Running open calls

Time and money

Finding relevant projects to apply for and writing applications takes time. Competition can be fierce and usually only one applicant is successful. Artists may not be able to afford the time applications take away from earning money elsewhere, or the time they need to make their work. This is particularly true when the process is likely to offer no reward.

Lack of transparency

Arts organisations aren’t always clear about what or who they are looking for, and why they are looking. Sometimes this is because a project has only been worked out for the benefit of the organisation, and not the artist too. Most artists do not understand the processes of shortlisting and selection, and how their application can be more accessible for selectors. Some of this obscurity is intentional to keep control over the process.

Opportunities lead to more opportunities

Artists with more experience in open call applications, and some more privileged insight into how the art world works, have an advantage in getting opportunities. The more opportunities an artist has had, the fuller their CV, the more likely an organisation will be to trust them with more work. Selection panels can favour applicants with more experience, balancing what artist seems to need the project more or who is most likely to succeed in ways that can be unclear.

Processes

Some application processes present barriers to many neurodiverse artists or those with other access requirements, such as complicated or inaccessible language. Many applications favour written applications, easier for shortlisting but more difficult for artists. Online only applications create barriers for artists with low digital skills or resources.

Marketing reach

Organisations don’t always advertise open calls in places where artists who experience barriers are likely to find them. Advertising in non-arts press would increase their reach, but many arts organisations have tiny or zero marketing budgets, or the time to organise adverts.

As an organisation, you should be open and clear about your values. Think about how you want to be seen by artists (and other audiences). These core values will inform how the process should work overall. Suggested helpful values included:

• Equity – where all applicants get what they need in order to make an application. This suggests that many artists will be able to fill in a form online, some will need to apply by phone or video call, and some may be able to record a video or audio application. Others may need small sums of money to pay for childcare while they complete an application, or others may need to hire someone to help with a written application.
• Transparency – where applicants understand what they are applying for more fully, including how it meets the organisation’s other aims, and how project money is being spent. Applicants will understand before they apply how much is the artists fee, any materials or exhibition budget, and who will select the artist.
• Accountability – where the applicants understand who is expected to do what tasks, and what the process is to resolve difficulties if something goes wrong. Organisations who hold themselves accountable to the artists they work with are committed to the development of their own practice and can acknowledge their own mistakes.
• Centring the artist – keeping the artists experience of the process at the forefront of your mind, and within your organisation’s resources and staff. Many of the barriers artists face when applying for opportunities are not expensive or time-consuming to address, but just need organisations to tailor their own processes to what they need to make a decision, and nothing more.

Open calls benefit artists and arts organisations. Organisations should be clear about what they hope to get out of the project. They should also say how their audiences, stakeholders and priorities shape their projects.

At the point of a callout organisations should:

• Share their values and commitment to equity and accessibility, being encouraging of artists from minoritised backgrounds. Excluded artists are more likely to submit to an organisations that sees and respects their needs.
• Show their values through the processes they use. Values show that an organisation is worth an artist’s time to apply.
• Say how they hold themselves accountable to making positive change

It should be clear who is eligible for a project and why. Many artists are frustrated at opportunities that have a maximum age, for example, without explaining the rationale for this decision. Such criteria risks excluding artist carers who may have taken time to raise children or care for elderly relatives, or simply those who became an artist later in life. Focusing a project on a particular artistic medium may give artists a clearer indication of what an organisation is looking for, but risks alienating interdisciplinary artists, and those who use media suitable to the idea instead of the same medium each time. Be clear if these decisions are led by a perceived gap in art world support, a funder or sponsor, or audience taste.

Clear eligibility might – indeed, should – reduce the number of applications. Only eligible artists can be part of the selection. It will make the applications more relevant, better quality, and reduce the time artists spend on writing them. It will also:

• Self-select applicants from those most suitable
• Reduce competition
• Make selection easier and quicker, and allow closer consideration of applications

Instrumentalisation of artists

Open calls should avoid inviting issue-focused work that relates to an artist’s background (for example a call for migrant artists making work about migration). Though this approach may be well intentioned, it runs the risk of instrumentalising and stereotyping groups of artists.   

A significant barrier to open call applications is the time they take to apply. Artists are asked to invest their time for statistically no reward. Time spent making an application is time without money earned, in common with all freelance activity outside of the arts. Reducing the time required to apply means artists can apply for more relevant projects but maximise their earnings.

Organisations should:

• Minimise the information needed to apply. Images of work, a CV, and information about experience could be sourced from an artist’s website, YouTube channel, or public social network profile, for example.
• Leave enough time for artists with other commitments to apply. Some may have full- or part-time jobs, caring responsibilities, volunteering, periods of illness, or other work projects.
• Be flexible about how artists can apply. Be explicit that artists can apply without writing, and provide multiple ways for them to contact the organisation.
• Evaluate your processes. After an application is sent, ask (anonymously) what barriers applicants experience and what more could be done. Artquest’s Applied data partnership may be useful in this.

Application process

Organisations should explain the whole process – from application deadline to selection – that an applicant could be involved in. Giving enough time means that artists with other commitments have time to arrange cover or leave from their responsibilities where needed. It also means artists know when they are likely to hear if they have been successful.

• Be clear about the stages, dates and processes involved in an open call.
• Establish communication with applicants so you can let them know if something is taking longer than expected.
• Make the application process worthwhile for as many applicants as possible. The artists who apply for an organisation’s projects are a ready-made community of interest in a theme, material, period or subject that concerns their audience. Depending on resources, an organisation could:
  • Offer feedback on an application or wider career to applicants who request it
  • Give applicants more access to the organisation or programme, like a tour or talk with staff
  • Pay a license fee to some applicants for use of images in marketing
  • With permission:
    • publish the names of shortlisted artists, with their permission, to acknowledge and validate their effort
    • platform applicants / shortlisted artists work on social media or an email newsletter
    • introduce shortlisted applicants to each other as a group of peers who may be interested in each other’s work

If the project is complicated and needs a lot of detail, organisations can run a ‘two-stage’ application process. The first round of applications asks for only enough information to make a shortlist of artists. A second round can then pay only a few artists to work on a more detailed application.

Fees and expenses, such as travel or materials, can be offered to shortlisted artists. Access costs, such as for childcare, support for neurodiverse or disabled artists, or other expenses an artist needs to cover to make an application, can be built-in to the process too. Most artists will not need any additional support, so this will not add significantly to project costs and could be delivered by staff.

Making these factors explicit means that

• All applicants understand what organisations are looking for. Not just those with an inside knowledge of the art-world.
• It helps understand how to approach an application and frame answers.
• It clarifies on what basis selectors judge their work.

A selection panel is a small group of people working in the arts, like artists, curators, organisation directors or other administrators. Exceptionally, a selection panel might include sponsors or funders, but should not regularly do so. The selection panel decides how well applications meet selection criteria and chooses an artist.

Selection panels should be as unbiased as possible. It is better for panels to be made up mostly of people from outside of the organisation. External panels bring in new perspectives and ask useful questions about the project. They can help challenge accepted ideas and tastes. They can add to, but cannot wholly replace, ongoing reflection and development by any permanent staff.

Even under the best circumstances, selection panels operate under time limitations. It’s impossible to completely avoid biases, pressures, and tastes that impact decisions. Being aware of them will at least help to improve selection and shows a willingness to learn.

Panels should be:

Diverse

Panellists should have a broad range of lived experiences and responsibilities. This will provide insight into some of the barriers that applicants face.

Experts

It is important to include artists on panels. Their experience and practice should be relevant to the project. They might have been awarded the project in previous years. It may be appropriate to have people from the local community or an audience member on a panel.

Supported

An organisation must support panel decisions and panellists should be able to voice opinions or concerns. No one should feel like they are in the minority. Selection is a time-consuming and demanding process, often involving large numbers of applications. Provide adequate time to consider applications to avoid decisions made under pressure. Unconscious bias is more likely when people are rushed. Pay the panel, at least the self-employed members, so they can commit to the process.

Briefed

Organisations should be clear about the values and stakeholders that inform the project, and provide selection criteria to panellists.

Public

Selection panels should be public at the point of announcing a call. Knowing who will see their work will encourage artists to apply. Especially if they respect and see themselves reflected in the selection panel. Anonymised applications and briefing selectors to choose applications from artists they aren’t familiar with reduces the likelihood of nepotism.