature of the project. Worth looking into, anyway.
Community Grants Program
Developing Arts in Neighborhoods Grant Program
5.
July 6, 2004, 12:04 AM
Momoko and Old Pro: Is marrying for money any less of an enslavement than letting the personality of the market influence your art?
6.
July 6, 2004, 1:43 AM
Depends on who you marry.
7.
July 6, 2004, 2:01 AM
My response doesn't get any better than oldpro's.
8.
July 6, 2004, 2:52 PM
Denise has a point - why are there no awards aimed at projects? Is this a legacy from the Helms/Mapplethorpe NEA meltdown at the height of the Culture Wars? If so, isn't it about time that somebody got over it?
9.
July 10, 2004, 5:41 AM
The NEA meltdown was a good thing. It was old and tired, led astray by an art system that had broken down into academic mush. Good riddance. And for the credential conscious, I have received money from the NEA.
1.
Momoko
July 5, 2004, 7:17 PM
We were eating Sushi in Coral Gables when my artist friend said, I have been telling young people that if you want to be successful as an artist, get married to a wealthy. I laughed, but when I saw her eyes I realized she was not joking.
It makes sense. Art is costly, and that is the reality. If, and only if one is serious about art so much that s/he could do anything for art, then that is a solution. Forget the grant or $1,000 and go for the Complete Package of Artist Enhancement.
The application form to The Complete Package of Artist Enhancement is not available, and there is no deadline. Apply at your own risk.