Wednesday, March 4, 2009

funding through residencies

I would pursue funding though residencies via TransArtist to further bring the 'mobile garden', 'bring a plant to work day', and other public art projects and happenings to more cities.

The first two residencies that seem workable and in large enough areas to be able to work on such projects are:


Residency in Japan: http://www.cca-kitakyushu.org/english/research/application.html

ADMISSION

Research Program runs from the beginning of September to the end of March. There is a place for 15 - 20 participants of artists, and for a few other of curatorial study.

CONDITION FOR THE ADMISSION

ARTIST - Artist in his/her 20's - 30's. Fluent in English or Japanese (preferably both languages)
CURATORIAL STUDY - Person who is in his/her 20's - 30's. Work experience in contemporary art or majored in art/art history. Fluent in English(Speaking, reading and writing)

LANGUAGE

The official working languages of CCA Kitakyushu are Japanese and English. Most of the staff, professors/lecturers speak English. The participants have to be fluent in English, and are also expected to speak enough Japanese in everyday life.

SELECTION

FIRST STAGE EXAMINATION: International committee operates the first selection on the basis of the candidates' application form and materials.
SECOND STAGE (FINAL) EXAMINATION: Interview
* The interview is usually executed about one month after the deadline for the application form (the deadline is stated in the form).
* Selected candidates are notified the schedule of the interview.
* The results are announced by the same procedure in each stage.
* CCA Kitakyushu does not accept telephone inquiries regarding the result.

THE TUITION, SCHOLARSHIP, LIFE IN KITAKYUSHU AND OTHERS


THE TUITION: 360,000 Japanese Yen (including fee for the program, use of individual studio, the access to the facilities
THE SCHOLARSHIP: The participants can apply for CCA scholarship, that will be confirmed in the interview. Besides it, foreign students are advised to have a grant from their own country.
THE LIVING COST: Expected living cost in Kitakyushu is about 60,000 - 80,000 yen par month. It may be possible to offer an apartment with reasonable rent.

For further information:

Research Program CCA Kitakyushu
CCA Kitakyushu
2-6-1 3F Ogura Yahata-Higashi-ku
Kitakyushu 805-0059
JapanPhone +81 93 663 1615
Fax + 81 93 663 1610
e-mail mail@cca-kitakyushu.org


Residency in Germany: http://www.akademie-solitude.de/440_fellowship_app.php

Application round is completed / Next Application round

The application round for a fellowship 2009-2011 in the artists residency and the art, science & business program was completed by October 31, 2008.

The applications are currently being registered; the results of the jury selection will not be made public before March 2009. Rejected applications will be returned with a letter of rejection by surface mail in the months following the jury decisions.

The next application round will take place between July and October 2010 for a fellowship during the time period 2011-2013.

Applications sent outside of the application round cannot be considered and the materials will be disposed.
____________________________________________________________

I have chosen these two residencies because they appear to be academy and gallery related and not funded privately, though I'm sure that could change. I feel the access through networking may have easier access through these type of institutions.

grants & opportunities

Applying for grants... applying for shows, festivals etc. many of these opportunities looking for proof that someone else prior had taken the risk on the individual applying and was met with positive responses. So in addition to grants and shows I'm also interested and applying for residencies and one work study program at BANFF. Although this particular opportunity doesn't result in large sums of cash for developing personal projects it does provide some stipend to live on (meager) but more importantly provides another place to develop skills, work with people in the field and make additional connections. Aside from the BANFF work study... which i really have to locate my resume for, I'm applying to Ars Electronica this year as well... again another application that isn't a grant but these are what seem to be the best to put energies towards right now.

Benjamin

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Oleksiuk - Grants Research

Day 1) After searching through and reading many web pages and various websites on grants, I realized the challenge to narrow down prospective funding sources is not easy. My initial round of research led me to look at about 20 different websites, some of which were singular funding sources (potential grant givers) and others were clearinghouse type sites that listed many funders and opportunities. Having a plethora of resources sounded great initially, but I was immediately swamped by the complexity of the task at hand. Each web site looked different. I was kind of hoping for a big button with a glowing green $$$ icon that would cause money to rain down on me just by clicking it. Not the case. Some of the funders' websites were fairly straightforward, but in those cases, my project was ruled out by one or two clicks. I was surprised by the number of sites that specifically did NOT fund student work. Slightly depressed, I decided to give it another round on another day.

Day 2) Armed with my newly found cynicism, I approached the task again with a slightly different approach. Instead of the shotgun method of trying to visit bjillion websites all at once, I decided to take a slower approach. The first funder match I found was the Daniel Langlois Foundation. Not surprisingly, this was listed by Sabrina under "specific links to big grants." So there you go: it certainly helps when the faculty does the bulk of the research for you. What I found interesting about this website is that it was specifically geared for new media, with names like David Rokeby, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, and Lynn Hershman Leeson squarely plastered on the front page. further digging found information on Dan Sandin, among others. What I like about this foundation is it is a treasure trove of information on topics such as conserving technology-based art, as well as information on the individual artists and works. This foundation seems to be truly involved in new media in all phases (funding, exhibiting, critical dialog, and preservation). Having said that, concerning grant application funding, the website states "As of January 2008, grants for the Foundation’s programs have been allocated until the end of 2008 and their beneficiaries have been notified. The Foundation will not consider further grant requests before 2009." And it gives an address. So I am going to interpret that as a free form application process and simply contact them. I also signed up for their e-newsletter.

My second find was from the Donors Forum. I used their FunderSource. I found this database very interesting and efficient (in the way that looking at 20+ websites all at once is not). Here I was able to get through multiple listings relatively quickly. Once you get the hang of it, you can see the potential pitfalls here. A lot of the foundations do not grant to individuals or non 501(c)(3)s. Despite the fact that these are not strict rules for this particular project, I decided to tkae a look at someone who would simply und a project by an artist. Some of the hits I got actually had contradictory information (Abbot Foundation listing in the DonorSource lists that the Foundation does give to individuals, but ther website says they specifically do not). After a couple more searches and getting used to the database listings (which dont all have equal information) I hit upon the following: William F. O'Connor Foundation, who is listed as a funder of "Media Arts", which was my criteria. The foundation also accepts unsolicited proposals, and there are no deadlines. The application procedure is: Letter request with copy of tax return and financial statements. There is nothing on the listing that tells me they wouldn't fund my project. Total assets (2006): $42,924,233.