Showing items tagged "Grants, awards and prizes"
Restore the Arts: impact, precarity, and action, in National Portfolio Organisations 2023-2028
15 years of austerity era standstill funding for NPOs is hobbling public programmes, thwarting ambition, holding back sector development and business model investment, while negatively impacting working conditions…
Artists Business Models
Helping artists, policymakers and employers understand how artists work, career development opportunities, and building equitable processes Artists and how they work are widely misunderstood inside and outside of the art world. Even artists themselves have difficulty in describing how the peculiar mix of non arts employment, artistic practice, freelance activity and funding combine to make an […]
Adaptations
A practice development award of £2000 for an artist to trial new ways of working. Katie Surridge was selected for the 2024 Adaptations award. About the selected artist Katie Louise Surridge (1985) was born and raised in London. She…
Running open calls
This article talks about the barriers open calls present to artists. It suggests ways of running open calls to overcome these. Open calls are often used by organisations to find artists to work with. An organisation produces…
Grant funding for artists
Grant funding is a well known type of funding for artists. It is a competitive field, attracting more demand than there is funding available. Our research with visual artists revealed that many artists are making unsuccessful…
Adaptations
Understanding how artists can adapt their practice for sustainable income on their own terms. Adaptations began as a pilot workforce development grant for three visual artists in spring 2021. It was intended to support artists find new sustainable ways…
WFH Residency
£1000 award to convert the first COVID lockdown in 2020 into a ‘work from home’ residency Responding to a collapse in work opportunities during the first COVID lockdown, the WFH Residency paid artists to conduct a ‘working from…
Assist
Placements for early career artists from under represented backgrounds to work as paid studio assistants for more established artists Assist provided up to £3,700 and support for established artists to employ early career artists. The project ended in March…
Workweek Prize
The annual Workweek Prize (2013 2019) awarded £1,000 to a critical, risk taking project taking part in Art Licks Weekend. The festival was organised by Art Licks, a not for profit platform that supports artists, curators and project…
The Artists Fund
Providing small grants to artists for transformative action in practice The Artists Fund was a community interest company led by Artquest, DACS and a n the Artists Information Company. It provided one round of small grants to…
Sculpture Competitions
Some interesting and important issues arise around the enduringly popular artists’ competition format. Many sculpture ‘competitions’ contain this word in their title, but some are promoted as ‘prizes’ or ‘awards’ or ‘contests’. What exactly has an artist won…
Fundraising basics
Fundraising can be a full time occupation. What can you do if you want to get more effective at applying for grants without it taking over your life? Prepare application materials Every application needs to be tailored to…
Loans and finance
Loans, overdrafts, credit cards, mortgages, micro loans are all forms of ‘debt finance’. Money is borrowed from a lender then repaid over a period of time, usually with interest. The total amount repaid is always more than…
Sponsorship for artists
Sponsorship is when a business or company supports an artist. For established galleries, sponsorship looks like high profile exhibitions funded by big private companies. It’s a different story for individual artists looking to secure such support. This…
Infinity goes up on Trial
The visual art market place has two essential facets, distinct but clearly interrelated, especially over recent generations: exhibiting and selling. Dealers usually occupy ‘gallery’ premises: partly for their principal object (making profits from sales); partly…
Money Talks
How do you balance work, life and practice without selling out? Artists are always thought to be ‘not in it for the money’, but we all have bills to pay, holidays to go on and sometimes children to…
Crowdfunding for artists
Crowdfunding is an alternative way for artists to fundraise for their projects. Basics of crowdfunding Instead of applying for large sums from a funder, you ask for smaller pledges from many individuals. Artists run “campaigns” that offer…