Unknown Speaker 0:07 I think we're live. Unknown Speaker 0:10 Welcome, everyone. I'm going to give everybody a moment to join the webinar. We appreciate you being here today. Unknown Speaker 0:20 My name is Louise Martorano. And I'm the executive director for redline Contemporary Art Center, which is located in Denver, Colorado. And we are so excited for people joining us all around the world for this new grant program that is originated by artwork archive the art business accelerator grant. joining me on this webinar today is the founder of artwork archive, Justin Anthony and the founder of this new grants program, as well as the art grants manager at Red Line, who is also an artist let us Feliciano so we hope today to answer the questions you have, which please throw those in the q&a session that you may have on this new grants program. And kind of share a little bit a bit about the background, the jury process and what you can expect after you apply. So with that being said, we will probably save the q&a to the very end. But our goal is really to answer all your questions as we go through this. But this will be available digitally. And we will send it to anyone who's not able to participate in the full session today, out through an email. And we'll we'll review that process at the end. So um, let me be the first of all come Of course, Justin Anthony, who will share a little bit more about this program just didn't want to take it from here. Unknown Speaker 1:59 Sure. Um, thanks, everyone for joining, I'm sure people are gonna trickle in. We'll say this a couple times. So you guys may get sick of hearing it. But for those who have joined late, we are going to be rebroadcasting this tomorrow we're recording it now will process that and have it up and we'll send an email out about that. The chat is currently disabled, the q&a is enabled. As Louise mentioned, we're going to really try to make an effort to go through the core part of what this grant is all about, give you a little history background on it, cover some questions we've already had from 1000s of you already. And then jump into some q&a stuff toward the end, as questions come in Katie, one of the other team members at our work archive is going to be fielding those. So for those of you who are not familiar, you know, our work archive was started a decade ago by myself and my co founder john Feustel with the main focus of creating a platform that provided artists the tools they need to make a living doing what they love. You know, we've always said from the beginning that, you know, whether you like it or not, as an artist, you're an entrepreneur, you're a small business. And we have been unapologetically focused on arming artists with those tools, they need to be successful. And I really felt fortunate this year that we were in a position to to give back, you know, it's been a decade, you know, we really feel strongly about the topic. And this is why we felt it was important to to do this grant. So I'm just actually using this art business accelerator web page that we have there. That link will also be included in this for those of you who are not familiar with it, it's just artwork archive.com forward slash cart grants, forward slash art business accelerator, which now that I look at, it seems much longer. So we will make sure that anybody interested has that link. So what is this it's the intention of this is to provide visual artists with unrestricted funds, resources and our curriculum to help establish, grow and manage their art career. And, you know, as I mentioned, this is right in line with what we do, which is to arm you guys with the necessary business skills and succeed as an artist and entrepreneur, and to make a living through your artwork. And, you know, a lot of the questions we've gotten is, you know, what stage Do I need to be in? You know, what, what level of an artist Do I need to be at and this is open to both emerging and established artists. The grant amount, this will be 10 unrestricted cash grants of 20 $500 each. Every recipient will also receive a lifetime master account with artwork archive. And then there's a really important component that we really want to make sure it gets communicated about during this which is these educational resources and expert guidance. So yes, there are only 10 winners but Every single person that applies will be benefiting from that curriculum, we really, really felt strongly about wanting to make this a no fee based grants, an unrestricted grant, which didn't kind of bind you into doing this for a particular work of art or anything like that, because we know how many different ways money is, is needed right now. And then lastly, this curriculum, we really wanted to kind of democratize some of the things we've been working so hard on over the last decade, which is really this compilation of great resources focused on helping you excel and make a living doing what you love. As far as eligibility goes, visual artists 21 and older, who are working intentionally to better their communities, and or address community challenges through their artwork, Louise is going to be jumping in in a bit to talk a little bit more about what we mean by that. Um, examples of this could include, but are certainly not limited to involvement in community projects, education, mentoring, public art, once again, Laura's on the back end of this is going to be showing you some examples of some artists that exemplify this visual artists, all disciplines with a strong artistic focus in their discipline. You know, we have had tons of questions from musicians, from filmmakers from all kinds of other performance arts. And, you know, while we celebrate those as well, our focus is really on the visual arts. So that's something we want to make clear from this. And then, of course, artists that have demonstrated higher artistic quality, innovation and creativity with a track record of participation in the arts for at least two years. And this is open worldwide. This is not strictly a North American grant, although artwork archive is based in North America, it's too available for everyone. I just really want to jump in quickly and talk about the the why now, you know, I mentioned these concepts, this this, this desire to help arm artists with these these skills is core to what we do. Unknown Speaker 7:02 But there's no question that COVID has played a role. It's it's had such a significant impact on artists and the arts in general. And when we did this survey of artists, over half the artists we surveyed have lost over 50% of the revenue. So we felt that now more than ever, we always believe this is important. But now more than ever, we felt it was really timely. So you know, this, this, this accelerator grant really helps to bridge this gap between creative fulfillment and financial stability. You know, redline is been a big help through this, we've got some contributors that have helped make this possible. Louise, I can jump into a little bit about the jurors. But I think I'm gonna pause that until we get a little further down. And we can jump right into one of the biggest questions, which is really this question that's come up? What do we really mean, intentionally bettering their communities or addressing community challenges? So can you speak a little bit to that? Yeah, so Unknown Speaker 8:01 in the application, the terminology of citizen artists is used to and this is not asking your you to be something that you are not already, it is actually really seeking to find, and identify artists where this grand really is support and work you're already doing in relationship to the climate in relationship to the culture that you find yourself in within the community that you are connected to. And it's not asking the artwork, or how you apply to be everything to everybody, but really more authentically supporting what you're already working on. So Contemporary Arts practice does not sit within a vacuum and artwork archive, and this, Grant specifically acknowledges that. So some of you actually may be, you know, thinking about how this grant could support a project that is in relationship to a certain social issue in your community. But that is not necessarily what we mean by this terminology, it just is more acknowledging the fact that contemporary artists and arts practice does not sit within a vacuum and that wherever you are coming from, from your community, how you're operating with in inside that context, and how that can be felt. And when we go into kind of the back end application process, and go through some of the questions I can share with you, where the jury that Justin is going to review now is going to be looking at your application to kind of hear more from you how you connect your Contemporary Arts practice and way of being in the world with that which is relevant to your communities. Unknown Speaker 9:54 Sure. So I think and by the way, if there are questions that we don't cover Hear if there are topics that we brushed over, that you'd like to dig in more detail to, you know, we'll also have a means of contacting us on the web page. Don't hesitate to do that. I know there's a lot to cover here. And we want to make sure you guys walk away with this with a better feel for what it is we're doing, why it is we're doing it. And what we're looking for when we're really doing the evaluation process. You know, I'm just scrolling back up here. You know, there's no question that there is a component of artistic quality, innovation, creativity, we will be looking for artistic excellence. Additionally, though, as Louise was touching on this idea of the citizen artist is going to factor heavily into our decision making process, when we were setting out to choose the jury and I really encourage all of you to take a look at the the the grant website and click through and learn a little bit more about these artists, because we really chose them because we believe they exemplify some of the values we're looking for. each and every one of these artists, although very, very diverse in nature, background, the disciplines, they practice, etc, all have a couple of common threads. You know, some of them have had very direct work with social justice issues or things like that. And some of them have done some important works or series that have gotten, you know, national attention or significant amounts of attention or groundswell of support in their own communities. But those aren't necessarily the things that that that we're looking everyone to, you know, represent when they're applying. A lot of the thing you will notice across the board with all of these is they are active participants in their artistic community, meaning they're supporting fellow artists, if I've just you know, pick Thomas Evans, who goes by detour. He's done an art Tip Tuesday, since you know, he started that's just been this, you know, free resource that's existed for artists out there in the community to help better their own practice to talk openly about some of the challenges facing, you know, every single one of these artists has had a significant impact on those around them, and have done some important work that helps support that and kind of represent their role in the artistic community. So those are, those are some of the elements that that we'll be looking at. And these are Laura's, I don't know, if you want to add anything to that. But if not, I think it would be really helpful sometimes to see some examples. And I know, Laura's, you know, you can take over the screen and give some examples. And once again, as you see these examples, if you don't see yourself in any of these specific examples, realize these are just attempts at kind of giving you a better idea for some of the elements we're looking for not this is the box you have to fit into. Unknown Speaker 13:00 Yeah, and while latos is bringing up her screen, you know, I would just encourage everybody to just make a note that you are applying to a panel of artists. So as artists, you know, I believe there is a shared language there. This is not a panel of curators, this is not a panel of people who are not operating within a practice of understanding of what it means to make a career as an artist and to get organized and the challenges that you face during these times within the pandemic. But also, you know, oftentimes when artists are starting out there is just no infrastructure behind them. And it's all yours to create. So, as I hand it over to Lars, I just want to, you know, remind everyone that you are applying amongst practitioners and creatives. Unknown Speaker 14:01 One other quick note just from Katie just mentioned, for those of you asking where to ask a question, the QA button should be at the bottom of your zoom screen. And that's where you can enter those questions. So I'm going to jump out and let Laura start. Unknown Speaker 14:16 Thanks so much, Justin and Louise. So that was a great great segue into our first example here, which is one of our jurors. Thomas detour, Evans. If you are not familiar with his work, please write that website down. As Justin mentioned, D tour offers a thing he calls art tip Tuesdays, which is something he posts on his YouTube, his YouTube pages full of advice for up and coming artists. It's full of content that really is meant to include others in his practice and invite the community to be part of what he does. He also recently came out with this book be the artists Which we recommend. So Thomas is one of these examples of an artist who, as you can see on the right side of the screen is creating really beautiful and, and thoughtful work within a fine art practice. But his practice does not exist in isolation. The same exists for Sammy Lee, again, highly recommend checking out Sammy Lee, another visual artist. Here you can see she works a lot in paper casting. But she also runs a residency program, and has invested a lot of time and energy in this wheat pasting project to share the stories and images of folks who have died from COVID-19. So again, a very thoughtful practice that does not exist in isolation that invites other community members to be part of it. Another example is Anthony Garcia, senior, again, prolific muralist and visual artists, he's done a lot of work, and you can find his work all over the community here in Colorado. But he also runs a art and community center, he is part of a group called bird seed collective that does art workshops for youth, they invite youth, as you can see here to be part of the art making process. And creating space for community to make art together is an essential part of his practice. So again, a really good example of someone who is creating, you know, a really thoughtful practice, but is involving the community. And then the last example I have for you, is Maria multani. Again, really socially based practice, but really, really thoughtful contemporary art practice, she does everything from murals to you can see here, she's got some basketball courts is a huge thing that she does, along with installation and print work. But these basketball courts that she's creating, she's organizing with communities to do these murals. And it's really about placemaking, within the community and within her larger art making practice. So these are just examples to get your wheels turning this is not you know, we we aren't saying you have to fit into one of these four boxes we've listed here. These are just examples to to get you excited and inspired. And again, to really exemplify the artist who is dedicated to their craft in their their voice as an artist, but that they are not creating an isolation that there's a deep commitment to creating within community. And that can look so many different ways. And we leave it to you to define what that is for you. Unknown Speaker 17:51 Yeah, I don't know why this just started. But like, in my head thinking, you know, another question we had, and this might come up in the q&a, as well, but like, what is does the size of the community matter? And the answer is no, we have, you know, so many people on our work archive, in particular, that that come from the plein air community, that paint with, with small groups of people that they've had significant impact on or had significant impact on their careers. And these are, you know, small clusters, the size of the community doesn't matter, the type of community doesn't matter. I think the the takeaways are this kind of thoughtfulness in the practice. And this whole citizen artists concept can just come in a number of forms. Do you guys want to jump into the actual submittable? side of things? Yeah, because we definitely have had a lot of questions about that. Unknown Speaker 18:50 Yeah. So you know, and this is, of course, looking at that the application that some of many of you have already filled out, but we did want to get into some of the technicalities of this, you know, I think it's important to express that it is a value that this program has to keep this application short. Artists are asked to fill out a lot of applications across their career constantly having to put capacity towards this work. So this is intentionally a shorter application. And hopefully, it's clear but as we talk about ideas like citizen artists, you know, there are certain aspects of this where you can share a little bit more of that again, that that context in which you are your concepts and ideas are coming forward. Of course, you can share additional links, like your social tags, etc, where you want to guide yours to review and see more about you. Your CV or resume Of course can share more about the depth of your practice. would certainly always recommend with your artist statement. I know this is just an annoying part of the what arts practice asks of artists, because I know your work and you as a person are evolving over a career. But try to connect obviously the statement that you provide with the images and your work samples. So there's a clear connection for the panelists to, to kind of see how your narratives takes us into the work and closer to the work. Obviously, identifying if you're emerging mid career or established again, this is open for all levels of artists, and the curriculum is really pointed at all levels of artists. Statement of Purpose is another place where you can share, you know, whether you have a particular project in mind, a particular body of work that you're working on how we get to this citizen artists idea can, of course can be supported in this statement of purpose or your impact statement. You know, in some ways, if you're coming out of a project, that you feel like has fully gauged community, or even pushed your own practice in a way that you felt was important that you feel like you then had something to share more broadly within the artists community, or the community in which you live in are connected to, um, yeah, and then, of course, like this helps the ever evolving work of artwork archive when it comes to your current business and administrative challenges. This will, you know, help the curriculum that is provided be more pointed towards where you're at, and what you're thinking when it comes to the gaps in your practice. You know, I know with many people who, you know, go to school for arts practice, these are not the areas that are the focus, it's more technique, it's as a practitioner, it says a maker. And it's not necessarily how to survive as an independent business. How you qualify success and your practice, you know, and whether it's just putting a stake in the ground and saying where you are now, and where you want to go, and what that looks like, based on where you are now and where you want to go. You know, there are options to share other information. But please do know that as clear as you can be as possible. And how your application kind of hangs together and references what you provide versus necessarily asking jurors to go outside of the Application Frame too much. Because there is an enormous application pool, over 700 people have applied so far. And so we just want that to be clear and transparent that you know, this is a competitive application process. So as clear as you can make your application, the better it is for of course the jurors. You can upload, of course, work samples, and then there's up to 10 opportunities to upload. And some of that can be additional information. But just again, I would say have a you know another person review your application, just to feel like you're you're sharing your impact story, your how you plan to either utilize the grand are how you plan to leverage this grant towards what you're doing now, or, you know, the relief you potentially need. This is an unrestricted grant. So you can really apply it as needed. Unknown Speaker 23:50 But just know that, you know, there's only there's only so much room and to be as clear as possible will be as well, we'll I think sit better with the jurors. And then Unknown Speaker 24:07 by the way, I want to piggyback if you don't mind off that thing you were just talking about, like the purpose, you know, we've been asked a lot is this grant or relief fund? I just want to make it clear, you know, that this grant was planned prior to COVID and is not a need based grant. Rather, this grant is to provide an opportunity for artists to receive resources toward accelerating their careers. I really want to make that distinction. We know so many people have been adversely impacted by COVID. And just you know, the world around us over the last few years and we obviously we empathize and I think everyone can relate on that front. We just want to make it very clear. This is not a needs based or relief based grant this is really focused on you know, accelerating the career Unknown Speaker 24:59 well into that Justin, do you want to share a little bit about what your vision is for, you know, the post application process and the engagement with the curriculum by both the grant tees as well as the application pool? Unknown Speaker 25:16 Sure, um, I think, you know, the the thing to convey here is, as I mentioned up front, we want to make sure this is worth your time to do it. We know you know, Louise was talking about trying to keep this short, keeping it concise as friction free as possible, there isn't an application. But we also want to make sure that you get something in addition, so no matter what every single applicant will be able to participate in this, you know, resource kids slash curriculum. And so with the winners, it's going to be slightly more regimented. In that, we're going to be able to do a little bit more one on one and things like that. With everyone, though, we're going to be distributing this curriculum on kind of a six week basis, the kind of core pillars of the curriculum are establish, grow and manage were established is really going to focus a lot more on the, you know, best practices in setting up businesses, taxes, inventory, etc. And then it's going to progress into this growth phase, where we really start focusing on marketing tactics. And other means are really, you know, contact management, growth of your collector list, things that are kind of tried and true techniques, as well as a combination of emerging techniques that we can shed some light on. And then finally, this manage aspect, that is really the part of the curriculum that is custom tailored to focus on how to best manage your time, your career, your legacy, tips and tricks that can help you save time, be more professional, prevent, or present your work more professionally. So over the course of the six weeks, we'll be distributing that to the group, we're going to have a kick off webinar for everyone where we really talk about the distribution of the curriculum, and then how we're going to go through it, we're probably going to, excuse me, have some webinars and some other video resources along with that. And then Louise from a timeline standpoint, I believe, I say I believe I should know this. I think we're on the 16th of May, applications close. And then we're going to do an official announcement about a month from that. Correct. Okay, and so, right around June 17. And we will be doing kind of a zoom live stream to announce the recipients and then talk about next steps. But anybody who's gone to that art business accelerator webpage, there is a little spot where you can enter your email to stay up to date, all of this stuff, we will be announcing well in advance to make sure everyone has a heads up on what's coming to make sure that you don't miss anything. And that includes deadlines, announcements about future curriculum distribution, and anything else that happens during the course of this process. Unknown Speaker 28:11 So we wanted to close this portion with latos sharing some best tips as far as for application. This is very familiar to many of you. But just to offer it. And then we are going to invite Katie to volley up to Justin Lara's and I some of the q&a. questions that came through during this conversation that we maybe did not address. So a lot of us do you want to take it from there. And then Katie from our work archive is going to be the voice of God kind of directing us how to navigate your questions. Unknown Speaker 28:55 Sure thing. Thanks, Louise. So some tips and just kind of best practices, things to be thinking about as you're putting your application together. First and foremost, you want to make sure that you've reviewed, reviewed, excuse me that you've reviewed your application, and you've looked it over thoroughly. You've read over it, you've answered every question, you've answered every question thoroughly before you hit submit. And on that note, it's always a good idea. If you can find a friend or colleague who will read over your application for you before you hit send, just so you can make sure that you have an extra set of eyes to catch any of those funky typos or just weird things that you maybe didn't catch as you were working on it. You also want to make sure that even though we've got a deadline in May, it's always good practice to submit your application ahead of that deadline. Give yourself time to deal with any weird internet things or this other issues that come up. If you do wait till the last second, it will feel like you're waiting until the last second And then of course, you want to make sure that you have really high quality images, when you are submitting those work samples, you know, good lighting, you really want to be able to see the work and really feature that work in the best way possible. And then on that note, I always recommend people to employ the art of editing in these processes. So you can submit up to 10 images. But if you have five that you know, really shine, focus on those five, allow yourself to kind of edit down to your best and strongest work. And I'd say the same thing for your writing as well. brevity is key. So those are my initial tips. But I'm sure some other things will come up as we continue this conversation. So I guess it's now on to Katie and our q&a. Unknown Speaker 30:54 And K, I just got a note. Those are great tips. Because I had such a confused description of the URL later, are the easiest place to find this is simply artwork archive comm, you'll see a little resources link at the top, and you can drop down and go from there. So sorry, thank you, Katie, for. Unknown Speaker 31:16 Okay, thank you all for explaining the grant. So far, we've had a lot of questions come in. So we're going to go over just a few of them. And then if any more come up, we'll try and get to all of them on here. If we don't feel free to reach out to us at team at artwork, archive comm or we will try and get back to you in a private chat. But before that, and so we'll go through some of the common questions that have come up so far. So we got a question from Cheryl, about the impact about whether the work needs to be socio political in nature, in terms of organizing, which we did talk about, but it's worth going over again. So I just want to hand this one off to Justin to go over if mentoring and organizing and education count towards your application? Unknown Speaker 32:03 Yeah, they do. And I think this can either be and I'm it's not in front of my face right now. But that's that's why we specifically did that and or in the description of this and the application because it is not so much about a particular work, or body of work. This is not just for artists that work on social impact issues or anything like that. It is every bit a benefit to your community to have supported fellow artists or some example of where there's been a mentoring or influencing or or just any kind of community related behavior with even within your own pockets. You know, it may you may be an artist from a small town and to have some information that you can share on that. I just really want to make sure because we've had this question quite a bit. We've had an equal amount of questions saying, Hey, I don't do any teaching or mentoring. But my work talks about this particular issue. Great. We want to see your application. on the same side, we've gotten this, you know, I, you know, you guys get the idea. That is it is both. And Louise, if you want to add on to any of that I just do not be disincentive to apply thinking, Well, I'm not social justice doesn't come out in the form of my art or things like that. Or, By the same token, don't be discouraged if you aren't teaching mentoring or anything like that, because either just aspects, it's you know, there is an either or piece to this. Unknown Speaker 33:42 Great. Thank you. So we'll keep going. We have one from Bridget and that she says that she's many communities have been displaced during COVID do virtual communities count towards? Unknown Speaker 33:54 Totally? Totally. I mean, some of us I you know, I'm thinking of some of my artists, friends are complete introverts and don't want to be around people, even before COVID. And yet these people have had a tremendous impact on online communities and things like that, in their own way. This is not limited to physical communities or anything like that virtual are every bit as viable. Unknown Speaker 34:18 Thank you. Okay, we have a question from from multiple attendees. This one is for Louise, what is the difference between mid career and established artists? Can you give us some guidance towards what these categories mean? Unknown Speaker 34:32 Yeah, you know, I think don't belabor this question when it comes to this grant opportunity. And I'm sure if you ask anyone in the arts profession, they will give you a slightly different answer to this. So this is the for the purpose of this application. I think it's more to kind of just understand the applicant from a place of what they could need and what they would get from this arts accelerator grant program, not necessarily a criteria that the panel is going to be looking at, which qualifies you or does not qualify you. So I hope that, you know, again, that these are levels that are often talked about, you know, where mid career you usually, you've had your solo exhibition like in a gallery or Museum, and you know, establish your you're more, you're fully making your career as an artist full time. And you know, you that this is kind of the trajectory you're in and the the ground in which you stand out. But I, you know, I always hesitate when it comes to jargon in in the art world, so to speak, because it's not always helpful. But this really is just to try to for for artwork, archives position, and how they continue to speak to those utilizing the platform, and how this grant can best support people understanding where you're at in your career, but I wouldn't think more than two seconds about that question. Unknown Speaker 36:18 Yeah, don't don't blink blaze through it. Whatever your gut tells you do it, it is absolutely has zero factor on evaluation, it is entirely existing to inform how we go about structuring the final curriculum, and helping inform where we're going to spend the most time on because if it skews one side or the other, we probably are going to custom tailor the curriculum to you to be a little more upfront or a little more on the back, depending on what what what the audience looks like. What's next kitty? Unknown Speaker 36:53 Great. This question is from Christina. And I'll hand it off to Lars. So will a draft application advisor feedback be available prior to submitting? And then there was another similar one about if you submit and then you want to change it before May 15? Is that something that you can do? Unknown Speaker 37:13 Great question. So unfortunately, just due to the volume of applications, we won't be able to provide feedback ahead of time. So I definitely encourage you to employ those loved ones who have grammar skills to be your internal reviewers. And then the same thing applies to, once you've submitted your application, once you've submitted your application it is submitted, you can't edit it and then resubmit. However, you know, we have had a couple folks reach out about this. And I have seen some folks just decide, you know, something came up that they wanted to add and so they remove their submission and then resubmit it. So that is an option. It's a little bit of legwork. But but that is an option, if you've already submitted and then have something that you absolutely feel is necessary to include an ad, that's the way that I would recommend doing it. Unknown Speaker 38:07 Thank you. Okay, this is a question again, for you is, um, is there a specific image size and resolution for or file size for the images in the work samples. Unknown Speaker 38:20 So I saw I saw this pop up in the q&a, and I was trying so hard to find these stats on submittable. So submittable does have its own size requirements. And you will get a little alert if your, your file size is too large. I want to say it's something like 400 megabytes, but I could be I could be wrong submittable will have it in there and tell you as you are uploading, I always recommend uploading the highest quality images, you can within that file size limit, it's going to show your work and the best, the best light, so I'm sorry, I don't have the exact statistics or you know, the the numbers for those file sizes in front of me, but I do know that it is on submittable. And as an artist who has who submitted something on submittable a week ago, I know that it will tell you if it's too large. Unknown Speaker 39:16 Great. Okay, Unknown Speaker 39:17 one thing I'll just add is like all file types are accepted. So when we were building the application, you know, redlines role is truly the administrator where you know, artwork archive, obviously founded is the the vision behind the grant program, and obviously the distributor of the curriculum, but we are kind of the mechanics and obviously the charitable organization that we'll be sending the grant agreements out through. But just as a heads up, all file types are welcome. Unknown Speaker 39:54 Okay, thanks for the clarification. Um, so we're gonna go on, there's a few questions for Justin So people are wondering if they want this they need to be a member of artwork Transcribed by https://otter.ai