Adaptations: FAQs

Artists working in painting, drawing, sculpture, performance art, photography, video / film / moving image, installation, text, craft / makers, sound art, book art, new media / online / digital, socially engaged practice / social art, printmaking, interdisciplinary or any combination of the above. Our definitions, set by our funders, are only for visual / fine artists and do not include other art forms such as dance, theatre, design, fashion, or architecture. If you are unsure whether your practice is eligible please email Nick Kaplony to check.

You must have spent at least 3 years working professionally as an artist. Your career might have started after, or been interrupted by, a period of formal education, including studying at BA, MA and/or PhD level. Artists who did not undertake any formal or further / higher education in art are also welcome to apply. Around 15% of the artists who apply for our programmes did not undertake formal arts education.

London is defined as any of the London boroughs outlined here.

For the purposes of this award we are determining socio-economic background by asking a question about the profession your primary parent/carer had when you were 14 and the type of school you attended between 12 – 16 . The use of these (and other) questions are governmentally approved as indicators for socio-economic background for research. If applications are scored equally by the selection panel, those from a lower socio-economic background will be prioritised in the award process.

As this award is about trying new ways of working, we felt that 3 years of professional practice was a reasonable period for an artist to have trialled a way of working before deciding they need to change direction. Also, anecdotally 3 years after graduation is a critical point in artists careers where many stop practicing due to financial and other pressures. We hope that the award will support the selected artist at a critical juncture of their career.

Often university careers services such as Fuel at the Royal College of Arts and Careers and Employability at the University of the Arts London providing ongoing support to their graduates for a number of years after graduation.

You are not eligible for this opportunity if you are on a full-time or part-time course of study at the time of application or are to be enrolled on any such course during the project period.

The award can be spent on any of the following:

• Fees for yourself and any specialists, freelancers, mentors or other individuals you will work with (Please note, it is fully expected that applicants pay themselves a fee for their time)
• Materials, including digital tools and/or software subscriptions
• Promotion, including finding new ways to promote your work
• Short courses and other forms of learning and professional development directly relevant to proposed project
• Any other reasonable additional expense that furthers your development and your agreed aims

The award cannot cover:

• Overheads, such as studio or accommodation rents
• Equipment (unless it’s specialist and vital to your project)
• Expenditure incurred before the project starts
• Organisational or curatorial programming from venues, galleries or project spaces

For guidance on rates visit the Artists Union England website or read our resources on artists rates of pay.

For stage 1 of the application we don’t need a detailed budget, just an idea of the sort of thing you would like to spend the award on. For the stage 2 interview we will ask for slightly more detail but inform shortlisted artists of what we need.

• Week commencing 30 September 2024 shortlisting completed
• Week commencing 7 October 2024 shortlisted applicants contacted for interview
• Week commencing 21 October 2024: interviews take place (on Zoom)
• Week commencing 28 October 2024: all applicants informed of results
• January 2025: Project period begins
• February 2025: contact time with researcher begins
• April 2025: Project period ends

We will respond to all applicants to let them know if they have been successful or not.

Yes, but it might take us some time, and often the feedback is in terms of how competitive the process is. We know that feedback on applications is important for artists professional development. We provide feedback to anyone who asks, but remember that:

• our open submissions often attract several hundred applications, and we expect a high demand for this award
• making detailed feedback from our small part-time team can take a long time as we fit this amongst our other tasks.

If you request feedback on your application, please be patient while we process these requests.

Applications are selected by Artquest and 2-3 external panellists made up of curators and other art world professionals. Panellists will be announced shortly after applications open.

Building on our Tender programme we have made changes to our application processes that recognise and try to address structural inequalities in the arts. We know that these are not perfect, and we continually review our processes and accept feedback from artists and others to help improve these in line with our statement and action on equity, focussing on Black Lives Matter.

• Applications are processed anonymously. As far as possible names and other personal identifiers are removed from the application materials before they go to panel. If applicants write their names or identifying information in other sections of the application, we cannot guarantee, however, that these will be removed.
• Selection is undertaken by a member of Artquest staff and 2 – 3 external selectors with expertise relevant to the opportunity.
• We recruit culturally diverse selection panels.
• We work with diverse publicity partners to ensure as wide a reach of opportunity as possible.

We will make payment of the award in two parts – £1,600 (80%) immediately, with the remaining £400 payable at the end of the award period (April 2025).

The first payment should reach awardees 30 days after all necessary information and an invoice has been received. You can download our invoice guide for more information. Artquest is a programme of UAL and follow their financial procedures. If you have previously been paid as a freelance artist by UAL your payment might be quicker.

The award is intended to directly support individual artists, or regular/ongoing collaborators, in developing their practices. We are unable to increase the amount of the award for collaborating artists but they are welcome to apply.

No. As an award for individual artists, it is not open to artist-led organisations.

No.

No.

No.

No. This award is about trialing new ways of working to make your practice more economically sustainable. Your application might propose a work in a new medium, or time researching different approaches without a final outcome in mind. Any approach is fine, as long as you articulate how it will benefit you, your practice, and how what you propose will make your practice financially sustainable beyond the period of the award.

Yes. Please email Nick Kaplony to arrange an alternative way of making the application: via phone, email or video call.

We’re more likely to favour applications that try approaches to sustaining practice that might not have been tried by artists much before. So proposing something that would help you sell your work through traditional tried and tested gallery channels isn’t what we’re looking for. It’s more about positioning your practice in a different context or reaching a completely new audience with it. We’re particularly interested in applications that propose ways of working which might be transferable to other practices, not just your own.

In the context of this award we think of sustainability as meaning that you can keep doing what you’ve proposed in your application once the money you get from the award has run out.

The independent researcher role is not to assess the quality of your work, or how “well” you are doing. Their role is understand the challenges and barriers you are trying to overcome and what learning there is from your approaches that might be useful for other artists. In doing so they will act like a sounding board for your own work.

We understand and expect that plans will change during the project as you trial and test new ways of working.

Email Nick Kaplony if you have further questions. Please note Artquest staff work part time so please leave plenty of time for responses. Questions received after 9 January may not receive a response in time for the deadline.