Comments on: More on funding

By: Kirsty

Kirsty — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 11:01:36 +0000

@Lorna.

Lorna, you make an excellent point that your time is worth money, it’s one a lot of artists seem to forget. I know a lot of artists who just don’t bother applying for Arts Council funding because the money available to them as individuals is far outweighed by the time and effort it takes to apply.

By: Lorna

Lorna — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 10:37:37 +0000

My time is worth money. The Arts Council, rightly, ask for a well planned proposal but this takes considerable effort. Funding application should perhaps be two tiered allowing an initial shorter assessment proposal?

By: Kirsty

Kirsty — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 22:00:07 +0000

Hi Lorna, your comment is a great example of the sort of politicking involved with getting Arts Council funding. There’s definitely an element of ‘you need to have a track record’, which is fair enough, it’s public money and they need to know that you’ll use it well. Less positively, there’s also a widespread belief amongst artists that ‘your face needs to fit’ and people often don’t apply because they feel they’re not an art world insider. I wonder if this then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy because only the ‘insiders’ bother to apply.

I’ve been told by those in the know that it’s worth applying just to get a record of applying and that eventually if you keep having a go, they’ll fund you. But I find the process so draining that I haven’t applied for a couple of years. I’ve also stopped doing so many projects with other people, so there’s been less need for funding.

By: Kirsty

Kirsty — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 21:53:55 +0000

Thanks for the links, Katherine. I agree that there is probably money to be made from advising artists, although I don’t think I’d be any good at advising them on the whole grant applications thing since my advice would be ‘unless you need stacks of money, don’t bother, it’s quicker and easier to fund it yourself’.

By: Lorna

Lorna — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 16:59:18 +0000

A few years ago I wanted to apply to the Arts Council for a public art project funding. I got the forms, wrote a proposal, estimated a budget, negotiated informally with various groups for matching funding etc. I took a rough draft to a mentor at the OVADA gallery in Oxford. She told that it was naive on my part to think I would get the sum I was asking from the Arts Council as my “status” as an artist was not significant enough. She advised me to start with a small project and ask for a small amount of money.

I felt that the hoop jumping was not worth the potentially small payment. So in the end I trashed the big project and funded a smaller version myself with some matching funding from other involved groups. It was an interesting event but I have not attempted to work like that since.

Artists are entitled to make a profit reflecting both the costs and desirability of their work. My time, however it is spent, is a cost.

By: Katherine

Katherine — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 17:19:20 +0000

Nice response Kirsty - and I’ll feature the two blog posts on my blog on Sunday.

One of these days I’m going to remember to get round to making money by mentoring and vetting grant applications!!! It’ll probably start with the words “READ the application form and ALL the notes….”