Some Random Advice from Mirabee on Grants, Fellowships, Residencies and Contests

Hi everyone,



Lately I have been getting a lot of mail—actually, I always get a lot of mail—and much of it the last month has been about some of the same things so I thought I would just post a list of some FAQs that keep ending up in my inbox. It is almost September, after all, and Sept. 15th is a big date for application deadlines. October is the big month for Fulbright deadlines.



Before I go into that though, a reminder, if you write me at:

mirabartok@yahoo.com, please make sure you check ALL my FAQs before writing, okay?

Here is the FAQ link for applying for grants and Fellowships: http://miraslist.blogspot.com/2009/07/faqs-grants.html

Here's the link for residencies, art colonies and retreats: http://miraslist.blogspot.com/2009/09/faqs-residencies-artist-colonies.html

For Fulbright Awards: http://miraslist.blogspot.com/2009/04/fubright-grants-inside-scoop.html



Okay, on to those random questions of yours:



1. HELP ME PLEASE! I am desperate! I need a grant right now! Can I apply for a grant that would start next month?



No. For most grants or large fellowships you must apply nine months to a year in advance. However, if you need emergency funding, check my sidebar on the right hand side for some links to emergency funding organizations.

Also--PLEASE DO NOT SOUND DESPERATE in your application. No foundation wants to give money to people who sound like victims. It is better to present yourself as a resourceful person. Tell them how many other places you are applying to and what you are doing to get out of your unfortunate situation.



2. If I write a nice letter to you, asking you to help me find a grant or a special residency, will you help me?



Nope. PLEASE DO THE WORK. I do this for free. I know I am crazy. I get barely any donations. I think I make less than two cents an hour doing this. Actually—not even that much. Basically, I bring you to the water but you have to fish for yourself, okay? There are special circumstances where I do help individuals, like a couple people who have limited internet access because they are living in countries like Iran and China where important sites are censored and blocked from view. Otherwise—do the work yourself.



3. I run a residency (or a grant foundation) and want you to post my deadline announcement. What's the best way to send you info?



NOT in a pdf. NOT in a word doc. Please send a BRIEF announcement in the body of an email to mirabartok@yahoo.com and include deadline date, cost if there is on, stipend or award if there is one, location and something descriptive about the program. Also, which disciplines can apply. And please send me info way in advance. Thanks.



4. I am a poet who is nearly sixty years old (or an artist, composer, etc.) and have been rejected by every place I apply to. Can you help me figure out why?



Sorry—I can't. I just don't have time to critique people's work. I suggest you get involved with some kind of community—writing group, artist critique group, etc. and get feedback that way.



5. What is your opinion about writing contests that charge a fee to submit my piece?



I think some contests are good and some are bad. Here's my opinion, for what it's worth: Look to see what the big prize is. If the entry fee is, say, 10-25 dollars and the biggest prize is only 200 dollars, well, that's pretty bogus to me. That means they are just making money off you. And do they mention who the judge is? ONLY send work to contests if the judge is a reputable LITERARY writer, not some hack and if the contest is run by a literary magazine or a reputable literary online journal. The Council on Literary Magazines and Small Presses (CLMP) helps to set standards for good ethical practices among literary magazines. You can acquire a great list of presses and journals from their site: http://www.clmp.org/about/dir.html.



You can get a great listing of contests that are worth applying to on the Poets & Writers website: www.pw.org. And if you are a writer and don't subscribe to their inexpensive but invaluable magazine, I do believe you are a doody head.



By the way, you can apply this info to art and music and film contests. Just because someone is offering you money out there doesn't mean they are legit.



6. I'm a writer. Some of my friends say I should send my work to literary journals—ones like Ploughshares, Kenyon Review, Yale Review, etc. But I notice that most of those journals don't pay you a cent! They just give you two free copies and publish your work. So why bother?



Good question. Well, here's the long answer: Many great writers started out in those smaller circulation literary magazines. And many acclaimed authors (and I'm talking LITERARY authors here, not the Danielle Steele kind of commercial bestselling blockbuster author) still send pieces to these magazines because they believe in them and they also respect the audience who reads them. That audience really loves great literature and brilliant, exquisite prose. They read the harder books, the ones you actually have to use your brain to read, not your basic page turner. i.e. We are not talking The DaVinci Code, okay? Nothing wrong with that stuff for entertainment but let's face it folks—it's not great literature.



Case in point—an earlier version of one of my chapters from The Memory Palace (which just made the New York Times bestselling list in paperback for next week :-)) was first published in Kenyon Review. And from there, KR submitted it to be in the Best American Essay series where it was mentioned as a notable essay. That stuff means something to agents and editors at larger houses who are looking for literary writers. And it meant a lot to me. You can't put a price tag on that kind of thing. These journals barely limp along financially. It is a labor of love. I used to work at one as an intern and certainly didn't do it for the money. Okay....I'm done ranting now....



A couple last things:



To people who run international residencies and want me to post deadlines: PLEASE have someone check your grammar and spelling. I spend a lot of time rewriting posts that are too hard to understand. PLEASE tell me WHERE you are located exactly. You'd be surprised how many people ask me to post about a residency with no info on what country it is, even on their website.



And, last but not least.....a reminder: if you are looking for a residency in a specific country, please don't write me and ask. Please check out my residency links on my sidebar because the places I list are amazing and you can search for each individual country.



Thanks....and hey, I'm going to bug you guys for donations soon, just so you know. Although my book is doing really well, I haven't made my advance back yet (a long and mysterious process that even I don't completely understand). I will actually run out of money in November with nothing on the horizon. I do this for free. I do not charge you. People say I am insane because I do not ask for a yearly subscription. I don't want to because I believe in a Gift Economy at heart. So pay it forward—send a donation if you can (see my sidebar for information on how to do that) and if you can't, spread some helpful information to a friend.



Thanks...I love you guys.

Mirabee



p.s. I forgot to mention this one:



I DO NOT POST ABOUT CONTESTS, PUBLISHING OR EXHIBITION OPPORTUNTIES, etc. unless they also offer a residency or there is some fellowship involved. So to all you wonderful places asking me to post about your upcoming artist call for an exhibit or for your writing contest, please go to my facebook MIRASLIST page and post it there, okay? If you write a short announcement it will also be tweeted on twitter.



By the way—I really, really try to post residencies that either don't cost money or that offer a stipend or that are pretty inexpensive. So if you send me an announcement for a residency that costs a lot of money, don't be surprised if I don't post it, okay? Thanks.

A Note on Artist Residencies

Hi gang,

Well, this must be the year for being geezerly. I'm sick again (me! I'm never sick and this is the third time in a month and a half ) and my left wrist got injured. Take it from me, stress is not good! Rest=Good. Stress=Bad. So I have tried to stay off the computer except for the stuff I really have to do for my book promotion, reader's guide, etc. Anyway, I've been getting some private questions via email about residencies, as well as a comment you can read below my last post regarding whether or not residencies are places where you can take classes.

First--I'll answer that question above: Most residencies are places where people just go to do their work. A retreat is more a place where people take classes. When you go to a place like MacDowell, you get a cabin and food and you do your thing. But I'm sure there are exceptions, which brings me to my next point—Many people ask me very specific questions about residencies---is there north light for painting, will the place accept me if I have never had a show, does the place offer a stipend, etc. You really have to check each place for yourself. I can't do that for you. And you should also know that while I do post about residencies here, they are only a tiny percentage of what's actually out there all over the world. If you are serious about going to a residency somewhere, please check out these three sites that are the motherships of residency programs: www.resartis.org, www.transartists.org, and http://www.artistcommunities.org/.

The last one charges a small fee for membership but is well worth the money. You can actually type in your preferences for seasons, genres, size, place, and on and on so that you can tailor-make your stay somewhere. And if you have more specific questions you can contact the places directly.

Finally, I highly suggest you read my FAQ section (http://miraslist.blogspot.com/search/label/FAQs%3A%20RESIDENCIES). And I highly suggest that if you can make it to the next TransCultural Exchange Conference on Opportunities in the Arts in Boston this coming April (go to the site for details), do it. You will meet people who run residencies all over the world. It's an amazing conference. And guess who will be there? Yes, Mirabee!

Off to sniffle and be a big baby....love to you all,
Mirabee

Interview with TransCultural Exchange Director, Mary Sherman

Today I am thrilled to interview Mary Sherman, Director of TransCultural Exchange. Mary and I have known each other for years and I was part of the very first TransCult exhibit, way back in 1989 in Chicago. I hope you enjoy our interview! Read on...

Mary Sherman is an artist and the director of the nonprofit TransCultural Exchange (TCE). She is also the Associate Director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) Program in Art, Culture and Technology. In 1989 she founded TCE to create art projects that transcend social, political, geographical and historical barriers. Since then, TCE has worked directly with hundreds of artists, arts organizations, foundations, museums and cultural centers in more than sixty countries to produce cultural exchanges, critically acclaimed exhibitions and public art works, from Sarajevo to Sao Paulo, Berlin to Boston, Tel Aviv to Taipei, Mongolia to Mumbai.

Mary, thanks so much for joining us today. Would you mind starting out by telling us a little bit about TransCultural Exchange—How it got started, what your organization does, how it has grown since you began and where you see it going in the future?

In 1989, at the invitation of two Viennese architects, a group of Chicago artists put together a wildly ambitious exchange show of over 70 Viennese and Chicago artists’ works. The Chicago literary magazine Another Chicago Magazine turned one of their issues into the show’s catalog (which included an essay by Wim Wenders), Café Tête-à-Tête hosted a reading series and Facet’s Multimedia Centre organized a Viennese and Chicago film festival.

Then, after a brief hiatus, TransCultural Exchange resurfaced in New York City thanks to the Trans Hudson Gallery, who offered their gallery space for an exhibition. From then on, there was no looking back. TCE is currently based in Boston but really, our home is all over the world.

In 2000 we took part in the London Biennale (and did so again last year and will again this April) Your readers are invited to join us when we bring the London Biennale to Boston for a 'curated salon': (http://www.transculturalexchange.org/participate_docs/inviteLB.html) Anyway, in 2002, TransCultural Exchange reached hundreds of artists around the globe to produce its first worldwide project, The Coaster Project. For this project, 100 artists made 100 coaster-sized artworks. They then exhibited one of each participant’s (for a total of 100 works per exhibit) in a public space. These exhibits took place on all seven continents. Afterward, all 10,000+ artworks were given away – to all segments of society - for free.

The Coaster Project, was followed by The Tile Project, which included an artist exchange program, educational component and the creation of public art works to draw attention to the organization’s mission of working with artists from diverse nationalities, to educate the public about these various cultures and to encourage them to consider ways in which artists, and by extension, others might work together for a more peaceful future. For last year’s global project (and catalog), artists were asked to collaborate with an artist(s) or others from another country to make a collaborative artwork. Over 200 artists participated, resulting in over sixty exhibitions, talks and performances in more than as many places.

Starting in 2009, TCE began hosting international conferences for opportunities in the arts. I had such a great time last year! I met people from all over the world and brought back a lot of information on grants and residencies for my Mira's List readers. Would you mind telling us about the upcoming conference next April, 2011 and will there be anything new this time that is different from last year's conference?

I'd be happy to. Like last year, this coming Conference on International Opportunities in the Arts will be held in Boston, Massachusetts and will bring more than seventy representatives from around the world to talk about their residency, grant, exhibition and fellowship programs. And this coming year, there will be even more mentoring sessions and portfolio reviews for artists than before. We will also offer much more to artists, writers and media artists/filmmakers, including public readings by well-known and emerging authors (check back on our website for updated list), a video-screening room to showcase new work, a screening program for artists to show slides, and an extra day of activities, showcasing local cultural attractions and related research at sponsoring institutions.

I'll be there too—doing a reading from my new book as well as talking once again about opportunities in the arts, in particular, for writers. So on to my next question—which is the most frequently asked question I get: What are some of the ways an artist can fund his or her residency? And if you can suggest creative solutions or specific grants or fellowships for both U.S. and international artists, that would be great.

There is a great organization The Lighton International Artists Exchange Program, which works to make the world a smaller place by giving artists of different cultures the opportunity to work together in the hope that lasting friendship and understanding will develop. The program provides support for visual artists and arts professionals to travel to international residencies and artist communities and for foreign visual artists to travel to and work in the United States.

Then, of course both your website and ours http://www.transculturalexchange.blogspot.com/
list information about residencies and funding on a regular basis. Also, most residencies abroad cover most of your expenses, except airfare, and for what you save on food and housings—to say nothing of the network you'll create as a result—that is an incredible bargain.

Mary, please tell me about one or two of your best international residency experiences.

That is hard. .. .My first was to Romania. It was/is run by Dorothea Fleiss. That year it was in a villa, where we worked all day, ate these long lasting dinners and talked long into the evening. I made amazing contacts, who I am still in touch with to this day, including Dorothea, a strong artist with an amazing heart.

Most recently I was in Taiwan as a resident at the Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts (it was my third time in Taiwan; I was earlier a resident at the Taipei Artists Village) and also was a Fulbright Senior Specialist (also an amazing program). And, please one more: a residency at MIT, which, like all residencies introduced me to amazing people and led to other opportunities—including TCE's initial support of our first conference and now the addition of Ute Meta Bauer to our advisory board & my now working there. I really wish I could list them all—because each and everyone one of them changed my life in only the best ways possible.

Well, if some of my readers go to the next TCE Conference, maybe they can ask you more about your residency experiences! Anyway, I know that TCE has a bit kickstarter project going right now and you are trying to raise money for it. Please tell my readers about the project and what you hope to happen if you get funding.

Well, here's the link and I hope a good hook, as I'd really like to see this project take off and in the process all the supports get a piece of TransCultural Exchange:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/110350793/the-art-of-collaboration

In essence, are trying to raise money to produce a catalog of collaborative works, to celebrate the work made by artists not only working together from different cultures but also engaging those in other disciplines. A true embodiment of the name: TransCultural Exchange.

I really hope you get funding. I'm counting on some of my devoted readers to check out your project at kickstarter and help support it! Well, lastly Mary, what do you see in the future for TCE? Dream big!

To be honest, I never imagined we get this far. . .but.. it'd be great to have TransCultural Exchange all over the world with a net work of artists working with people from other cultures and other disciplines. Wouldn't that be great? Well, we're trying: we are now filing paper work to create TransCultural Exchange as an NGO (a non-governmental organization) as well as keep our nonprofit status, making it easier to move artists and works between the states and the rest of the world. As we often write as a tagline: Stay Tuned: a new World Awaits. ;)

Thanks so much for joining us today, Mary. It's been a pleasure! I can't wait to see what TCE will do in the future.

I'd like to close this post today by quoting Mary Sherman from her opening of the 2009 Conference on International Opportunities in the Arts. I think she expresses my own sentiments and why I do this blog:

“The arts most likely won’t pinpoint the cure for cancer, but that does not negate their power. Marvelous things can come from where you least suspect. Working in tandem, much can be accomplished; and the arts can help. Like the face of a beloved, the arts can stimulate our curiosity. They can give our lives meaning in ways that we may never be able to explain. Even across vast time zones and geographic distances, the arts give us the ability to touch another person and be touched—and with that, many possibilities can arise.”

OPEN FORUM ON HOW TO FUND YOUR ARTIST RESIDENCY

Greetings all. Today I thought it would be a good thing to see if any of you had come up with some creative ideas about funding residencies, both in your own country and abroad. My most frequently asked question is: Are there any grants out there to help pay for travel and expenses, etc. once I get accepted to an artist residency? I've addressed this a little in these two posts: http://miraslist.blogspot.com/search/label/FAQs%3A%20RESIDENCIES but I am always looking for new ideas. I'd like to open this up for discussion to all of you. If any of you have come up with great solutions to help fund your residency (money for travel, expenses, and keeping up with household bills while you are gone), please write in the comment section below so others can benefit from your past experience. Thanks!

Cheers,
Mirabee

TIPS ON FUNDING ARTIST RESIDENCIES

Good morning. I just found this on the Transartist site and thought it might be useful for those of you applying to residencies overseas and far from home. Please check out their site sometime to learn about residencies and other opportunities around the world. Also, they have a message board for people looking for studio space or studio exhanges, etc.

From Transartists.org:

Of course a residency costs money. Some residency programs cover all costs, some residency programs don't cover any costs at all. In general, residential art centers will partly cover the costs, which always makes it necessary to find additional funding. Be sure about the budget before you go!

You got a grant of the residential art center?

Congratulations! But you have to check the following:

• Do you get to keep the grant yourself or does the residency itself use it to pay for rent and facilities?

• If you get the money yourself, are you free to use it for your own purposes or do you have to pay with it for the rent or for use of facilities?

• How much is it? Can you pay the whole residency with the money?

• Get a written agreement, stating how much you receive, when and how.

• How much money do you still have to pay yourself?

You need additional funding?

You're selected, but the money offered or the facilities offered for free are not enough to cover the whole budget. Check out the following:

• Don't agree to come over without being sure you can cover the whole budget.

• Ask the residential art center for invitation letters or letters of support for applying for additional funding.

• Ask the residential art center for information about their local funding possibilities.

• Applying for additional funding takes time, always ask the residential art center if you can come over later when you need more time to arrange the budget.

You need to cover all costs yourself, even accommodation costs and costs of living?

Be sure about the motivation of the residential art center. Is it really a guest center 'for art's sake'?

• Many guest studios just don't have the money to pay for your residency. But they do have a lot to offer 'in natura'. Just check out if the relation between what they offer and what you have to pay, is fair.

• If a residential art center is operating on a purely commercial basis, it doesn't have to be a 'bad' center. It can be a quality center for art's sake. Just be sure about it!

• Do you need to pay in advance, during or after your residency?

To read more about this subject and find a residency that might be good for you, go to:
http://www.transartists.org/articles/funding_check.147.html
Have a great day! Cheers, Mirabee