Check this out! Another wonder of modern technology that can help Artist Trust raise a little money to support artists of all disciplines throughout Washington State.
You can now add a spiffy customized toolbar to your Internet Explorer or Firefox browser, and each time you search the Internet, about a penny is donated to Artist Trust! It really adds up!
Also, each time you shop at one of the more than 1,300 participating stores (including Amazon, Target, eBay, etc.), a percentage of what you spend will be donated to us at no extra cost to you! (You could even save money, as the toolbar provides coupons and deals.)
No registration is required, it's free and easy to set up: http://www.goodsearch.com/toolbar/artist-trust
Thanks, and please spread the word!
2/8/10
2/5/10
Artists: Why Support Them?
Kansas City, Chicago, San Antonio, Oakland, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Seattle: artists and arts administrators all sat around the dinner table last week at San Francisco's Foreign Cinema forging bonds and having “a-ha” moments while dining fine thanks to our benefactor and ringleader, Leveraging Investments in Creativity (LINC). The 2.5 day conference, including the Dynamic Adaptability symposium, was my first, although Artist Trust has participated in LINC’s Creative Communities program and its national convenings since 2004. LINC support has been instrumental in developing the Washington Artists Health Insurance Project (WAHIP), the EDGE Professional Development Program, the I Am An Artist professional development weekend, our web site, and much more. Fidelma McGinn, Executive Director of Artist Trust and I are still sharing lively conversations and new ideas from the conference - an astonishing, educative and inspiring time of questions, real examples and discussions of practices in the area of Artist Support.
Artist Support is a prickly subject, considering artists’ standing in society. LINC was founded as a 10-year national initiative to improve living and working conditions for U.S. artists of all disciplines. LINC’s work is rooted in the Urban Institute’s 2002 report, Investing in Creativity: A Study of the Support Structure for US Artists. Most remarkable about the study: it found that 96% of Americans value art, while only 27% value artists. Think about that – it is the crux of the awkward matter of Artist Support.
So, now we know that statistically Americans are not inclined to value living artists: musicians, composers, painters, writers, performers, folk/tradition-carrier artists, all of whom bring us a certain quality of life and reality check against the rampant consumerism that would otherwise totally dominate. Please consider the fact that many prolific and appreciated artists cobble together a “hybrid” living ranging from paycheck to contract to grant monies to busking. Chuck Close once told a story about his friend Philip Glass driving a taxi in New York. A fare commented that Glass shared his name with the famous American composer. Glass just chuckled, too embarrassed to say he was the famous composer.
The American bureau for self-employment is the Small Business Administration; for employment it’s the Department of Labor. In their fragmented, cobbled careers, artists can be missed in the economic calculations of both agencies, even while artists hire and are hired for performances, buy supplies, rent studio space and venues, pay fees for organizations’ calls and opportunities, etc. Artists create a viable invisible economy.
To support individual artists is enlightened. It is to be a Medici, who supported art when it was well-aligned with science. In San Francisco, Dynamic Adaptability: A Conference on New Thinking and New Strategies for the Arts opened with the big ideas of Jonah Lehrer, neuroscientist extraordinaire. He taught us many sticky lessons that resounded for the LINC set. The Marshmallow Test, the Swiffer mop conundrum, meta-cognition: Jonah even gave scientific credence to Liz Lerman for her Critical Response system of giving feedback and its roots in how it deploys Alpha waves. More remarkable artists followed Jonah: Jaime Cortez and Margaret Jenkins. Jaime gave his insight into Facebook as Venue. Margaret gave her poignant perspective on sustainability, which we might think usually requires constant growth: yet only during two of her 40 years running the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company was she able to offer her dancers full-time contracts. Otherwise, hybrid careers were the norm. Then Perry Chen, artist fundraising innovator revealed his Kickstarter concept, James Rucker shared activities at Color of Change and Philip Huang raised money on the spot, no kidding.
I read Seven Days in the Art World on my trip to San Francisco, and in contemplating Philip Huang, artist/provocateur, I reflect on the book’s chapter on The Turner Prize and how through its nominees the Prize explores all the roles that artists take through their original works: asking the hard questions, pointing out the absurdity of assumed normalcy, creating objects that provide interpretive aesthetic relief, and more. Philip gave everyone a jolt with his frank and fierce proclamations: arts administrators are fearful well-meaning people and grants and funding are a hustle for artists. He admonished artists that they don’t need money – just do your project if it is worth doing at all.
That is where Artist Trust comes in as a LINC-connected creative community: we know that artists deserve to be paid, especially in this world of high overhead. The vocation of “artist” deserves standing as a form of work with its social benefits as work. We see what artists do, that they contribute and people use their contributions. We see how artists fall out of our market system yet we calculate their economic contribution. I know, hearing from Cisco, RealNetworks, Daniel Pink, and from living my own past in corporate America, that innovation happens in corporations because they make room for it: the famed Post-it note and other "accidental" discoveries. How do we generate the artistic accidents of Van Goghian proportions without supporting artists? They need so little. They add so much, now and for the future: personally and socially, aesthetically and morally, even if it is questioning, publicly.
Support Artists.
[from top, left to right] Paul Bonin Rodriquez, LINC Artist Council; Annika Nonhebel, Axis Dance Company; Liz Lerman, LINC Artist Council; Makoto Hirano, Artists U; Nicole Kyauk, East Bay Community Foundation; Sheila Siden, Artist Trust; Paul Tyler, Arts Council of Kansas City Metro Region; Sara Schnadt, Department of Cultural Affairs, Chicago.]
Sheila Siden
Director of Development
sheila@artisttrust.org
2/1/10
Artists Helping Haiti
Many artists are helping to raise funds for Haiti; here are just a few events:
- February 5: 509 for Haiti Benefit Concert (Ellensburg)
- February 7: Seattle Jazz Vespers Benefit Concert
- February 21: Where There's Life, There's Hope -- A Vashon Valentine for Haiti
- West Seattle/White Center Haiti Fundraisers
1/22/10
Singing Without Health Insurance
Produced in partnership with Youth Radio, this story ran Thursday, January 21 on "MarketPlace Money" on National Public Radio:
"Could it be? Is it possible? Will we actually get some sort of health care reform signed? There was a marathon negotiating session this week between the White House and congressional Democrats. They're hoping to have something ready by the State of the Union address a few weeks from now. Meanwhile, we never run out of stories about folks who are dealing with the current health care system. According to a recent survey by The Future of Music Coalition, as many as 45 percent of musicians are uninsured. That's got 21-year-old aspiring rapper and Youth Radio reporter Orlando Campbell a tad worried." Click here to hear the full story.
Are you worried, too? Did you know that Artist Trust offers vouchers for up to $150 towards health care at the Artist Clinic at Seattle's Country Doctor Community Clinic? It's easy to apply for the vouchers, and you're worth it! Click here for more info.
"Could it be? Is it possible? Will we actually get some sort of health care reform signed? There was a marathon negotiating session this week between the White House and congressional Democrats. They're hoping to have something ready by the State of the Union address a few weeks from now. Meanwhile, we never run out of stories about folks who are dealing with the current health care system. According to a recent survey by The Future of Music Coalition, as many as 45 percent of musicians are uninsured. That's got 21-year-old aspiring rapper and Youth Radio reporter Orlando Campbell a tad worried." Click here to hear the full story.
Are you worried, too? Did you know that Artist Trust offers vouchers for up to $150 towards health care at the Artist Clinic at Seattle's Country Doctor Community Clinic? It's easy to apply for the vouchers, and you're worth it! Click here for more info.
1/20/10
Artist Trust Board Member Marlow Harris Loves the Low Brow
Check out this recent coverage in Seattle Magazine and the new film New Brow, spotlighting Board member Marlow Harris and her husband JoDavid's love and support of "underground/low-brow" artists.
"For more than a decade the couple has been filling their Capitol Hill home with pop surrealist works by Ryden, Marion Peck and others. 'The feeling we have for this art,' says JoDavid, 'is about passion, not intellectualization.'
New Brow presents interviews from artists, galleries and collectors who initiated and gave momentum to the New American Art Movement. The revealing footage captures the makeshift studios and gallery spaces where the movement began, and the intensity and passion required to birth a new genre.
As Marlow says, 'I think the film will become more important as the years go by, as a historical document about these artists. So many artist we love today were 'underground' and unpopular when they were alive.'"
"For more than a decade the couple has been filling their Capitol Hill home with pop surrealist works by Ryden, Marion Peck and others. 'The feeling we have for this art,' says JoDavid, 'is about passion, not intellectualization.'
New Brow presents interviews from artists, galleries and collectors who initiated and gave momentum to the New American Art Movement. The revealing footage captures the makeshift studios and gallery spaces where the movement began, and the intensity and passion required to birth a new genre.
As Marlow says, 'I think the film will become more important as the years go by, as a historical document about these artists. So many artist we love today were 'underground' and unpopular when they were alive.'"
12/21/09
Awards Washington State Artists MUST Apply For -- Put these on your calendar
Normally, we at Artist Trust like to encourage you to create your own calendar of opportunities by availing of the many resources available on our website. But starting a new year's resolution comes with its challenges -- so consider this a gift from us to you. But don’t stop here, visit our website often to fill in the blanks or find opportunities more specific to you.
Drum roll, please (in order of posted deadline, not importance)…
Gallery4Culture issues an annual Call to Artists every December. A Selection Panel composed of prominent regional arts professionals and artists reviews exhibition proposals and awards eleven exhibition opportunities for the upcoming gallery season (September 2010 through August 2011). The composition of the Panel changes yearly. The Panel considers geographic and cultural diversity as well as a wide variety of genres and media; final selection is based on artistic excellence. An applicant’s images and statement must clearly convey their ability to execute the proposed exhibition. This is an online application only.
www.4culture.org
Deadline: January 11 -- get to it!
Creative Capital funds artist projects in four disciplines: visual arts (includes installation art, painting, fiber art, mixed media works, public art, etc.), film/video arts, performing arts (includes music, dance, theater, puppetry, performance art, etc.), and emerging art fields (includes all forms of digital work, and innovative literature). Projects that transcend traditional discipline boundaries are highly encouraged. Creative Capital operates on a two-year grant cycle, funding alternative disciplines each year. The first year of each cycle, we issue grants in visual and film/video arts; the second year, performing, emerging arts and innovative literature.
www.creative-capital.org
Deadline: TBD February 2011: Accepting letters of inquiry in Film/Video and Visual Arts
4Culture Supports Art Projects for King County for new dance, music, theater, media, literary and visual arts experience. They offset expenses related to their project such as: a photographer buying a new printer; a composer paying musicians to learn and perform their work; a writer paying an editor for their latest book of poems. By providing this funding, 4Culture supports the ordinary needs of extraordinary projects.
www.4culture.org
Deadline: March 10 (Individuals) and March 17 (Groups), 2010
Headlands' Artist in Residence (AIR) Program is internationally renowned for bringing together pioneering artists in all disciplines– visual, literary, performing and new media– from throughout the U.S. and abroad. We welcome artists at all levels to apply; however, artists pursuing undergraduate or graduate degrees may not apply while enrolled in degree-granting programs. Former AIRs must wait five years to re-apply.
www.headlands.org
Deadline: usually in Spring- check now!
The Pollock-Krasner Foundation welcomes, throughout the year, applications from visual artists who are painters, sculptors and artists who work on paper, including printmakers. There are no deadlines. The Foundation encourages applications from artists who have genuine financial needs that are not necessarily catastrophic. Grants are intended for a one-year period of time. The Foundation will consider need on the part of an applicant for all legitimate expenditures relating to his or her professional work and personal living, including medical expenses. The size and length of the grant is determined by the individual circumstances of the artist. Grants range from $1,000 to $30,000.
www.pkf.org
Deadline: Rolling
The Creative Capital | Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant is designed to support writers whose work addresses contemporary visual art through project-based grants issued directly to individual authors. The first program of its type, it was founded in recognition of both the financially precarious situation of arts writers and their indispensable contribution to a vital artistic culture. The Arts Writers Grant Program issues awards for books, articles, short-form writing, and blogs/new and alternative media projects and aims to support the broad spectrum of writing on contemporary visual art, from general-audience criticism to academic scholarship.
www.artswriters.org
Deadline: TBD, usually June, check now!
Artist Trust GAP (Grants for Artist Projects) Program provides support for artist-generated projects, which can include (but are not limited to) the development, completion or presentation of new work. GAPs are open to artists of all disciplines and offer a maximum of $1,500 for projects. An inter-disciplinary panel of artists and arts professionals selected from around Washington State select GAP recipients. GAP applications are available April 2010.
www.artisttrust.org/grants/GAP
Deadline: June 25, 2010
The Seattle Mayor's Office of Arts and Culture's CityArtists Projects offer individual artists projects awards. Individual artists are the heart of a creative community. The CityArtists Projects program provides funding for artists to develop and present their work. The program focuses on different disciplines in alternating years. Awards ranging up to $10,000 support new works, works-in-progress or finished works, and all projects include a public presentation.
www.seattle.gov/arts/funding/individual.asp
Deadline: July 2010
Betty Bowen (1918–1977) was a Washington native and enthusiastic supporter of Northwest artists. Her friends established the annual Betty Bowen Award as a celebration of her life and to honor and continue her efforts to provide financial support to artists of the region. Since 1977, SAM has hosted the yearly grant application process by which the selection committee chooses one artist living and working in the Northwest (Washington, Oregon and Idaho) to receive an unrestricted cash award.
www.seattleartmuseum.org/bettybowen
Deadline: usually in August
The American Academy in Rome is a center that sustains independent artistic pursuits and humanistic studies. It is situated on the Janiculum, Rome's highest hill. Each year, through a national competition, the Rome Prize is awarded to 15 emerging artists (working in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Design, Historic Preservation and Conservation, Literature, Musical Composition, or Visual Arts).
www.aarome.org/prize.htm
Deadline: open August 2010
The Fulbright Award is the largest U.S. international exchange program offering opportunities for students, scholars, and professionals to undertake international graduate study, advanced research, university teaching, and teaching in elementary and secondary schools worldwide.
http://us.fulbrightonline.org
Deadline: October 2010
Since its founding in 1983, the Puffin Foundation Ltd. has sought to open the doors of artistic expression by providing grants to artists and art organizations who are often excluded from mainstream opportunities due to their race, gender, or social philosophy. Application forms are not available electronically, but require a SASE (#10 self-addressed stamped envelope) first be sent to Puffin Foundation Ltd., 20 Puffin Way (formerly East Oakdene Ave.,Teaneck, NJ 07666-4111).
www.puffinfoundation.org
Deadline: usually December, but you should request earlier
This list is by no means comprehensive but serves as a good starting point for your calendar. If you have any suggestions of awards you think we should add to our Resources Database, please email info@artisttrust.org.
For more opportunities for artists of all disciplines: www.artisttrust.org/services/resources
To post your own opportunity online: www.artisttrust.org/services/resources
To attend a Professional Development Workshop: www.artisttrust.org/events/artist_workshops
For tips on creating your resume, artist statement, etc: www.artisttrust.org/pro_resources/prof_dev
Happy Grantwriting!
Monica Miller
Director of Programs
monica@artisttrust.org
Drum roll, please (in order of posted deadline, not importance)…
Gallery4Culture issues an annual Call to Artists every December. A Selection Panel composed of prominent regional arts professionals and artists reviews exhibition proposals and awards eleven exhibition opportunities for the upcoming gallery season (September 2010 through August 2011). The composition of the Panel changes yearly. The Panel considers geographic and cultural diversity as well as a wide variety of genres and media; final selection is based on artistic excellence. An applicant’s images and statement must clearly convey their ability to execute the proposed exhibition. This is an online application only.
www.4culture.org
Deadline: January 11 -- get to it!
Creative Capital funds artist projects in four disciplines: visual arts (includes installation art, painting, fiber art, mixed media works, public art, etc.), film/video arts, performing arts (includes music, dance, theater, puppetry, performance art, etc.), and emerging art fields (includes all forms of digital work, and innovative literature). Projects that transcend traditional discipline boundaries are highly encouraged. Creative Capital operates on a two-year grant cycle, funding alternative disciplines each year. The first year of each cycle, we issue grants in visual and film/video arts; the second year, performing, emerging arts and innovative literature.
www.creative-capital.org
Deadline: TBD February 2011: Accepting letters of inquiry in Film/Video and Visual Arts
4Culture Supports Art Projects for King County for new dance, music, theater, media, literary and visual arts experience. They offset expenses related to their project such as: a photographer buying a new printer; a composer paying musicians to learn and perform their work; a writer paying an editor for their latest book of poems. By providing this funding, 4Culture supports the ordinary needs of extraordinary projects.
www.4culture.org
Deadline: March 10 (Individuals) and March 17 (Groups), 2010
Headlands' Artist in Residence (AIR) Program is internationally renowned for bringing together pioneering artists in all disciplines– visual, literary, performing and new media– from throughout the U.S. and abroad. We welcome artists at all levels to apply; however, artists pursuing undergraduate or graduate degrees may not apply while enrolled in degree-granting programs. Former AIRs must wait five years to re-apply.
www.headlands.org
Deadline: usually in Spring- check now!
The Pollock-Krasner Foundation welcomes, throughout the year, applications from visual artists who are painters, sculptors and artists who work on paper, including printmakers. There are no deadlines. The Foundation encourages applications from artists who have genuine financial needs that are not necessarily catastrophic. Grants are intended for a one-year period of time. The Foundation will consider need on the part of an applicant for all legitimate expenditures relating to his or her professional work and personal living, including medical expenses. The size and length of the grant is determined by the individual circumstances of the artist. Grants range from $1,000 to $30,000.
www.pkf.org
Deadline: Rolling
The Creative Capital | Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant is designed to support writers whose work addresses contemporary visual art through project-based grants issued directly to individual authors. The first program of its type, it was founded in recognition of both the financially precarious situation of arts writers and their indispensable contribution to a vital artistic culture. The Arts Writers Grant Program issues awards for books, articles, short-form writing, and blogs/new and alternative media projects and aims to support the broad spectrum of writing on contemporary visual art, from general-audience criticism to academic scholarship.
www.artswriters.org
Deadline: TBD, usually June, check now!
Artist Trust GAP (Grants for Artist Projects) Program provides support for artist-generated projects, which can include (but are not limited to) the development, completion or presentation of new work. GAPs are open to artists of all disciplines and offer a maximum of $1,500 for projects. An inter-disciplinary panel of artists and arts professionals selected from around Washington State select GAP recipients. GAP applications are available April 2010.
www.artisttrust.org/grants/GAP
Deadline: June 25, 2010
The Seattle Mayor's Office of Arts and Culture's CityArtists Projects offer individual artists projects awards. Individual artists are the heart of a creative community. The CityArtists Projects program provides funding for artists to develop and present their work. The program focuses on different disciplines in alternating years. Awards ranging up to $10,000 support new works, works-in-progress or finished works, and all projects include a public presentation.
www.seattle.gov/arts/funding/individual.asp
Deadline: July 2010
Betty Bowen (1918–1977) was a Washington native and enthusiastic supporter of Northwest artists. Her friends established the annual Betty Bowen Award as a celebration of her life and to honor and continue her efforts to provide financial support to artists of the region. Since 1977, SAM has hosted the yearly grant application process by which the selection committee chooses one artist living and working in the Northwest (Washington, Oregon and Idaho) to receive an unrestricted cash award.
www.seattleartmuseum.org/bettybowen
Deadline: usually in August
The American Academy in Rome is a center that sustains independent artistic pursuits and humanistic studies. It is situated on the Janiculum, Rome's highest hill. Each year, through a national competition, the Rome Prize is awarded to 15 emerging artists (working in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Design, Historic Preservation and Conservation, Literature, Musical Composition, or Visual Arts).
www.aarome.org/prize.htm
Deadline: open August 2010
The Fulbright Award is the largest U.S. international exchange program offering opportunities for students, scholars, and professionals to undertake international graduate study, advanced research, university teaching, and teaching in elementary and secondary schools worldwide.
http://us.fulbrightonline.org
Deadline: October 2010
Since its founding in 1983, the Puffin Foundation Ltd. has sought to open the doors of artistic expression by providing grants to artists and art organizations who are often excluded from mainstream opportunities due to their race, gender, or social philosophy. Application forms are not available electronically, but require a SASE (#10 self-addressed stamped envelope) first be sent to Puffin Foundation Ltd., 20 Puffin Way (formerly East Oakdene Ave.,Teaneck, NJ 07666-4111).
www.puffinfoundation.org
Deadline: usually December, but you should request earlier
This list is by no means comprehensive but serves as a good starting point for your calendar. If you have any suggestions of awards you think we should add to our Resources Database, please email info@artisttrust.org.
For more opportunities for artists of all disciplines: www.artisttrust.org/services/resources
To post your own opportunity online: www.artisttrust.org/services/resources
To attend a Professional Development Workshop: www.artisttrust.org/events/artist_workshops
For tips on creating your resume, artist statement, etc: www.artisttrust.org/pro_resources/prof_dev
Happy Grantwriting!
Monica Miller
Director of Programs
monica@artisttrust.org
12/16/09
Don't be Scammed!
I received this note from an artist. I have received similar notes from artists in the past regarding this very scam and others like it:
I wanted to let everyone know about a a scam that's going around targeting artists. It just happened to me but luckily I got out of it before the real damage was done. It goes like this:
Someone emails you saying they want to buy your painting or a piece of artwork. They don't haggle with the price, but they tell you that they want to use their own shipping company. They send you a check for a lot more than the price of the art and give you instructions to wire money to their shipping company which comes to your house and picks up the painting. A few days later you take the check to the bank only to realize that it's a bad check, you paid money out of your pocket, and your art is gone.
Luckily the bad part didn't happen to me but if anyone gets something that sounds similar, stay away.
Folks, please take care with online transactions! Especially during this busy season. Please take a look at and follow the guidelines on the Art Scams website.
Wishing you all the best this holiday season!
Miguel Guillen
Artist Resources Manager
miguel@artisttrust.org
I wanted to let everyone know about a a scam that's going around targeting artists. It just happened to me but luckily I got out of it before the real damage was done. It goes like this:
Someone emails you saying they want to buy your painting or a piece of artwork. They don't haggle with the price, but they tell you that they want to use their own shipping company. They send you a check for a lot more than the price of the art and give you instructions to wire money to their shipping company which comes to your house and picks up the painting. A few days later you take the check to the bank only to realize that it's a bad check, you paid money out of your pocket, and your art is gone.
Luckily the bad part didn't happen to me but if anyone gets something that sounds similar, stay away.
Folks, please take care with online transactions! Especially during this busy season. Please take a look at and follow the guidelines on the Art Scams website.
Wishing you all the best this holiday season!
Miguel Guillen
Artist Resources Manager
miguel@artisttrust.org
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