Introduction

0:04

all right hello everyone um right my my name is lindsay sharman i’m

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the curator of the art gallery of alberta um so today with carfak alberta

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we are hosting a session on calls for submissions and open calls uh with chris carson from qarfak alberta and swinging

0:24

strang hello um so the aga and i are situated on treaty

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six territory uh we are also in edmonton the traditional land of diverse

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indigenous peoples including cree blackfoot metis nakota sioux iroquois

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dene inuit and ojibwe solto anishinabe i’d also like to acknowledge all of the

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indigenous inuit and metis people who make their homes on territories that

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intersect the current borders of alberta treaty six was signed uh in 1876

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uh exactly 20 years later my great-great-grandmother came here from what was then russia

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to a home just a few blocks east uh from where i’m sitting right now

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um and one block north of me right now you’ll find uh chris carson

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uh with undergraduate studies completed at the university of alberta an mfa in painting from ubc

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chris is both professional visual artist and arts administrator his career includes exhibitions at

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public artist run and commercial galleries throughout alberta as an administrator carson worked for

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commercial um arts organizations and since august 2010 chris has been the

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executive director of carfax alberta um suying string is joining us from

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treaty seven she’s an artist and cultural worker based in mokinstus calgary

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originally hailing from the southern united states strang relocated to treaty 7 territory in 2006 to pursue her arts

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education uh at what is now au arts strang has been involved in

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not-for-profit art sector uh since 2010 and is a graduate of the inaugural cohort of bamb center’s cultural

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leadership program in 2017 and the rose arts management program in

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2016. strand currently serves as the director of the new gallery and

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as a governor on uh the board of glenvale museum and it was just announced yesterday

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she’ll be moving down to lethbridge to become director of the southern alberta art gallery so congratulations on that

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addition to your bio um so before we get into it uh i’d like to

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thank uh epcor uh and canada council for their support

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our online programming is brought to you because of the generous support of the epcor heart and soul fund and of course

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a huge thank you to cardback alberta for working with us um on this event

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um and partnering with us um so your way of interacting with sue and

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chris throughout this event is through the chat um we’ll take your questions at the end

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but you don’t need to wait that long as soon as a question comes up um you’re fine to just put it in the chat and i’ll

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monitor throughout and make sure that we get to all those great questions so chris is going to start us off he’s

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going to give a little presentation for us then we’ll hand it over to sue um and

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then we’ll take all of your wonderful questions um so with that um

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i’m going to just hand it over to chris

What are Call for Submissions

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okay thank you very much and i’m just waiting for okay

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so i’m chris carson i’m the executive director of carfax alberta and thank you

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lindsay for the excellent introduction and what i’m going to do tonight is just

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probably talk to you about a few simple concepts first of all

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what are call for submissions and you know call for submissions are

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something that an art gallery a museum a university uh granting agency

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might send out when they are seeking new material

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now all these galleries institutions are probably more likely to

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select work if it is something that they are looking for that’s probably an introduction to

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kind of what is a call for submissions so what are they used for

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they’re used for group exhibitions for gallery programming for public

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galleries for artist run centers for commercial galleries they’re used for the acquiring or the

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purchasing of artwork that could be from some kind of

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funding agency like the alberta foundation for the arts uh

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all these places that buy artwork uh for they’re used for commissions and for

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public art so all this one percent art programs they put out a call to see

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what is out there calls are also used for fundraisers

Transparency

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now i suppose the idea comes what makes a good call for submission and i think

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there’s one word that we really have to focus on and that’s the word transparency

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transparency means that a call for submission would probably answer some of these questions

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that you do have like who what when where why and how

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would the call for submission tell you how you know some of the questions i want to know how much am i going to be

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paid if the work is accepted will the artwork be insured by the organization

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now you have to begin to say after if some of your questions have been

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answered you will then begin to decide is this a good opportunity for me to

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pursue so there’s lots of calls out there some might be

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directed at something specific as i said before a call

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a gallery is more likely to select the work if it’s something they are looking for

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initially that’s one of the things that we have to think about is the call worth it

7:08

okay so we’re going to decide we’re going to submit or not you need to re do some research about

7:14

the organization about the call itself and we have to begin to decide how

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closely this call aligns with best practices

Best Practices

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okay what are best practices then best practices

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are professional guidelines for an interaction between an artist

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and somebody who engages with an artist so

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they include carfax alberta on our website that’s

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carfaxalberta.com they have a which i’ll give you on the next slide i’ll show you exactly where but they

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actually have we have a series of seven best practice documents that are for media craft and

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visual artists in alberta and they kind of these best practice documents provide

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individuals with clear parameters or or ground rules for how

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things should happen who should behave in what sort of way

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it’s kind of like rules on what should possibly happen okay

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so as i say we have best practices for contracts agreements and negotiations

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best practices for the use of artists work for fundraising best practices for

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working with a commercial gallery for working with a public gallery for organizing a juried show

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best practices for community-based arts for public art and then this kind of

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like glossary of terms and stuff like that the way to get them is just go to the carfax

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alberta website carfax alberta.com or

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this is the exact place where you can download these seven documents at hhtps

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and it goes from there ah okay so if we’re looking at what is a best

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practice what do these best practices kind of say about organizing a juried exhibition

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okay so the first thing one of the things that would say is that

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they should actually outline what an artist can expect

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from this perspective what an organization is going to do

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um an artist like if you’re submitting you have to be

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ready to work in a professional manner organizations have to

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pay a certain kind of fee so they agreed to pay kind of carfax

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rates for exhibiting your work they have to protect

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your copyright so there’s a lot of things that these organ

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organization would have to do to run a good juried exhibition

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okay one thing that is probably one of the most

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important things about best practices is anytime you’re doing something anytime an artist

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is doing something outside their studio and an artist is engaging with somebody

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you should always have a contract written contracts

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protect both you as an artist they would protect the organization who is contracting you so

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they protect both sides they protect both sides from anything that can go wrong because a contract states who is

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responsible for insurance who is going to hang the artwork

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when are you going to get paid on what day uh that’s what a contract always does

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so with a contract you avoid potential conflicts

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so um there’s kind of sample contracts that you can get on the website or to places

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like carfax saskatchewan if somebody does not offer you a

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contract then you can say can i write a contract can we write a contract together a

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contract does not necessarily have to be something that’s a 40 page formal

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document rather a contract could be even something that you both sit down and

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record into your iphone as long as you are answering all these questions of who

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what when where why and how so all the things that could happen if

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you answer them all it doesn’t have to be formally drawn out and signed by both

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parties that way a contract could also be a record of your emails that you keep

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between an organization but the best thing to do is have a written

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contract okay now before you submit

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are all of your question answered as to who what when where why and how

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does the call follow the best practices and if they don’t follow all the best

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practices are the deviations from these best practices acceptable to

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you so in other words um you know some sort of call might not

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actually pay totally the full rates that you see in

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the carfax rav minimum pay schedule is that acceptable to you

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that’s only a question you can answer but are contracts used

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that’s a real key to determining if something is professional or not

Summary

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okay so this was just a real brief outline to the kind of idea of

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calls for submission and the importance of looking and researching things

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the best practice documents that you can find to kind of see what are the ground

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rules what are the kind of basic sorts of things you should be looking for

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when you’re reading a call does this answer them so always research the call before you

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decide to submit it’s very important there’s so many

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things out there you have to do some research to see if this is a good

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opportunity for you so my talk was just a really brief thing

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sue strang from calgary as i say from the new gallery from an artist around century is probably going to give you a bit more

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ideas on the idea of what kind of call should you

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could you uh and what kind of calls should you apply to so she’s going to talk a bit

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more about the contextualization and of what your work what kind of things

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you should apply for so anyway i’m gonna just uh pass you over to sue strang right now

Sue Stang

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sue welcome and uh we’ll be answering questions after this thanks sue go ahead

14:48

thanks so much chris well i’m in awe of your uh your timing ten minutes on the

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dot impressive um well uh just a quick thanks um to

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chris for co-presenting um and lindsay for introducing us moderating as well as

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michael and helen for organizing behind the scenes in the art gallery of alberta and carfak alberta for hosting and

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inviting me to share with you all today super excited always to be able to talk about this because calls for submissions

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certainly is a large part of how i’ve operated uh working in the not-for-profit arts sector so before we

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dive in though um i really really appreciated lindsay’s introduction and land acknowledgement and i just want to

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give a little bit of a brief personal history as an expansion of that land acknowledgement and i think tim fox and

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my colleagues at the real faculty planning committee for sharing this method of really

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situating myself in this place and time so i’m a mixed-race uh second generation

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chinese-american settler who was born in tokobaga utzita pohoy in mokosa territories in the tampa bay region of

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florida my maternal line is ethnically chinese culturally malay with my maternal grandparents immigrating

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separately from china to malaysia my paternal side comes from mixed european uh european american

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settler background and include scottish german and english heritage and my parents met in sunnai patani in

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the ketu state of malaysia in the 1980s where they were in the same running club the hash house harriers and after they

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got married they moved to the states and stayed at my par my paternal grandparents house in peak in illinois

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they later relocated to chicago and escaped the cold the wind by moving to

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valerico florida where my brother my sister and i were born i’ve since lived in multiple territories all over turtle

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island before coming to mokinstus calgary in 2006 i’m really really grateful to call 287

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home and i want to just say that this land that i’m now situated on are the traditional territories of the nitsitapi

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or blackfoot confederacy which includes the guyana the pagani and sixxika first

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nations the stony dakota first nation which includes the guy um excuse me the stony dakota first nations which is

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comprised of the chinese bears paul and wesley first nations and then the sutina first nation uh and metis nation of

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alberta region three um so that’s that’s a little bit of who i am

Finding Calls

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um you can call me sue or su yang my pronouns are she her and i’m an artist and cultural worker as lindsay shared

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and really today what is today about we’ve heard that introduction we know what calls for submissions are chris has

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done a really really excellent job covering this so as he shared i’m going to speak to how calls for submissions

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and the application process work and i’ll try to move quickly so we we have a bit of a fair bit of material to

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cover today but what i really want to start with uh for us is finding calls for submissions

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and there’s a lot of really great opportunities out there and how do you find them so these calls are circulating

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on a lot of different platforms uh in present day a lot of these platforms are digital platforms found online so that’s

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what you’re going to see mostly listed here we’ll start with e-newsletters so things like akimbo instant coffee art

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and education e-art now individual organizational newsletters these are all incredible resources that come straight

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to your inbox and list a lot of really awesome opportunities things like akimbo are more of a canadian focus

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instant coffee lets you subscribe to a regional or provincial based mailing list

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things like art and education or er now might have a more international base and individual organizations of course

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are going to be focused on their own calls but also sometimes they do community uh roundups and and will

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include other opportunities of their peer organizations um so i think that these are great places to start because

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if you don’t have a lot of places offhand that you know about some of the newsletters like akimbo and instant

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coffee arden education they’re really amalgamating a bunch of different calls not just for exhibition programs maybe

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there’s fellowships or grant programming maybe there’s jobs things like that so um it’s a great place to get kind of

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this all-in-one overview of what’s out there what’s open this month what’s open this week um when you’re subscribing to

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newsletters i know like inbox inboxes are always full um and so what i would

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suggest is that if you go and subscribe to these newsletters that amalgamate a bunch of calls that’s really useful and

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then be really um specific in the newsletters that you want to subscribe to for the various

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institutions what are the organizations you love to go to what organizations have programming that

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you feel is really really aligned with your interest in your thinking those are pretty good indicators that you should

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sign up for their e-newsletter and be consistently reading and learning about what kind of opportunities they have

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upcoming because if you’re enjoying the programming it might be a good fit for you to to be

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involved with them as an artist in the future social media of course is is another big

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one social media has really been an opportunity for a lot of

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mid and small sized arts organizations to get the word out there really effectively and quickly and really

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affordably as well so you’ll see a lot of individual institutions um as well as some of these these organizations that

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focus on on sharing this content put this material not only out in their e-newsletter but social media just was

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another way for folks to connect so art funders and schools they’re also

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looking for ways to leverage all of their partners all of their stakeholders opportunities and programming so they

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often include things like classified digital classified ad sections of their website if you look at calgary arts

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development they have a classified section on their website edmonton arts council also has their community

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classifieds and as an example for post-secondary au arts their student association has a classified section um

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so all of these are readily freely available online and they’re a great place to check out fairly regularly just

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to see if there’s an organization locally or regionally that maybe you don’t follow on social media maybe you

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don’t follow or subscribe to their newsletter but you can see oh they have an opportunity coming up that’s a great

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that’s a great one for me to look into or maybe i didn’t know about that organization before and i should start

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paying attention to them another really awesome very useful tool two of them is the directory by arca and

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res artis both of these are web pages the directory is really focused on artist-run culture and is a very robust

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listing of all the artistry and centers across canada so the focus very much is artists run centers and very much canada

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but it has a lot of really interesting and useful search queries that help you find organizations and opportunities

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that are really good match for you you can search by when do they have their open call what medium are they

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focused on their mandate so there’s a lot of opportunity there same for res artiste that focus of the website is

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residencies and the focus uh in terms of geographic scope is international um so that’s another

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really great opportunity to just browse and in fact with that one you can also check off selection uh query tools like

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is this a paid residency or do i have to pay to go to it so you can quickly start to define what you’re looking for and

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spend your time focused and tailored on those opportunities instead of uh you know the significant massive material

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that and and opportunities that exist out there so um one of the things actually before

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we move on to um context i’ll just say a recommendation i have because there’s so

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many great opportunities out there is that you set up a calendar with all the annual calls for submissions that you’re

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interested in a lot of organizations have a fairly regular kind of calendar of when they put out their call for

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submission for their programming selection and so if you make a separate tab on say your google calendar

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you can have a submissions deadline calendar put those in for repeating annual activity and then say you miss it

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this year you have a reminder next year that it’s coming up and you can really hop on that opportunity when it

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comes around again if it’s something that you’re excited and interested in because there is there is just so much

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out there you really gotta take note and be able to remember when there’s something that’s a good fit

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coming coming up so you can prioritize it so prioritization that’s when we get to this question of

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should i submit to this call um [Music] and we’ve gone a little too far ahead

Should I Submit

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but we’ll pop here um so now that you’re seeing all of these opportunities which ones are right for

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you uh honestly it can be really overwhelming to see the abundance of calls out there and what will be really

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key uh considerations are not only what chris has shared around best practices

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to determine those opportunities that are the right fit um for you but also prioritizing based on your needs and

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your practice so what are some of these considerations let’s start with really what is your ideal setting for

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your work if you’re a performance artist and you want to do time-based work

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you want to do something in a festival you need to be looking for that specific type of call

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if you’re a media artist you might want to focus on well a lot of different

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organizations are going to support media arts but maybe there’s specific organizations that really champion that

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and those are thing areas where you want to focus um your attention for applying to those calls for submissions um and

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then in terms of familiarity with the host organization have you checked them out do you know

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what they’re all about um does their mandate align with what your practice and your proposed project are all about

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that would be i would say one of the more important factors for many many juries there are so many organizations

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out there and of course there’s so many artists out there as well how is this and how can you talk about this as being

24:59

a great match and outline why it’s a good fit why the context is right to really stand out

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when it comes to all of those submissions so context context context think about

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that as chris said research everything understand the organization before you

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apply um and and really if you have a limited time focus

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your energy on the calls that make sense for your practice make sense for what you want to do and what you’re proposing

25:27

to do and that will increase your chances of having a successful submission

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so now you have selected the organizations the calls for submissions that you actually want to

Proposal Writing

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move forward with um how do we create a strong proposal how do we create a

25:44

strong submission for this i’ll just flag that some of these tips pointers are

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useful for grant writing as well and this is by this is definitely just a brief overview because we we don’t have

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a ton of time to go deep deep dive into this uh each of these sections but starting with proposal writing each

26:04

proposal you write is going to be slightly different even if the project is exactly the same you really need to

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think about with the particular organization you’re applying to who is your audience

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what is the galleries or the funders purpose going back to connecting with their mandate understanding their mandate and what they’re trying to do

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how can you speak to that through your proposed project this can help you really focus i would say on things like

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phrasing capturing keywords and ideas that are relevant to your reader relevant to the

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jury members when they’re trying to determine the short list and what projects and proposals are best aligned

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with the work that they’re trying to do also very very clear

26:44

very very important i would say is to always start with reading that call and guidelines in the case of grants to see

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if you’re eligible the worst thing would be to go through the process of um writing the submission and then all of a

26:57

sudden realize at the end you go back and read the the call and it’s for a specific uh target group it’s for local

27:04

artists only it’s for xyz artist only or other eligibility requirements

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particularly when you get into funding and grant opportunities so start with that

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another thing you want to do is avoid assuming that the jury or the

27:21

grant officer even if you know them even if they’re local don’t assume that they know anything

27:26

about the type of work you do especially because you’re not going to know who’s on the jury you want to be as

27:32

clear and specific as possible and use plain language when you’re describing your work sometimes the jury a lot of

27:38

juries are made up of peers and practicing artists and typically that kind of art jargon or

27:43

vernacular like there’s there’s some resonance there but really you want to make sure that your ideas your work

27:50

cannot be misinterpreted not misrepresented so really spend a little bit of time um

27:56

thinking through and going combing through your first second third draft and understanding having another reader

28:02

take a look at it and seeing if it’s clear concise that’s another important part

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while you need to outline all those integral details you also need to be concise a lot of juries are spending

28:14

anywhere from 50 to 100 hours reviewing submission packages and you want to be respectful of their time and not go

28:20

through a lot of repetition now when in this proposal it might also

28:25

make sense to discuss why this is an important opportunity for you in your art practice this is where you can again

28:31

really hammer home and tie in this idea of relevance and context to the specific

28:36

organization that you’re applying to how is it going to help you make or share work if you’re applying for a

28:42

residency or some sort of production based project how’s it going to help you succeed as an artist this is what these

28:48

arts organizations are there for they want to see the impact on you and your work

28:53

especially for funders as well now finally with the proposal piece it has to be tell a story it has to be

28:59

memorable uh all those hours archers and grant officers go through hundreds of applications every year so you want to

29:05

make sure that um you know you’re true to your your project true to your

29:10

work and practice but also standing out from from that from the

29:16

rest of those applications and telling making a compelling case as to why they should present your work or fund your

29:22

project why it’s important to be shown at this time on the other side of proposals we have

29:28

artist statements and i mean most of you as artists are going to know

29:34

have artist statements that you’ve written about your work or as you’re creating work and typically they’re outlining this uh

29:41

the conceptual elements the context the background of why and what this this practice means to you um the only thing

29:48

i’ll add uh to artist statements is that a juror should really be able to connect

29:54

this artist’s statement to the project aligned in the proposal um you know occasionally i’ll see artist statement

30:00

and a proposal that are complete that have no thread connecting them and that can be difficult it can be a little bit

30:06

of um it can that disconnect can

30:12

really challenge folks in understanding um all the different holistically why this

30:18

project is uh impactful and meaningful to your to your practice and so try try to connect those two

30:25

to a bit again we don’t want to have a lot of overlap but we want those two to be in dialogue with one another

30:31

for support material imagine the person reading your applications has never seen your work include as much support

30:37

material as as you can um to illustrate your your proposal make sure it’s quality though you don’t want to include

30:44

a bunch of uh the same support material like slightly different shots some more

30:49

blurry some less blurry pick the best uh that you have on hand but also um try to

30:55

give a lot of variety so folks can really get a good sense of your practice again not assuming that they know

31:01

anything about your work um documentation is one of the most important parts of these submissions a

31:07

lot of folks are you know as i said there’s a lot of reading to do and and these images can help your

31:13

people understand and remember your work when they’re talking about it around the adjudication table

31:18

um if you can hire a professional photographer i know it’s a a big expense

31:24

or it can be a big expense maybe do a trade with a friend who’s a photographer trade some of your art for them to

31:30

document an exhibition or your work in your studio just so you have that that documentation

31:36

when you go to make these proposals if you’re writing a grant include documentation on the budget for sure

31:43

and if you haven’t made the work that you’re pitching um try to show past work that really illustrates your capacity to

31:50

successfully make this new project i think it’s great when folks propose new work that hasn’t been made yet

31:57

but helping demonstrate how you’ve done a work that is related to what you’re

32:02

proposing can really help build a strong case and uh um solidify the jurors um

32:09

your credibility and your ability to finish this project in the jurors minds

32:14

um for budgets uh you know not all exhibitions or arts organizations are

32:20

going to ask you for a budget this oftentimes will be needed if you’re applying for uh project funding and from

32:25

uh granters but um some do some organizations will ask for

32:31

a project budget particularly with larger scale projects or production based projects things that are a little

32:36

less straightforward such as residencies such as production or performance

32:42

so at the end of the day i know budgets can sometimes be a little bit uh some

32:48

sometimes they’re easier for folks sometimes they’re harder for folks but the most important thing is that your expenses matches you your revenues and

32:54

that you have a balanced budget there um make sure you take a look and determine what expenses are eligible and

33:00

ineligible funders are going to have that listed in their guidelines arts organizations more likely not but

33:06

they’ll let you know uh after you submit if any of the expenses can’t be covered um in terms of items you can include as

33:14

as chris mentioned earlier carfax rav fees make sure you to pay yourself if artist fee isn’t indicated within

33:21

as a baseline material costs venue equipment rentals and event and reception expenses

33:29

things like in-kind donations so that’s like donated space time services that’s

33:34

a particularly good way to indicate the real cost of your project even if folks are doing it for free to list that

33:40

volunteer contribution um so with

Resources

33:46

with this you also should know that you have resources you have folks that can

33:52

support you in this and please please please reach out to programming staff or funding officers if you have questions

33:59

and look at the call and contact the person listed on the call if you have questions or the programming staff if

34:04

they don’t have anyone listed these are public organizations staffed by public servants and they’re there to

34:10

help you um so you know don’t don’t feel like you’re being burdensome just pick up the phone and give them a call if if

34:17

need be and accommodations i wanted to touch on briefly as well um so funders and arts

34:22

organizations are definitely beginning to realize that proposal and grant writing structures are not accessible to

34:28

all and have started offering accommodations to ensure equal access and opportunity this differs

34:33

organization to organization but what i’d suggest is to reach out to funders or arts organization staff and ask if

34:40

they’ll accept alternative submission proposals if that’s something that would be helpful to you so an example being

34:46

something like a video or an oral submission versus a written submission um if english is your second language

34:53

ask if they’ll pay for translating your grant or they’ll either provide funding for you to translate it or translate it

34:59

themselves so these are things that you know you should you should ask you should know your rights and um

35:06

and and really look to those who are embedded in the organization to support and help you uh as you go through and

35:14

and look to work with them and partner with them really so i’m going to wrap it up there because

35:19

honestly i could go on and on but i know i’ve gone a bit over time um and i know we want to open it up for questions and

35:24

answers now so we can um really explicitly directly uh answer some of the things you’re

35:30

interested in hearing about so with that i’ll uh welcome chris and lindsay back

Questions Answers

35:40

that was wonderful thank you so much to both of you um

35:45

i wish i would have had this advice many years ago

35:52

um uh yeah i feel like when i was sort of just finishing

35:57

um school that i kind of cast such a wide net that i just became completely

36:03

overwhelmed and had difficulty sort of focusing in so i really appreciate

36:09

your kind of suggestions of how to focus what we’re applying for

36:15

i wonder if either of you have any tips on cvs what to include

36:24

what to focus on and maybe you know if we’re just starting out in a practice um and maybe

36:32

you know your cv is a little bit short maybe what are some things we can do to help

Tips on CVs

36:42

i was going to pass it to chris first yeah

36:49

hold on okay just wait okay your cv is your calling card and

36:54

always direct your cv to what you’re applying for so if you’re applying for exhibitions try to show that you’ve had

37:02

some kind of exhibition we never rely on a cv but you can always

37:08

make sure that you’re drinking the most out of any opportunities you’ve had remember we’re all starting some place

37:15

um for we all have to start someplace so sometimes even if your cv is

37:21

one page or half a page in length that’s just fine you have to start someplace so

37:26

start off but show them that you know what you’re trying to do so applying for

37:32

exhibitions even show that you’ve been in maybe fundraisers group shows in school

37:39

different sorts of opportunities that you’ve had to just give them an idea of

37:44

where you are in your career and so if you’re starting out the things you’re

37:49

probably going to focus on is your education and your exhibition record because those are probably your most

37:56

important things that you have as you probably become more a senior artist your

38:02

education probably gets goes back a bit further into

38:08

for mine it’s probably on my third page because it’s not as important for what i’m doing now where i graduated from

38:16

because now it’s decades ago so the first part you always put your most important foot forward so your most

38:23

recent things and the things that are geared towards what this opportunity is

38:31

so think about it if you’re applying for a public art uh [Music]

38:37

you know call or something like that i always list my previous public art things at the very beginning

38:44

so that’s the first thing they’re going to see so i always think of a cv as this big

38:51

truckload full of stuff and material and things about myself and i just changed it around and

38:58

i also don’t put every little pile into a cv for a directed call that’s

39:06

what i do sue what do you do it’s uh that’s really i think that’s a

Getting rid of CVs

39:11

really great overview and some really great advice i’m a terrible person to ask this because i

39:17

a lot of the conversations we’ve been having at the new gallery and uh with with peers is just

39:25

get rid of it honestly it’s the least interesting part of the submission package for me um when i’m when i’m

39:32

looking at submissions i’m like okay proposal really interested in the proposal uh the images really interested

39:38

in seeing the past work uh really interested in hearing the artist’s statement and in their their

39:45

how they’re thinking about uh how all of this comes together the cv i mean it’s

39:50

nice as you said to see and have it demonstrate that they’ve they’ve artists have done xyz before and you know we we

39:58

can have confidence that they’re able to successfully uh

40:04

work through another this project but i think there’s a lot of other ways you can you can demonstrate that so really for calls

40:12

that i’ve been a part of lately um including things like job calls we haven’t required cvs um and they’ve been

40:18

an optional component and i’d love to see organizations move more towards that

40:23

um because uh as much as it’s nice to be able to have that record of of um

40:29

achievements and past accomplishments i also think that um like you said everyone’s starting somewhere um but a

40:35

lot of folks who might be coming to their practice in a less linear route say than coming

40:42

to from art school then showing and or going to grad school some who might be going alternative routes

40:49

are making just as exciting and interesting work and um maybe their cv uh

40:56

doesn’t tell that same story in that same way so i i’d like to see us uh have

41:01

a little bit less weight on this particular document

41:07

uh thanks for that sue uh and chris um yeah i guess i i

41:13

would also kind of echo that too i never really thought about it much before

41:19

um but when i’ve been on juries and and things like that it’s also um

41:24

you know not not something that i really often kind of consult or is not really like a

41:31

you know kind of real deciding factor of whether or not i’m interested in an artist’s work as well

41:37

um right so any advice that you can give emerging

41:43

artists on speaking about their work in proposals that is clear succinct

41:48

audience acknowledging and gets beyond art and academic jargon

Having multiple readers

41:57

okay uh let’s just get to start that about um always you know as sue

42:04

suggested it’s always or i think she suggested it’s always important to have one or two people actually read over

42:10

what you’re writing okay um always get somebody to read your work

42:17

who doesn’t even know what kind of work you do so i can explain my story

42:22

to somebody i start with digital work and then i turn them into watercolors if

42:28

somebody can actually understand that it actually doesn’t know my work then i know i’ve done a really really good job

42:34

of communicating that so it’s always important to have multiple readers

42:40

whenever you are doing something especially things like proposals artist statements it’s so important to

42:48

get uh you know people who don’t have the art education and also people who aren’t

42:55

familiar with your art practice to read it see if you can create a

43:01

a picture in words that they actually know what you’re doing then you know you have been successful and

43:08

i think that’s a practice that you have calls for submission grant writing is a

43:15

way that you as a emerging artist are developing what’s called your artist plan or your

43:22

business plan by actually writing about these things whether you’re successful or not what you’re doing by writing

43:29

these things out is you’re getting to know yourself you’re getting to know your artwork and that is so important uh

43:38

you’re not going to on your first attempt at writing actually create something that’s

43:43

marvelous uh something marvelous to read you have to do this over and over and over again and

43:51

so by constantly writing about what you’re doing getting people to read it to to look at it you’re going to get to

43:59

the basis of what you’re doing it’s going to give you ideas also about what your next step

44:05

is what your next step is along your art path you are creating kind of like a business or an art plan when you do this

44:12

so keep at it that’s what i’d probably say that’s awesome advice chris i 100 agree

Use your own voice

44:20

i typically go through at least three or four drafts of uh of a proposal a letter

44:27

a grant before before it gets finalized then i have a couple readers look at it as well it’s um that’s really helpful

44:34

i’m lucky that my my partner is not in the arts and he does a lot of a lot of reading reading for me um which is

44:40

always really nice because he’ll tell me like uh he’ll tell me like it is and let me know when i’ve just gone off into

44:46

jargon land um but i guess one thing to really ask yourself when when you’re writing is

44:52

can i say this in a simpler more straightforward way and if the answer is yes work towards that and i say this and

45:00

at the same time i’ve received some incredible proposals that fully utilize poetry and completely like

45:08

won me over and melted me and maybe they weren’t the the simplest uh more

45:14

straightforward but there was such a resonance and connection with their practice and their their way of working

45:22

that those have those have really spoken to me so i guess that’s what i’m trying to say with that is that there’s an

45:28

other piece is use your own voice we don’t people don’t want to read something that

45:34

sounds like any anyone could have written it that they all looked it through the thesaurus or used the you

45:39

know gmail’s like ai function to write it or i can’t remember what that one tool is that you’re grammarly grammarly

45:47

um no one wants to read that they want to read something in your voice they want to have

45:52

see feel the personality feel your practice come through in the proposal in the artist statement so

45:59

try to be clear and concise and be simple and plain language plain language is key don’t don’t make anyone reach for

46:05

the dictionary when they’re reading your proposal just you know try try to explain the call if

46:11

there’s complex concepts that you’re exploring through your practice that’s awesome

46:16

break it down for them within the proposal within the artist statement define it for them within that document

46:23

so that they can just stay within that they can focus on it and really read and have a very clear holistic understanding

46:29

of what you’re getting at by the end of by the end of the page

Services

46:35

thank you um so you’ve both mentioned you know sort of having um you know friends or

46:42

family you know read it for you um sue you also mentioned in your presentation maybe

46:47

exchanging um work um you mentioned it in the context of a photographer but you

46:53

know could probably help with writing too but do either of you know of any um

46:58

like services to help write like submissions or grant applications

Language Barrier

47:07

obviously there are professional grant writers and things like that i mean i always would you know if english is not

47:15

your first language if you’re not comfortable and you know something can be and you and and if there isn’t

47:21

accommodation made like sometimes you know like with municipal grants right now you know you can do it as a

47:28

recording or some other way or find some other way that’s uh

47:33

accessible to you or something like that it’s probably better to go that route

47:38

but you know the only time i think you should be trying to use somebody is if

47:45

somebody totally understands and you’re doing so many of these and they really

47:51

know what you’re trying to say so if english is really a problem and you want to do this in english maybe you should

47:58

think about getting somebody that can help you with the language barrier or whatever barriers you have but as sue

48:06

suggested this really should be in in your language it should be your voice what

48:12

somebody reading these proposals or making judgments on the things that i want to be is i want

48:19

to see new work and i want to be surprised i’m not going to be surprised if i read something that’s written

48:26

exactly like all other proposals that’s not going to work for me so do you have anything to say

Peer Mentorship

48:34

yeah i i mostly see professional grant writers in the context of working for organizations versus with an individual

48:42

um that being said i was trying to like pull back in the archives here i can’t remember the name

48:48

of it but i have seen some like peer mentorship groups pop up here and there

48:53

throughout time so um essentially like uh either a program

48:59

that could be offered like by a service organization like for instance carfax or

49:05

elephant artist relief where a group of artists might come together and workshop a text a proposal something like that i

49:12

have seen workshops like that offered in the past i can’t remember the i think elephant artist relief was one of them

49:17

but um keep an eye out for different service organizations for activities like that because that’s a really

49:23

awesome opportunity as well it’s like an equitable equitable trade in terms of you know everyone’s showing up with the

49:29

expectation they’re going to read somebody else’s proposal give feedback and uh and vice versa and so that’s a

49:36

really really nice model when that can happen i’ve also seen professionals in the sector and especially in recent

49:43

years um volunteer time essentially as a peer mentorship activity as well um i

49:48

can’t think of any that are currently um have openings or availability for that but it’s something to connect and be and

49:58

look to your community for there’s a couple different um community groups like i know that

50:03

like on facebook there’s a calgary artist page or um you know there’s a

50:08

different there’s a early career i’m sorry an emerging arts administrator uh meetup group as well

50:15

here um so depending on where you’re based there might be a local group of folks already coming together to share

50:20

best practice to share tips and tricks and advice and it might be a really great place to start making those

50:27

relationships with other folks in your field to exchange exchange labor in this way

50:35

those are great tips um something that neither of you mentioned in your your

Submission Fees

50:40

presentations but i’m curious to know about um is what you think about submission fees for

50:48

submissions i know it’s something that you know is less common in canada and so

50:54

it’s maybe you know more if you’re applying to opportunities in the states or in europe um although it does happen

51:01

in canada too so maybe you could just share a little bit of you know what you think about fees um and kind of

51:08

how that might weigh on you know deciding to apply

51:13

i could probably start on that anyway that is kind of

Fees

51:18

mentioned in best practice documents okay and in the one that’s called organizing the juried art show

51:26

when in earlier renditions of uh

51:31

of this i mean the ones from maybe saskatchewan and other places in canada they kind of said under no circumstances

51:38

to the fee be charged or or paid for right now we’ve kind of uh

51:45

changed it slightly because of things like the salt spring art prize or

51:50

something where they might charge a small fee of say thirty dollars or something like that so we have not

51:56

precluded that you should never do this but really think

52:01

very much what is this fee for what is it doing what kind of organization is

52:07

this if you’re going to be applying to the museum of digital art in los angeles

52:13

or something where that’s exactly the way they make money because they get thousands of people paying fees of 35

52:20

and 50 dollars u.s to to go into a building that’s the size of

52:26

this room that i’m in right now uh i wouldn’t do it okay so you have to absolutely totally research what you’re

52:33

doing and i probably wouldn’t recommend anybody paying fees of over 35 or 40

52:40

dollars and that’s only if necessary think of some print biennale’s and stuff

52:46

like that they all have fees things like the salt spring or salt spring island art prize it has a

52:54

small fee attached to it so i’d consider those but i’d always make sure i do my

53:00

research first to make sure that it’s going for what they say it’s going

53:06

for and it’s going for a good cause to maybe pay somebody to administer they didn’t have a lot of grant funding and

53:12

they want to administer this price make sure it’s it’s going to work for you and

53:18

you’re not just paying money out that you’re not going to get anything back from that’s the way i look at it

Public Funding

53:26

yeah i think that that’s a pr that’s a good lens for me it’s very um

53:32

i might it might be a little less a little less forgiving possibly um

53:37

i i have two camps here one is that um

53:43

if they are publicly funded i think it’s inappropriate to ask ask

53:48

for the fee um i think if they have in canada we have access to resources uh in a

53:54

different way uh different types of resources and i feel like it is uh then say in the states like say private

54:00

sector and foundational money in the states versus public sector funding here um i think that organizations that are

54:06

receiving public sector funding here um should work into their budgets uh

54:12

and to ensure to offset those application costs and um to the point that came up earlier

54:19

if they’re not paying carfax fees i and they are receiving public funding i would research that as well and be

54:26

fairly concerned um and and not that would be my deal breaker in terms of would i apply to this call if they’re

54:33

not paying carfax fees and they’re publicly funded that might be a line for me um that being said i i take the point

54:40

and i want to recognize a lot of emerging and grassroots organizations

54:46

that are just starting out and don’t have those resources yet i have a lot more forgiveness for um

54:53

organizations that you know artists are just starting up and they’re they’re doing it off of you know one small

54:59

project grant they don’t receive operational funding um that are it’s a limited term project i i can understand

55:06

that and i think it’s important to support um organizations that are in those emerging

55:12

stages as well because there’s not a there’s not been historically a lot of room in the operating uh funding market

55:19

for those organizations to really kind of set up but i i think my distinction really is are they receiving operating

55:25

funding and are they publicly funded uh in in that significant way and if so i i

55:30

have a hard line um i don’t like to see it because honestly artists are uh if we look at the surveys the wage surveys

55:37

artists are typically not making enough to have to at showing at these places to

55:44

really justify the the application be in my perspective in my opinion

55:50

i i have to say so just on that i i’ve never paid you know many application fees in my

Application Fees

55:56

life i’ve because i i i refuse to because i agree with you on those sorts

56:01

of things but i do agree with you on emerging organizations and things like

56:07

that they probably have to do so in the start so you really have to

56:13

to do some research to find out what this fee is for

56:20

um thanks for that that’s that’s great advice and good things to think about

Questions

56:26

um it looks like our our chat’s just slowing down a little bit but

56:31

um a question that i wanted to ask for the two of you that maybe uh will just give

56:36

people just a couple more minutes to put any last questions that they have in in the chat but

56:42

do you have any advice um for what happens when you apply for something and

56:48

you don’t get it either you know pragmatically emotionally uh any sort of

56:55

advice for for that situation

Advice

57:02

not getting something is always really really hard um

57:08

you know because we we apply to things and we always are kind of hopeful it’s kind of like you have things out there

57:14

but what i find is that it’s always best to have sometimes like more than

57:20

one thing out there at one time for the reason that

57:25

we don’t always get everything we don’t you know if you just have one thing out and you’re putting all your hopes them into

57:33

one submission or one call i think you’re gonna be more likely

57:40

disappointed but if i have like five things out at one time or five things

57:46

out um i’m not as devastated when one comes back or two comes back and i don’t get

57:53

something um we’re in a very there’s so many artists that are out

57:59

there that are really really deserving that should be shown so

58:05

i’m at a probably stage where i just look at it and i probably

58:10

don’t worry as much but you know you really have to

58:16

think about what is out there and always try to have

58:21

a few kind of ideas out there in different places so

58:26

that you always have something to hope for this so something isn’t going to totally break you down

58:32

from your emotional high because somebody rejected you as artists we get

58:38

rejections all the time and we have to kind of not look at them as a kind of uh

58:46

negative but rather they’re just something that somebody didn’t want us right at this one point

58:54

in time maybe our work is too far ahead of its time or just not

59:00

exactly what they’re looking for so you have to think about

59:06

that that was not necessarily probably exactly the right call for you anyway so

59:12

keep keep keep doing it keep doing it keep active keep making art keep submitting to things and you are going

59:19

to be successful as long as you keep doing it that’s what i’d say

59:27

thanks chris yeah um it’s a great question and i guess i’d i’d start with uh and and chris said

59:34

this as well but you’re not alone um lots of artists receive rejections and

59:39

if you think about the call you’ve applied to the you’re in the majority the majority

59:45

of folks did not get accepted to this to the opportunity because there’s

59:50

there’s what six to ten exhibition slots they might be filling or project slots

59:55

that they might be filling and they’ve received even if they’ve received a smaller pool say 50 applicants

1:00:01

that’s uh you’re still in the majority and i to to chris’s point

1:00:07

of it might it might not be a good fit it’s not that

1:00:12

it’s i would say that in terms of not taking it personally

1:00:18

you can think about how is this project that you want to do more aligned with another organization

1:00:25

and go out there and look for an organization where it might be a better fit and and work towards that next

1:00:30

opportunity and also if you like feedback some of us do some of us don’t

1:00:35

um and it doesn’t explicitly say on the call we do not give feedback if you like

1:00:41

feedback and it doesn’t say that ask for feedback that is a great great way to learn a great opportunity to learn and

1:00:49

and get some a sense of either um some editorial support oh we we didn’t select

1:00:54

your proposal because um we didn’t understand xyz and then you know to be more clear on that moving forward or

1:01:02

you know we didn’t accept your proposal because it was great but we had so many great applications and try again next

1:01:08

year because we really really want to see you again so that communication piece remember what we were talking

1:01:13

about earlier these folks are in it because they love art their work you hope they’re working at these places

1:01:20

because they love art they love artists they want to support you they want to be in conversation with you and so ask for

1:01:27

that feedback if uh if it’s if that door has been opened it’s it’s a

1:01:32

important way to do uh do something that is a little bit uh

1:01:37

strengthened in the future and in terms of yeah persevering um you know

1:01:44

it is an important aspect of this um for every every handful of applications

1:01:50

you put in maybe one is successful uh there was an artist i can’t remember their name but i saw a

1:01:55

show once many like a decade ago um where the artist showed all of their rejection letters and they had drawn on

1:02:02

them and turned them into work and it was i think their name was heather um anyways the the exhibition was really

1:02:08

empowering in my opinion and i i thought it was incredible to to see how they embraced the fact uh and were

1:02:14

transparent with their peers about the fact that look at all these rejections i received in this show that i was

1:02:21

successful for and just keeping that in in the back of your mind that we all go through it um and it doesn’t mean that

1:02:28

your work’s not any good it just means that it wasn’t the right time and place for it to happen and and next time maybe

1:02:33

it will be yeah and definitely i’d also say there’s lots of times that i’ve been on uh

1:02:40

various juries and reviewing applications for things and maybe you know an artist wasn’t perfect for

1:02:48

that opportunity but it’s an artist that i’ve you know wanted to work with for for something else and so i think you

1:02:54

know even if you’re not getting exactly what you applied for you’re still getting your work in front of all of

1:03:00

those jurors who you know might remember you down the line or want to work with you for something else

1:03:08

um so the question here about applying for international submissions and is

1:03:14

there anything particular to watch out for i think you you know we kind of

1:03:19

described a little bit about you know in the american model that there might be fees and so maybe that’s a different but

1:03:25

um is there anything that either of you can think of specifically for you know other

1:03:32

international calls find out about the money about the costs

1:03:38

about insurance are you going to get your artwork back can you trust this organization

1:03:44

like if you’re if you’re sending your work over to pakistan or to belgium are

1:03:50

you going to get your work back do they have a record of doing that it’s hard for me to sue somebody in belgium or in

1:03:59

pakistan so i have to really have a lot of trust for this organization in

1:04:07

order for me to even want to do that a lot of problems occur internationally

1:04:12

like over borders because we can’t really sue we’d have to go there i mean

1:04:19

you know if i have a gallery or right a gallery in las vegas well obviously the last

1:04:26

19 months i couldn’t have visited them can i trust them you have to really have a lot more trust

1:04:34

when you’re going outside your province to to be able to

1:04:39

be sure that things are going to work out for you remember you know

1:04:44

even if you have a contract what happens when somebody goes bankrupt if we have a

1:04:50

if there’s a bankruptcy in a gallery say in edmonton i might be able to find out about it and get my work out but if

1:04:57

something happens and i have work in a new york gallery that goes bankrupt i’ve lost all that work so

1:05:04

i would say internationally you use a lot more caution

1:05:10

yeah it definitely has more complications and um absolutely agree vetting is incredibly

1:05:17

important look online research them as much as possible see uh if you know

1:05:23

somebody who’s shown there see if you can talk to them about it um because honestly like that that kind of first

1:05:30

hand experience would be helpful but i think betting is really important ultimately at the end of the day

1:05:36

like you’re you’re signing an agreement and there has to be a level of trust there things happen uh places do go

1:05:42

bankrupt we can’t predict these things um is it the majority of places i

1:05:47

certainly hope not um but it that caution approach with caution is absolutely key i i wholeheartedly

1:05:54

recommend you you uh embrace embrace that um strategy that chris has outlined

1:06:01

another thing i think to consider would just be visas if you’re going there for a longer

1:06:07

term a residency or even a shorter term install make sure your paperwork is in

1:06:12

order you don’t want to you know miss your opening or misinstall or or lose half your residency because

1:06:19

visa paperwork is uh backlogged um hopefully if they’re an organization that frequently is hosting international

1:06:26

artists that’s very uh a very straightforward process for them but again going back to your contract make

1:06:31

sure those responsibilities are delegated and outlined international shipping of artwork can be

1:06:37

a total pain it can be really really complicated i think because a lot of shippers don’t understand um

1:06:43

don’t understand necessarily the valuation of art and if you don’t have a commercial practice

1:06:49

maybe you don’t have a history of selling work being able to demonstrate that value for customs even

1:06:56

if you’re not selling work at the show on the other side can be incredibly complex so give yourself lots of time

1:07:03

and do lots of research on that end as well and make sure the staff have have

1:07:08

touched base on that and are prepared for that that aspect especially if you’re shipping a lot of

1:07:14

physical artworks um the last thing is just on the budget piece make sure you understand kind of

1:07:20

the exchange rate and there’s been a lot of fluctuation of the dollar lately and um just when you’re building that budget

1:07:27

that you’re you’re giving yourself a little bit of a buffer and understanding how the exchange rate might impact uh

1:07:34

the resources you’re actually receiving at the end of the day

1:07:40

great advice thank you to both of you um

1:07:49

right so um before we wrap up do either of you have

1:07:54

anything you’d like to add before we kind of close for the evening we’re a bit over over an hour now

1:08:04

i would just say keep making the art it’s important to keep making the arts

1:08:09

and to if it interests you try and find an audience for your art and a good way

1:08:15

to do that is to call for submissions because remember places are always looking for things

1:08:22

that are new ideas and new ways of thinking about the world and that’s

1:08:28

probably what your art has so you just have to find the right fit for what you’re doing

1:08:35

honestly i can’t say it better so all i’ll say is thank you all for being here and for

1:08:40

listening and for asking such great questions today um and thank you again to chris and lindsey for for sharing

1:08:46

this conversation um and and to everyone who has supported this behind the scenes

1:08:53

really really appreciate it and yes have a wonderful evening

1:08:58

thanks so much good night everybody good night and thank you

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