Award Winning Artists: A Conspiracy Against You?

Concept/OK: Residency Artists with curator Alison Hearst — Narciso Argüelles, Sarah Williams Hearn,
 Gregory Ruppe at the Hardesty Arts Center.

Ever feel like something is rigged? Like artists were chosen before the contest was even announced? 

I've heard the grumbling and gotten questions that imply suspicion about artist winners from OVAC’s programs.  Considering fairness, here's some of the foundational characteristics that may explain some of the reasons why the same artists get selected for many things:

1. They apply.
This may sound obvious, but those with the best chances apply to everything that they are eligible for or that fits their artwork.
Meanwhile, many rule themselves out; deciding they wouldn't get in anyway or it's not worth the effort.

Award winning artists frequently apply for many opportunities for each one they receive. Hard work really is required to receive big rewards.

For instance, only nine artists have submitted to all three of our Art 365 exhibitions and not gotten selected. That means the several hundred artists who applied only applied once or twice. Similarly, few artists apply repeatedly to the OVAC Fellowship (worth $5,000). 2009 Fellowship winner Kate Rivers submitted seven times before receiving the award!

2. They submit outstanding work samples.

Award winning artists’ images are clear, well, lit, and show their work in the best possible perspective. Or their time-based artwork samples are carefully chosen with easy to understand audio.

3. Their written materials describe their artwork and professional practice clearly and thoughtfully.
Award winning artists take time to explain their work in artist statements and work sample lists. They show care in their narratives and cover letters.  

Moreover, artists who address the reasoning behind their work with nuance distinguish themselves. They explain why they chose certain materials, processes, or themes. They show an engagement with the contemporary world, timeless aspects of the human condition, or bold technique that goes beyond their simple enjoyment of making the artwork itself.

See samples of past award winning artists’ proposals here.

These three characteristics obviously can't explain the entire process, but without these an artist rarely stands out in a pool of applications.  Artistic selection is inherently a subjective process.  Paraphrasing the loose quotation of a recent guest curator, there are too many types of art for us to love them all. 

To those who do follow the above and don't get selected for opportunities, I hope you continue working and find ways to stay motivated. Find exhibitions, grants and awards that seem to resonate with your artistic practice and career stage. Continue to hone your written materials. And, know that most art world opportunities aren't application-based, so your opportunities may arise at any time.

We asked artists to talk about this persistence, and specifically rejection, in a past blog series found here.  

Applying for Exhibitions & Grants

Hoping this will help other artists, I want to share my presentation from our Artist Survival Kit workshop last weekend. We focused on writing proposals for grants and exhibitions. 

Many of these cash awards and exhibitions have quick deadlines. But, I think the proposal tips should translate to other artist applications. 

This was the second proposal writing workshop we've offered, hoping to encourage more and even better artist applications to our opportunities.  Let us know if you have questions. 

Artist Proposals 101: Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition from Julia Kirt

Applying for Fellowships: Debby Kaspari

In preparation for a workshop focused on grant funding for artists, Norman artist Debby Kaspari reflected on some incredible Fellowships she's received and dealing with realities of the opportunities. See the interview with Kasapri's co-presenter Liz Roth, Stillwater, for more introduction to the topic. 

Debby Kaspari leads a workshop
funded in part by an OK Visual Arts Coalition grant

Q: What are a few of the key grants you’ll address in the workshop? 

Debby Kaspari: I'll be talking about my three grants: the Eckelberry Fellowship, the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship, and the Charles Bullard Fellowship. I was awarded two out of three, and I'll discuss why, and why not.

Q: Why have they been so pivotal for your artistic practice?

DK: These were high-profile grants which allowed for some interesting travel, research and showcases for my work. The Bullard, in particular, funded 8 months of art-making and scholarly research and exploring new ground.

Q: What is the biggest opportunity to which you’ve applied? Why did you want to apply?

DK: The Bullard, with the Smithsonian a close second. The Bullard is through Harvard University, funded my work for 8 months and opened many doors that are still leading me to other interesting places.

Debby Kaspari's sketches of lesser prairie chickens from a project 
funded in part by an OK Visual Arts Coalition grant

Q: What do you do when you get a rejection letter?

DK: Try to find out what I could have done differently, ask someone in the know, if possible. If I'm still interested in a particular grant or residency, I'll reconfigure my proposal or redesign the study and resubmit in the next cycle. 

Q: What else should I have asked?

DK: What do you do when you get accepted? (after you finish doing the happy dance) You need to find out what's expected and how to physically carry out your project. For instance, the Bullard Fellowship meant moving cross-country to Massachusetts for 8 months, renting an apartment, setting up an automatic deposit for the fellowship payments, getting a Harvard ID, meeting people to work with, scouting locations and learning how to use the archives. Once that's in place, you can get into the creative work and have fun.

Kaspari and Liz Roth will lead artists through funding options and proposals at the "Applying for Artist Grants" workshop on April 28. See www.ArtistSurvivalKit.org for more information and to register. 

Proposals for Grants, Residencies & Exhibitions

Three months in Japan working on your artwork along with a travel stipend.   

A large cash prize and six month drawing in a New England forest. 

Cash support for preparing art for an exhibition.  

These may sound like dreams, but these are real awards that transform artists' careers. Liz Roth and Debby Kaspari have applied for and received many such awards. They will share tips and ideas at the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition Artist Survival Kit workshop on April 28, 2012. Roth answered a few questions about proposals and opportunities below. 

Presenter Liz Roth explains her Art 365 project in 2008

Q: What do you do when you get a rejection letter?

Liz Roth: When I get a rejection letter, I have a 24-hour rule. The rule is:  I send out an application within 24 hours of receiving a rejection.  I am able to do this because I keep an ongoing list of opportunities in a document on my laptop, organized by date. I update this list constantly. I always want to have something (a possible acceptance) to look forward to. So I generally have between 5 and 9 applications “out” at any given time.

Q: What is the biggest opportunity to which you’ve applied? Why did you want to apply?

Roth: The biggest opportunity I applied to that I received was the Kamiyama Artist in Residency in Japan. It is a three-month long, remarkable residency. Basically, I like to travel and wanted to go to Japan, so I applied.

What happened was, I went there and it pretty much changed my life and the direction my art would take.  I have had a fair amount of experience working abroad, but being in a foreign country where your job is to be an artist and to complete a project you proposed was fantastic and quite challenging. 

I learned how to really think about a place and create an esthetic experience tailored to the community’s interests. I learned how to push my esthetic agenda, while remaining respectful. I created more work in three months than I though was humanly possible. And my final work was so interesting to me, that I have been using that project as a springboard for other projects in the ten years since.

Q: What will you address in the workshop?

Roth: My role in this workshop is nuts and bolts. I will talk less about the grants and residencies I have received, and more about how to think about transforming what you already do into a project that will be attractive to grant and residency review committees. Also, I will demonstrate how to find these opportunities on the web, and how to prepare your application materials. We’ll have a brainstorming part of the workshop, but by all means, bring your ideas and your writing and we’ll look at them!

Q: A good question to ask is, what percentage of applications that you submit are accepted?

Roth: The answer is it depends upon what I am applying for. But usually, 1 out of 10.

Roth and Debby Kaspari will lead artists through funding and proposals at the "Applying for Artist Grants" workshop on April 28. See www.ArtistSurvivalKit.org for more information and to register. 

Artists Finding Funding

Most of the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition staff  is soaking up knowledge and enjoying colleagues at the Oklahoma Arts Conference in Tulsa. We value learning from experts in the community development, advocacy and other cultural topics thanks to the Oklahoma Arts Council (a state agency). 

In this morning's workshop, Molly O'Connor & I outlined funding options for artists, especially focusing on grants. As soon as I finished the presentation I thought of the introduction I should have given.  Here's a stab at it:


Artists need different types of money for their practice. To seek outside funding, artist need to distinguish between the two. 


One type of funds cover the ongoing sustenance of their practice-- day in and day out expenses like rent, normal materials, etc. Let's call this ongoing expenses. 


Other types of funds pay for special things like a one-time project, travel, specialized training, major changes in scale of your practice and such. This could be considered "project" funding.  


Projects are mostly what grants will fund.  Usually grants pay for one-time, special, or time-delimited projects.  


Meanwhile, things like art sales and day jobs are more reliable income to cover ongoing expenses. Merit-based awards can be bonus funds to help as needed also. 


Artist with the ability to make more of their expenses fit into or a part of projects are able to package their work better for grants. 


Feel free to check out the resource pages we created for the workshop here and I welcome your comments.  

Fellowship and Student Award of Excellence 2011 Applications

The Oklahoma Visual Arts Fellowship and Student Award of Excellence applications are due by 5 pm on Monday, May 2.  You can find the full application here. 

This year's guest curator is Ben Heywood, the director of Soap Factory in Minneapolis, MN.  Learn more about him and his curatorial projects, which include installations by many emerging and established artist from across the country. 

Here's information about frequently asked questions about the Fellowship and Student Awards of Excellence.  

Cedar Marie, Love Poem 2,  2010 Fellowship Award Recipient

Sherwin Tibayan, Off the Strip, Las Vegas, 2010 Award of Excellence Recipient 

Also, you can learn about past Fellowship and Award recipients here. 

Successful grant applications

For the past few weeks we’ve been publishing profiles of recent OVAC grant recipients.  See the series here. 

Highlighting the artists is one purpose of the posts.  Also, I hope to show how artists with successful proposals frame their projects and/or artistic practice.

I have been able to see themes in the reasons project proposals are successful since serving as the staff liaison to the OVAC Grants Committee and writing organizational grant applications for more than 11 years.   This is not an exhaustive list, but is to show some of the most consistent qualities of winning grant proposals.  

Artists & neighbors worked together creating mosaics as a
part of Margaret Aycock's Community Partnership Grant 

Successful grant applications:

1. 1.      Show planning on the part of the artist.

Unlike artists who need to explore and experiment, funders are not interested in chucking money at ideas that may or may not be completed.  Funders want to support things that are going to happen and are likely going to be put together well.  Basically, OVAC, like other funders, has limited funds to give away in each area, so must prioritize who gets support. In each category, the Grants Committee literally ranks the artists “ability to complete the project” as demonstrated through the proposal components. 

Grant applications show planning through thoughtful budgets and timelines, complete responses to questions posed, and realistic plans for venues or other showing of the work. 

Ryan Pack practiced drawing daily in her residency at the Scribner's Gallery,
funded in part through an OVAC Creative Projects Grant.  

1. 2.      Demonstrate the project makes sense for the artists’ practice.

Since OVAC’s goal is to support artists at key stages of their artistic practice, criteria include the appropriateness and the career-altering nature of the project for the artist.  Proposals demonstrate this suitability through the connection of the narrative description and the artists’ own resume.

So, for instance, in the recent series of grant recipients, Tammy Brummell made a good case that the Girlie Show is an appropriate venue for her, connecting her to needed audiences and a new peer network.  The committee could see from her resume that this is a new direction for her work.  Conversely, if an artist brand new to showing artwork submitted a request to fund a large-scale solo exhibition and public sculpture, the committee likely would question the fit of the project for that artist.  It’s not that the committee questions whether the artist can fulfill their dreams, just that they have to wonder if he/she has the background to deal with the scale and materials.  It might be better for the artist to apply for a project that is an intermediate step toward this ambitious goal.

Carl Shortt leads Artist Survival Kit workshop about photographing your artwork.

1. 3.    Include the best possible samples of artwork.

I am not sure what more to say about this, other than artists need to make sure images represent the artwork well through their clarity and simplicity.  Also, the samples should be relevant to the proposal (i. e. majority weavings if applying for funds to buy a new loom). Applicants cannot expect the reviewers to make conceptual leaps without help, regardless of artistic style.  If samples are quite different from the proposal, artists should explain the change or variation (i. e. “this is a new direction for me based on…”). See tips on photographing your artwork here and here. 

All that being said, in the subjective world of grants, the best you can do is make sure your project is well thought out and you explain it as best you can.  See our past series about proposals to read actual past proposals and components.

See more grant writing help and places to seek grants, check here.  OVAC’s next artist project grants deadline is January 15, then April 15, July 15, and October 15. 

Artist Statements: Grant Recipient Samples

Curious about what other artists say about their work?  In preparation for the September 11 Artist Survival Kit workshops "Making a Statement," the following few posts will include actual artist statements from recent OVAC award recipients.  Through seeing these groups of statements, I hope you will see the variety of approaches you can take to writing about your work.  Also, you’ll see the distinctiveness of their descriptions, as distinctive as their artwork.

These artists received grants offered quarterly by OVAC.  They submitted project descriptions, budgets, timelines, artwork images and resumes along with the artist statements.  You’ll notice that their statements connect to a specific project, for which they are proposing.

Eyakem Guiliat, untitled, Archival pigment ink print, 11x14

Eyakem Gulilat (Creative Projects Grant)

“My project is about how identity is formed in the in-between spaces of cross cultural encounter. I gravitate towards communities which are underrepresented and who often do not have a place in main stream media. I treat my camera as a tool that captures one moment of a larger dialogue that occurs between me and my subjects. Using a photojournalistic approach, my art thrives on my interaction with people.

I am driven by curiosity in others. I am interested in knowing people’s stories, and I am especially interested in how these stories play out in the midst of cross-cultural dialogue. As a result, my work often centers around a sort of dichotomy that appears between two distinct groups of people. I wish to understand people’s differences and how they adapt to one another.

I am also influenced by studies of Third Culture and the “inbetweenness” that occurs when people spend a significant amount of time outside of their country of origin. I use my camera as a channel to connect with individuals who find themselves caught between two cultures. My work is most driven by the shifting realities of individuals in an ever globalized world.”

Holly Wilson, Boy's View, Bronze, geode, 4.25x4x4"

Holly Wilson (Creative Project)

“The interaction of people, both real and imagined, inspire my work.  Stories from past to present, dreams and nature are realized through the use of the figure. My Delaware and Cherokee American Indian Heritage is a direct link to the conception of the figures.  My use of line, texture, and color is extracted from nature that relates to my cultural experiences.

The small-scale figurative bronzes, encaustic and drawings are entities that embody the stories and dreams I have shared with my family and heritage.  With this intimacy, the materials and the process involved are a manipulated in a way that both honors the real and the imagined aspecs of my life. The fragments of nature, culture, and family hold the hope, sadness fear and joy that are intertwined into my work.”

MJ Alexander, The Oklahomans: Stonewall, Metallic silver halide prints, 20x30

MJ Alexander (Creative Projects Grant)

“For the past decade, I have photographed the American West with a focus on Oklahoma and Oklahomans. Over the years, I have found that our kids have in common with our oldest citizens, whom I interviewed and photographed for the state’s centennial. Both groups are open, curious, and excited about the future. Like the centenarians, the insights and beauty of the youngest Oklahomans can be overlooked and underappreciated.

The project title – TENTH GENERATION – is inspired by the realization that this year marks 180 years since with the establishment of Indian Territories by the U.S. Congress, creating Oklahoma’s first wave of major settlement. These 21st century children are our Tenth Generation.

Along the way, this project has taken me to meet children, aged 18 to newborn, at noodling holes on the Washita River, a family cemetery with tombstones written in Cherokee syllabary, the fields of the Tallgrass Prairie, the rattlesnake derby in Mangum, the top of Black Mesa, and a wheat farm in Okeene.

I am excited about doing justice to this kaleidoscope of kids and telling of their commitment to tradition – or their determination to break with it. My goal is for this exhibit to serve as both window to and mirror on Oklahoma’s Tenth Generation.”

OVAC’s Artist Survival Kit workshop "Making a Statement" on September 11, noon-3 pm, will guide artists through the dreaded process of writing an artist statement. Wondering why write one, see Alyson Stanfield’s article on Art Biz Blog. Through a series of interactive exercises, artists will leave this workshop with a new or refreshed artist statement.

Momentum OKC Spotlight: FAQ

Artist proposals are due by November 9 for Momentum OKC’s Spotlight program. Momentum: Art Doesn't Stand Still is a mixed media and interactive art event held annually in Oklahoma City. The Momentum Spotlight offers three young Oklahoma artists each a $1,750 honorarium and valuable interaction with a contemporary curator. A full call for entries can be found here.

Below is an attempt to answer some of the questions potential applicants might have. Let us know if you have more questions or things we should answer here.

Grace Grothaus McWilderness from Momentum OKC Spotlight 2009

What is a project?
For Momentum Spotlight, a project is a distinct body of work created for the March 2010 exhibition. This could be an idea for a group of works based around a concept/theme, a single ambitious piece or a site-specific installation.

Recent Spotlight projects have included things like: a series of paintings installed in a custom-painted room with a hands on element (Emily Kern), a large, kinetic sculpture (Nick Bayer), and an installation with multiple mixed media parts (Dustin Boise). Check out videos and images of past Spotlight projects here: http://www.ovac-ok.org/Events/events_momentumspotlight.cfm

It’s important to note that we don’t expect the artwork to be completed or fully fleshed out when proposed. We hope that the selected artists will be open to progressing their idea and/or presentation of their work through dialogue with the curator. Several of the last Momentum Spotlight projects changed significantly throughout the creation while other artists had their concept pretty far along before even starting meetings with the curator. Each artist had different levels of conversation with the curator depending on their idea and how much he/she had already determined.


What is a proposal?
A proposal answers the main questions a curator or venue would have about your idea. This is your chance to describe your dream artwork project so that someone who knows nothing about it can understand. Sometimes this description is called a "narrative," other times the proposal includes multiple specific components (like resume, images, artist statement, etc).


Questions you may want to answer in your project proposal description:
-What is the concept or theme of the work?
-What types of material do you intend to use?
-What amount of space would you want for your work? What number of works and/or approximate sizes do you propose?
-How does this idea fit with your current or past work? Note any significant new direction your work will take.

Momentum Tulsa Spotlight artists tour Living Arts

Does it have to be a totally new body of work unrelated to past projects?
No. Artists may submit work that connects to past artwork they’ve created.

Where is the show and how much space can I use?
The Momentum OKC site is not set yet. Our goal is to get a venue similar to last year, which allowed artists to create large works. Last year each artist was able to tour the site to review possible spaces for their projects. Selected artists would work with the curator to make sure the venue is appropriate for their work.

Does it matter how I spend the money?
No. For Momentum Spotlight, you can spend the funds as you need. We know artists need money for everything from art materials to gasoline and respect you to create your own project budget. There is no reporting about expenditures. Artists are given about 3/4 up front and ¼ once the exhibition opens.

Why the age limit?
OVAC offers programs for artists at different levels and stages of their careers. Momentum Spotlight is oriented toward young independent artists, helping them take on a bigger or different project with direct feedback from a curator. Please remember the Art 365 and OVAC Grants programs if you are older than 30. Also, most galleries accept proposals for exhibition. You can check OVAC’s Resource Guide, which lists more than 60 venues that show Oklahoma artists work.

Should I make my proposal presentation fancy?
No. OVAC will be putting proposals into binders for the curator’s review. Any fancy packaging or things that fall outside the proposal checklist will not be included. We recommend focusing your attention on your project description and other application components.

Resources for: “How do I…”
Create a resume?
http://www.collegeart.org/guidelines/resume.html
http://www.artisttrust.org/pro_resources/prof_dev/resume
http://www.artistsfoundation.org/art_pages/resources/resources_arts.htm

Write an artist statement?
http://www.artistsfoundation.org/art_pages/resources/resources_arts_statement.htm
http://www.artisttrust.org/pro_resources/prof_dev/artiststatement
http://www.artbizcoach.com/statement.html

Select images as my artwork samples?
http://www.artisttrust.org/pro_resources/prof_dev/digitaltips
http://www.snagmetalsmith.org/.doc/pg/10025

Write a proposal?
http://www.artistsfoundation.org/art_pages/resources/resources_arts_proposal.htm
Also, other OVAC blog posts about proposals: http://ovac.blogspot.com/search/label/Proposals

Residencies I’d go on were I an artist

What other field than the arts have places around the world dedicated to giving you time and space to work? They have opportunities varying from a long weekend to six months. I can only think of science’s research and development labs (that are few and far between from what I understand). Out of envy, these are some of the places I’d go if I were an artist.

Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha, NE

For that urban but small city feel, combined studio and living spaces that make you want to create with tall ceilings and big windows. Esteemed alum and visiting artists.

Elsewhere Artist Collaborative, Greensboro, NC

For fun and play and comrade, this start-up, quirky organization is a community hub. They provide the stuff, multiple stories of endless objects, and you change it as you wish. They are seeking residents now. So if you need a vacation from the daily grind, apply!

Headlands Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA

Solid artist support, beautifully set in a national forest, just across from the Golden Gate Bridge, enough said.

Kamiyama Artist-in-Residence, Kamiyama, Japan

Who wouldn’t want an all expenses paid trip to a Japanese community that welcomes you warmly. You get a studio, exhibition, and guide. Plus, Liz Roth made it sound awesome, she’s been there, and she’s leading the proposal writing workshops.

Mildred’s Lane, Beach Lake, PA

To expand your mind, this residency is purposefully cross-disciplinary and research oriented.

Curious about applying to these and other residencies around the world? Don’t miss our Artist Survival Kit Proposal Writing Workshops on Thursday, September 10 in Tulsa and Tuesday, September 15 in OKC.

Artistic Proposal Sample: Liz Roth, Exhibition (2 of 2)

Since artists need to write about their work to apply for great opportunities, I am going to spend a few posts focused on the nuts and bolts of artistic proposals. What better way than to show some actual proposals!? Thankfully some artists were willing to share.

Below is a taste of the proposal writing Artist Survival Kit workshops that artist Liz Roth will lead for OVAC. An artist and professor, Roth is well worth listening to on this topic as she's exhibited nationally and received residencies in Japan, Vermont, Wyoming, and Alaska. In this successful proposal (she won a $1,500 grant), Roth shows a clearer, more compelling project description.

"24 Paintings in 24 Hours: Woodman’s will be a painting performance and exhibit that encapsulates a Madison slice of life, in a distinctly non-art venue. I will paint 24 (8” x 10”) oil painted portraits, created on-site at Woodman’s grocery store at a rate of one per hour, of any patron who chooses to sit for such a portrait. This process will also be video taped time-lapse for future viewing and web distribution. As the paintings are completed, they are hung on a wall in a grid pattern. The paintings will be exhibited at Woodman’s for a month.

The project serves to create a time-capsule of what Madison, Wisconsin residents look like in a moment in time. This project also functions as an event – people love to watch artists work, and they are flattered to have their portraits painted, and art that happens in the middle of the night, let alone in a grocery store, is always intriguing.

I have created two individual 24/24 projects already, with accompanying time-lapse video, and am therefore well prepared to organize and negotiate such an event/show.

The project has several unstated purposes – one is the investigation of what venues are actually open all night in a city, and who it is that frequents these venues. The unspoken purpose of this specific project is to focus on the invisibility of class (and race) in Madison. I frequently meet people who literally do not see homeless people, or poor people in Madison, because our town, like so many others, is informally segregated. Ideally, painting at Woodman’s is the beginning of a series of venues around Madison. Other locations under consideration are Stop-n-Go, all night gas stations, and the jail.

Because I am an observational oil painter, and the resulting portrait paintings bear a great likeness to those I depict, the resulting show functions as a series of attractive, interesting portraits. In this way, the political inclinations of the work can slowly dawn on people as they enjoy the esthetic values of the work. I am interested in creating beautiful work that is political without being pedantic. Also, I like the idea of using a high-art medium (oil painting a personal portrait) to make people who are invisible, visible."

Julia's Comments: Ahhh, much clearer now. Roth offers a distinct, delimited project in this narrative. She demonstrates that she has planned this project and understands why she is proposing it. She offers details like size, a timeline, a location, as well as explaining her artistic vision. The icing on the cake, to a funder's ear, she offers some plans for the artwork AFTER the project is completed (documenting through time-lapse so she can distribute online). This sounds like someone that will make good use of financial support!

Artistic Proposal Sample: Liz Roth, exhibition

Since artists need to write about their work to apply for great opportunities, I am going to spend a few posts focused on the nuts and bolts of artistic proposals. What better way than to show some actual proposals!? Thankfully some artists were willing to share.

Below is a taste of the proposal writing Artist Survival Kit workshops that artist Liz Roth will lead for OVAC. An artist and professor, Roth is well worth listening to on this topic as she's exhibited nationally and received residencies in Japan, Vermont, Wyoming, and Alaska.

First, her sample of a "Less Convincing Proposal." I'll post this first and then her sample of a more compelling project description later. What is this artist proposing? How do you think this could be improved? What is this artist trying to say?

"I like to paint portraits. I want to paint people someplace that’s not a gallery, because it would be fun for the people and for me. Methodology is important to me. My work is based on French philosopher Derrida, who said 'Every discourse, even a poetic or oracular sentence, carries with it a system of rules for producing analogous things and thus an outline of methodology.'

Paint and canvases are expensive, and I just graduated from college, so I’m applying for this grant because I’m broke."

Artistic Proposal Sample: Sarah Atlee, Art 365 exhibition

Since artists need to write about their work to apply for great opportunities, I am going to spend a few posts focused on the nuts and bolts of artistic proposals. What better way than to show some actual proposals!? Thankfully some artists were willing to share. Below find an actual “winning” proposal and some comments.

Prompt: Title and Description of proposed project (no more than 350 words)

Sarah Atlee

Title: Normal, OK: Signs and Folks

Description: I was born in Norman. When I was a baby, my family moved to Albuquerque, where I grew up. Recently my mother moved back to Norman, and after finishing graduate school, I joined her here. I have always been ”from Oklahoma,” but now, for the first time, I am an Oklahoman.

Borders between communities are arbitrary, yet we assign them a certain credence. Who I am is connected to where I live. This body of work is an exploration of my identity as it relates to my new surroundings.

Oklahomans, myself included, spend a lot of time on the road. Route 66 is an integral part of our heritage. Arterial interstates whisk us from state to state. Along the road, an archaeology of advertisement emerges: billboards with missing panels, hand-painted text, and panels rearranged so the ads no longer read correctly. Advertising is supposed to be shiny and bright. Signs that are old, awkward, or broken are uniquely endearing.

I have been taking photos of signage along Interstate 40. I have been making drawings and collages from these photos, allowing the forms and typography to become increasingly abstract. I’m at work on multiple small-scale panels that can be arranged and rearranged to form different compositions.

Here’s a fun game to play in the car: When you pass a road sign that has two town names on it, pretend they are the first and last names of a person. Invent a personality to go with that name. For example, Hydro Carnegie could be an aging vaudevillian child star whose specialty was the unicycle. These days Mr. Carnegie breeds labradoodles. I’ve played this game enough to populate the entire imaginary community of Normal.* These characters are fertile ground for my new series of portraits.

With fictional portraiture, personalities emerge gradually through the marks from my pen. I’ve developed a technique of collage and ink drawing to create nuanced, evocative images. Normal, OK is a place that exists in my head, based on the real places around me. By extrapolating characters from Oklahoma’s place names, and artifacts from its decaying signage, I can interpret our state’s identity through the filter of my own experience.

Julia’s comments: Sarah strength is describing her project in a way that helps us understand her ideas, style and joy. She does not get specific about numbers or sizes of pieces and is a bit vague about medium. The curator was taken with her concepts. This tactic may have left her latitude when beginning her project since she didn’t specify minute details. In some cases, such as to a gallery, project proposals might need more parameters. However, sometimes strong artwork images do all the explaining necessary for the project!

By the way, I have to make sure you know that Sarah snuck in an extra 11 words (for a total of 361 words J). Really, most groups receiving proposals are not counting words as long as the application reasonably fits with the guidelines. But some galleries, residencies, and granting agencies are tough on the rules and would disallow an application for things such as this. Many times selection processes are inundated with submissions, so need simple ways to filter out applications.

If you want to learn more about artistic proposal writing, attend OVAC’s Artist Survival Kit workshops on the topic coming up September 10 & 15.