Essay #4: Materials for Fellowship, Grant or Proposal Applications

Length: 1500-2000 words total

Due Dates:

5/30 Rough Draft of Artist’s Biography, Resume, and Artist’s Statement Due to Canvas

6/6 Rough Draft of Project Description / Project Narrative Due to Canvas: Have ready two digital copies of all of your the materials (resume, bio, statement, project description / project narrative, cover letter) in class

6/8 Final Draft of All Materials Due: load these as a single file to the class Canvas.

102J Main Page | Syllabus | Essay #1 | #2 | #3 | #4

As we have discussed this quarter in UWP 102J, at different times in their careers, artists look for different kinds of funding to support their work. When you are just starting out your career as a creative professional, for example, you may apply for fellowships or residencies that will give you time, space and money to develop your craft. As a practicing artist, you may apply for grants from public or private foundations, or submit proposals for public art projects.

The business of being a practicing artist takes place largely through writing, and your success in getting money will often depend on the quality of written materials that you submit. Our writing class exists in part to prepare you for this important work.

For your fourth major writing assignment for UWP 102J, you will prepare a variety of professional materials that you might use when applying to different funding sources. Insofar as each real-world application will require different kinds of materials, you will be able to adapt the documents you will prepare for this assignment for a variety of purposes in the future.

Certainly, you can use this assignment to prepare materials for a real-world application; in fact, doing so may help you to present a stronger application packet. Let me know if you plan to focus on a specific real-world audience and endeavor.

Audience: The audience for these documents will be made up of the heads of foundations, the members of advisory boards, and other people in charge of allocating the funds institutions have to fund artists. In all likelihood, these people will be well-educated professionals who have an interest in the arts, though they will also often not be artists or have deep knowledge of the arts. Many times, people from business, local government, etc., staff these boards. This means that you will need to explain what you do (and what you plan to do) in ways that account for their potential lack of technical , specialized knowledge. As we have discussed in class, your audience will be made up of executives (or people playing that function), rather than experts, so you will have to translate some terms and ideas accordingly.

The assignment has four basic parts:

An Artist’s Resume and Artist’s Biography
An Artist’s Statement
A Project Description for a Proposal or Fellowship
A Cover Letter Introducing your materials

(1) Artist’s Resume and Artist’s Biography (Resume: 1 page; Bio: 100-200 words)

These documents represent, in concise and readable form, your work as a professional artist. Their goal is to communicate, quickly and concisely, who you are as a working artist.

The Artist’s Resume resembles a job resume, but focuses only on material that is relevant to your works as an artist. It usually contains sections for the following kinds of information (note that this list is for visual artists; other kinds of artists will include other kinds of information—musicians, for example, may have sections on performances, work with specific orchestras or ensembles, etc.):

Contact Information
Education
Solo Exhibitions
Group Exhibitions
Grants & Awards
Commissions
Collections (i.e. collections your work appears in)
Bibliography (of reviews, catalogs in which your work appears, etc.)
Current Employment (if it is art-related)
Gallery Representation or Agent

At this stage in your careers, you may not have much professional experience. In that case, you may want to present a more detailed account of your education, listing not just your degree, but also important class work (with brief descriptions of what you did in these classes), projects you’ve worked on, etc. As you progress in your career, your education becomes less important to your self-representation as an artist, and it may therefore appear later on your resume.

Examples of Artists’ Resumes from UC Davis Faculty:

http://www.lucypuls.com/CV

http://www.darrinmartin.com/pdfs/D_Martin_CV11.pdf

The Artist’s Biography essentially presents a version of your resume in paragraph form. Like the resume, it aims to present a clear sense of your identity as a professional artist. It will necessarily omit much of the detail that the resume presents, and can’t list everything, but should show the reader your most important accomplishments.

Ideally, the biography will briefly explain what kind of art you make, where it’s appeared, awards you’ve received, etc. The biography should be approximately 100 to 200 words long; you should write it in the third person, and you may draw upon your multimodal biography, though this one is obviously shorter and therefore more straightforward. Revise it thoroughly for absolute clarity.

Examples of Artists’ Biographies from UC Davis Faculty:

http://www.lucypuls.com/Bio-Contact

http://www.darrinmartin.com/pdfs/D_Martin_bio.pdf

http://www.bobostertag.com/bio.htm

Sound artist Matt Burtner presents four different versions of his biography, each a different length, which may help you to think about how to revise your own biography to make it precise, detailed and concise:

https://ccrma.stanford.edu/~mburtner/biography.html

(2) Artist’s Statement (500-750 words)

While the Artist’s Biography and Resume describe you as a professional artist, the Artist’s Statement focuses on your art. In particular, it should give the reader a clear sense of the kind of art you make and (perhaps) the direction in which your art is developing. The statement should not present a history of your work or of your evolution as an artist. Among the questions the statement might in some way address are:

What defines the art you make?
How do you make your art?
What materials do you use?
Why do you make the specific art you create?
What does your art signify or communicate?

For the artist’s statement, write as specifically as possible. Present specific details, precise words, and clear descriptions. A non-artist should be able to make sense of the statement—it should not be technical or employ jargon. Ideally, the statement will feel like a single, clear, unified thought, and not a list of answers to a list of questions. You should write your artist’s statement in the first person.

http://www.guylaramee.com/index.php?/intro/

http://valbritton.com/statement.php

(3) Project Description / Project Narrative (1000 words):

The executive readers of your prose, the ones who have the money, will want to know what you intend to do with that money, and how your plans fit with the goals or purposes of the granting organization. If you’re applying for a public art project, those executives will want to know what kind of piece you plan to produce, and how it will complement the public space where it will appear. If you’re applying for a community art grant, they’ll want to know what kind of program you plan to develop, and how it will benefit the community. If you’re applying for a fellowship, those executives will want to know exactly what you plan to work on during the time of the fellowship, and how your project relates to the goals or interests of their organization.

Granting organizations may define general or specific goals for the programs they support. For example, the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture (http://www.mfjc.org/mission.html) aims “to nurture a vibrant and enduring Jewish identity, culture, and community.” Arts Orange (http://artsorange.org) seeks to fund projects that will in some way benefit Orange County. The Headlands Center for the arts (http://www.headlands.org), meanwhile, defines its purpose more broadly as being “dedicated to supporting artists; the creative process; and the development of new, innovative ideas and artwork.”

The project narrative is the place where you will sell your ideas. Be as clear and as specific as possible. While different organizations may require that you include different areas of focus in the project description, for our purposes, your narrative should include the following:

An interesting introduction that gets the reader’s attention and that helps the reader think clearly about the need that your project will address.
A detailed overview of the project you propose, which should include:
- a detailed description of the project: what will it look like, what it will do;
- goals: what you hope the project will accomplish, and (implicitly) how it relates to the needs or the goals of the granting organization;
- methods: how will you accomplish this—that is, what materials, resources, techniques will you use).
- A conclusion that restates the main reason you think your project should be funded.

Note that most proposals also ask you to include additional material (such as lists of materials, budgets, timelines, etc.) which we will not be including in the assignment.

FOR THE PROJECT NARRATIVE, RESPOND TO ONE OF THE FOLLOWING FICTITIOUS PROMPTS

A) Public Art Proposal

The Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art at the University of California, Davis opened in November, 2016. For the one-year anniversary celebration of our campus art museum, the Shrem Museum is accepting proposals for projects that will embody the spirit of the University. The Shrem Museum will consider projects from all artistic disciplines, including (but not limited to) paintings, sculptures and installations that will be part of the permanent collection of the museum, and performances or musical scores for the anniversary ceremonies and celebration. Address applications to Shrem Opening Proposals, c/o Dr. Andy Jones, University of California, Davis, 1 Shields Ave, Davis CA 95616.

B) Fellowship Application

The Dr. Andy Foundation for Benevolence in the Arts is currently accepting applications for one-year fellowships for emerging artists in all artistic and design disciplines. The fellowships provide a stipend of $50,000 and access to studio space. The program is only open to current UC Davis students and recent alumni. Address applications to DAFBA, c/o Dr. Andy Jones, University of California, Davis, 1 Shields Ave, Davis CA 95616.

C) Grant Proposal

The UC Davis branch of Anarcho-Collectivist Artists is currently accepting applications for art projects that respond to the election of Donald J. Trump as the 45th President of the United States. We encourage artwork that helps to create an enduring consciousness of the causes of the most recent presidential election, and the known or anticipated effects on our nation and the world. We are particularly interested in performances (music, theater or dance) that require few to no props, and works of art that can be set up and dismantled quickly. We have no money, but can offer you eternal (or at least short- to mid-range) fame, and promise to sing quiet songs in your honor when we meet in secret at a location that we are currently unable to disclose. Leave your applications under a rock in the sidewalk circle at the center of the UC Davis Quad, preferably late at night after the maintenance crews have gone home for the evening, or address them to UCDACA, c/o Andy Jones, University of California, Davis, 1 Shields Ave, Davis CA 95616.

(4) Cover Letter (less than one page):

When you have finalized the rest of the material, write a brief professional cover letter addressed to the board of the foundation to which you are applying. You should begin by telling them that you are applying, and be sure to mention the specific grant/award you’re applying for, as many foundations sponsor numerous programs. The body of the letter should briefly outline the project you’re proposing. Close the letter by thanking them for their consideration.

General Writing Advice: Because professional documents must be both highly detailed and relatively brief, they pose particular writing challenges. You should plan to do multiple drafts of each document (including the brief Artist’s Biography), more than the rough and final drafts we’ll be looking at in class. Also, you should plan to overwrite: your early drafts may be sloppy, and should be too long. When preparing your Artist’s Statement, for example, you might generate numerous pages of material, and then sift through this material to find the most relevant, vital material. Beginning with more material will help to ensure that you don’t leave anything important out.

Begin thinking about and working on the later, larger parts of this assignment now. In particular, you should begin brainstorming about the project proposal as soon as possible.